What is Tebonin?

The articles for this edition of the Newsletter are taken from TAV Tinnitus News July 06 and ATA Tinnitus Talk June 2006 edition.

TO SPEND OR NOT TO SPEND?

A full page article/advertisement in New Idea (13-5-06) talks about a natural product called Tebonin. It claims that Tebonin relieves the symptoms associated with tinnitus. Tebonin is manufactured from ginkgo biloba, a herb that has been used for a range of health problems for many years.

A German physician, Dr. Willmar Schwabe, extracted a concentrated and purified extract known as EGb761. Schwabe Pharmaceuticals claim there are many trials showing the effectiveness of the EGb761 extract in relieving the symptoms of tinnitus. I contacted the Australian distributor of Tebonin EGb761 and asked if I could have copies of the trials. They said copies will be sent to me by experts in Germany at Schwabe Pharmaceuticals.

Hopefully, there will be more information on Tebonin in the next newsletter.

In the meantime, can I remind members that a large double-blind placebo-controlled study on ginkgo biloba at the Medical School in Birmingham showed that gingko had no greater therapeutic effect than the placebo for tinnitus relief.

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MELATONIN ASSOCIATED WITH ALLEVIATING TINNITUS  SYMTOMS, BETTER SLEEP.

A new study asserts that melatonin use is associated with improvement of Tinnitus and sleep. Melatonin is a hormone produced by the pineal gland, known to be involved in regulating the sleep-wake cycle.

This prospective open-label study involved 18 patients between the ages of 18 and 70 who had idiopathic, troublesome, unilateral or bilateral, non pulsatile Tinnitus of six month duration or greater who sought treatment at the Washington University Department of Otolaryngology– Head and Neck Surgery. The average age of the study subjects was 61 years and the average duration of Tinnitus was 11.3 years.

The patients took three mg of melatonin, one pill, one to two hours before bedtime for four weeks of observation during which time the patients received no melatonin.

The patients’ ratings of their Tinnitus systems and poor sleep improved during the study, even after they stopped taking melatonin. Perhaps the melatonin pills had long lasting effects, the researchers note.

The scores indicated that after taking melatonin there was alleviation of Tinnitus symptoms and better quality sleep. Still the researchers speculate that the changes might not be real or if they are real, whether they are clinically significant. Furthermore, due to a lack of control, there is difficulty in establishing a cause and effect  between the degree of improvement in sleep. No adverse effects were reported by any of the patients.