In my Tinnitus Forum a few people reported that they developed a Tinnitus shortly after having received a jab against the Corona-virus and suspect that there is a causal relationship. However, according to the British Tinnitus Association only about 6000 official reports of Tinnitus as a side effect of the 100 million vaccinations performed last year in the UK. This is less than 1 in 10,000 and could as well be an accidental coincidence. With so many people having been vaccinated, and with about 1 million tinnitus consultations taking place anyway each year in the UK, it is highly likely that some of them just develop a Tinnitus (for whatever reason) just accidentally shortly after having been vaccinated, without there being a causal relationship between the two events. Like with other suspected Tinnitus causes as well, just a temporal coincidence does not necessarily indicate a causal relationship, and one should not get fixated on such an idea. There can be many reasons why a Tinnitus develops, which often are difficult to pinpoint. And in many cases such retrospective searches for causes are not really helpful anyway. One should rather concentrate on trying to find measures that at least reduce the level of Tinnitus to a bearable level. Thomas

Most people suffering from Tinnitus find that the intensity of the symptom is quite variable, changing for instance throughout the day/night cycle but also due to other conditions. This is quite natural though as tinnitus is a nervous condition, and the nervous activity depends quite strongly hormone levels, which are highly variable. During the day/ night cycle for instance, a higher level of the 'sleep hormone' Melatonin will reduce the nervous activity (and thus the tinnitus) whereas a higher level of 'stress/wake hormones' like Cortisol and Adrenalin will increase it. Other hormones can affect the nervous activity for many reasons. For instance the female menstrual cycle and/or pregnancy causes strong hormonal variability which can affect the tinnitus in one way or another. This is all nothing to worry about. It is generally not recommended to take hormonal supplements like Melatonin in order to reduce the tinnitus as this could have unwanted side effects and interactions. So better not mess with your hormones (unless this is prescribed by your doctor because of deficiencies) but try to calm down your nervous system by other means. Relaxation is the best way to achieve this. I am not going to suggest here a certain method for this, because everybody has his/her own best way of relaxing, but it is important that you find some time for yourself without the usual pressures of daily life as often as possible. In some cases Vitamin-B supplements (especially B12) can also help to stabilize the nervous activity again (I have written more about Vitamin B12 in this post).

A couple of years ago I quoted a detailed report about a promising research project which showed that the tinnitus is caused by irregular nerve cell activity in the brain stem. It was announced that a drug for treatment may be found on this basis. This research group in the UK collaborated with the pharmaceutical company Autifony to develop and trial the drug AUT00063. Unfortunately, phase 2 of the trials has recently been abandoned as there was not sufficient evidence that the drug is effectice enough to warrant a continuation of the trials. However, Autifony is already working on developing a new drug in collaboration with the same research group based on new research. Recently, there has also been a lot of talk about the drug AM-101 developed by Auris Medical, but a) despite the trials still ongoing, there are no definitive results published yet, and b) the company is writing heavy losses, and according to their own statement will run out of money in fall 2017 unless they manage to obtain new funding (see also the latest financial report). It should also be mentioned that the drug developed by Auris Medical is based on the old-fashioned view that tinnitus is produced in the inner ear not the brain, that is research dating back at least 15-20 years (Auris Medical was founded in 2003 specifically to develop this drug AM-101). So whilst there is still trials and new research for a potent drug against tinnitus going on, it may still be a while before a breakthrough is made and something becomes available for the general public. Instead of waiting that a drug becomes available, it is therefore advised to work on your own approaches to alleviate if not cure the condition. As mentioned in this blog, there are numerous ways how you could do this without exotic drugs and financial expenses. Thomas

Vitamin B12 is well known to be the 'nerve vitamin'. A serious deficiency of it can have serious damaging effects on the brain and nervous system and therewith on the whole body and mind. Even smaller deficiencies may cause fatigue, depression and poor memory. Tinnitus, being a nervous condition, can also be the result of a Vitamin B12 deficiency (or at least worsened by it). On the other hand, Vitamin b12 supplements may well improve the condition, at least as long as they are taken. I personally also feel a noticeable improvement within a short time after taking even only a low dosage Vitamin B combi supplement (corresponding to 100% RDA i.e. 2.5 mcg Vitamin B12). Vitamin B12 can be taken without any side effects in much higher dosages if required in case of more serious deficiencies (the body will excrete any excess amounts). Moreover, it can be rather cheaply obtained, so for anybody looking into ways to improve (if not cure) the tinnitus condition by means of nutritional supplements or medication should look to Vitamin B12 first before embarking on more expensive options or ones associated with various side effects. It should be noted however, that it my be required to stop taking any substances that oppose the action of Vitamin B12, like caffeine alcohol and other substances that tend to aggravate the tinnitus on their own.

I have discussed already a couple of years ago Sound and Music Therapies. A lot of things have happened in the meanwhile in this field, so I thought I should to give an update here. Whilst one can not say that any breakthrough has been achieved here as yet, many more services have become available that offer sound and music therapies in various forms. The most sophisticated is the already earlier mentioned 'notched music' therapy, which is based on eliminating a certain bandwidth around the tinnitus frequency from music or other sound recording. Some research claims that frequent listening to such prepared sound would be beneficial for tinnitus sufferers. Some of these services offered on websites cost a few hundred pounds per year, but there are also some less costly ones. For instance Audionotch offers schemes from 2-12 months costing between $40-$100 (with a 30 day money back guarantee in case you are not happy with the result). An even cheaper alternative is the iPhone app Tinnitus Pro which does pretty much the same thing but costs only $10. If you are just after masking the tinnitus sound, there are a lot of other free and paid apps that may be beneficial. See iPhone Apps 1, iPhone Apps 2, Android Apps for some of the programs available. I have not myself tested any of these services and programs, so I don't know how good they are, let alone whether they are capable of reducing the tinnitus, but with the result of practically all tinnitus measures depending very much on the individual case, it may certainly be worth a try for some people. Thomas