Ignorance about tinnitus treatment

Australians were not being offered a proven tinnitus treatment because most of our local doctors did not understand natural medicines, the Vice-President of the European Federation of Tinnitus Associations, Dr Andreas Schapowal, says.

He said that European doctors had a high degree of success treating tinnitus with a concentrated Ginkgo Biloba extract called EGb 761, sold in Australian under the name ‘Tebonin’. Dr Schapowal said that if he saw a patient within the first three months of the appearance of tinnitus there was a 90% cure rate through the use of ‘Tebonin’.

There were other Ginkgo Biloba extracts, but the published clinical trials and his own experience showed that EGb 761 was more effective because of its greater potency.

In Europe doctors came from a culture in which natural medicines (which Australians call complementary medicines) were accepted and prescribed as common practice. Australian doctors generally shunned complementary medicines and usually did not consider them when they weighed up treatment options.

Tinnitus is a condition in which a person hears a sound, often a whistle, click or roaring noise, in the absence of any external sound stimulus. It can affect people of all ages, but is most common among people who are older than 50. The condition ranges in severity and can become seriously debilitating. Health authorities estimate that about one third of people aged 50 and older suffer from some degree of tinnitus.