Can Acupuncture Help Tinnitus?

Hi, I was wondering if there were any positive results with acupuncture. I use an excellent practitioner for another problem, and considering asking him to work on my ears. Thank you.

 

No.

 

It helps you and not only tinnitus. I get to see my acupuncturist once a week and always feel MUCH BETTER afterwards.

 

Hi, thanks for responding. Has the acupuncture actually helped in lowering your tinnitus?

 

How is supposed to help tinnitus from noise-induced hearing loss?

 

Hi, I’m not sure what the answer is to your question. Acupuncturists claim to be able to help a wide variety of ailments. It has helped me with foot pain and Carpal tunnel. Whether it can help with tinnitus is another story. My acupuncture specialist says that he couldn’t give his success rate at more than 10 percent...

 

Bullshit it doesn't help, how is sticking needles in skin going to decrease hyperactivity in the auditory brain?

 

I've heard 1 or 2 anecdotal pieces of evidence where someone claimed it made a difference. I wouldn't think it made a huge difference, personally.

 

I've seen 2 acupuncturists who both claim they could help lower my tinnitus. I didn't go thru with it so I cant say if it works or not. The theory behind acupuncture in general is by simulating specific nerve points in the body, it sends signals to different parts of the brain to trigger healing thru the release of chemical compounds from throughout the body because that's what the brain naturally does. So it's not the needles themselves that heal, but the brain that's triggered by the needles.

 

You may want to check out this story of a man who used TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) to alleviate his tinnitus after 14 years.

Tinnitus: How an Alternative Remedy Became the Only Weapon Against the Ringing

Some selected snippets from the article:

I have tinnitus. I have had it for 14 years. When my ears started ringing, I ran around to various doctors seeking a cure, until one of them took pity on me and explained that there was no cure. I would have to get used to it.

I discovered the Chinese approach to understanding and dealing with tinnitus by wandering into Acumedic’s clinic on Camden High Street in north London last year out of curiosity. Not expecting that they could offer any help with a condition that leaves Western medicine baffled, I didn’t mention that I had tinnitus. The female doctor told me to stick out my tongue – tongue analysis is a basic diagnostic tool in this system – and after examining it, she asked, “Do you have ringing in your ears?” ......

An imbalance between your organs affects the harmony between blood circulation and qi, and this in turn translates into an imbalance of yin and yang.” By closely inspecting one’s tongue and taking one’s pulse, they obtain an accurate idea of the state of one’s internal organs. They then proceed to treatment. ......

I had no good reason to suppose it would have any effect, and for two or three weeks the ringing continued as normal. But then, as I continued to slurp my daily potion, I realised with surprise that things had begun to improve. I woke in the morning resigned to the usual relentless racket – and it was different: first it lost its ringing quality, so all that remained was a sustained shushing; then the shushing itself reduced, to the extent that sometimes I was able to forget about it for hours at a time.

Dr Lily had explained that the ringing in my ears was caused by an internal imbalance, which the tea she prescribed was intended to correct; now, lo and behold, it was taking effect and my baffling condition was getting appreciably better. Eventually, I would ask myself: am I still suffering from tinnitus? It would take a conscious check to confirm that, yes, there was still this fuzziness clouding my hearing. But for many hours and days I would be all but unaware of it.

 

Hi, has anyone tried acupuncture for tinnitus? I've been watching Julian Cowan Hill on YouTube & he suggests any body based treatments can be helpful. How many sessions did you have? I have been offered 4 sessions at a comparatively good price as I don't have much money but am wondering if that's enough to help.

 

There is some data that indicates acupuncture can be effective: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5771359/

 

Acupuncture is a waste of time and money, and 4 sessions are next to nothing.

 

I have had 11 sessions of acupuncture beginning in July of this year. I noticed immediate results after the first session. I was at my wits' end as my tinnitus was very loud in the beginning of summer. It wasn't until the 4th or 5th session that I noticed real change. My tinnitus actually spiked after the 3rd session, but I continued knowing this could be my body's way of adjusting. It was after the 7th or 8th session that I noticed the most change.

My acupuncturist uses electroacupuncture around the area where my jaw and ears come together. Acupuncture has at least cut the volume of my tinnitus in half. My tinnitus is very somatic, and my TMJ is certainly one of the factors that triggered it.

Acupuncture, at least for me, has improved my quality of life. The acupuncturist I see is a Chinese man with over 45 years experience. Acupuncture may not work for everyone, but I have seen results. Until bimodal stimulation reaches the States this is at least a way for me to manage my tinnitus.

If I had listened to a lot of people on here I wouldn't have tried it, and more than likely be in the same condition I was in just over 2 months ago.

 

I’m thinking about acupuncture too. I’ve had loud high pitched ringing for 13 months straight.

 

Response partly taken from response to another thread about acupuncture and tinnitus - https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...-acupuncture-or-clonazepam.33776/#post-472387. May be of some utility to you. Short answer - it has helped me over short period of time I have tried it.

I have had 5 sessions of acupuncture since developing tinnitus in July 2019. I still hear it, but have more or less gotten used to it at its current level for the time being. When I first developed tinnitus, my ENT was direct and told me there is no cure, but offered to submit a referral for acupuncture on my behalf as he had previous patients that have benefited from it. At each of the first 4 sessions, my acupuncturist would use the needles and place them in the standard locations similar to how he treats most tinnitus patients he sees, but he also utilizes Cold Laser Therapy (LLLT) around the ear to reduce any inflammation that may be present and possibly causing or contributing to the tinnitus. In these sessions, the acupuncture helped me relax and my tinnitus did seem lower in the short-term most likely due to a decreased stress/anxiety response. The Cold Laser Therapy added to this as well. A couple hours later, however, my tinnitus was back to its normal louder level.

After researching tinnitus a bit more, pulling some books and reading some academic journal articles, and lots more diagnostic tests, I was able to pinpoint the most likely cause of my tinnitus - upper cervical spine misalignment and TMJ. During the 5th acupuncture session, I lay on my back and my acupuncturist noticed asymmetric muscle tension on the right side of my neck (particularly in the SCM) which was pulling my atlas to the right. The SCM muscles were loosened/massaged, needles were then inserted along the entirety of the branch of the SCM that connects to the sternum on both sides of neck, and the Cold Laser was used around the SCMs, suboccipitals, traps, TM joints, and the ears. With this treatment, the decrease in tinnitus volume lasted about 2.5 days and then increased back to its normal level around the same time the muscle tension and tightness in my neck and upper back returned which only further supports the problems with the neck and jaw as the cause of my tinnitus. From talking with my acupuncturist, he treats the standard pathways for tinnitus outlined in Traditional Chinese Medicine in all of his patients in the same manner in the absence of more detailed diagnostic information provided by the patients and/or the referring physicians. If you can narrow down the likely causes for your tinnitus and develop a more targeted treatment plan with respect to the acupuncture, you might have better luck with it.

If you browse the forums for other posts on Acupuncture and tinnitus, you will find that it has worked for some and not for others as tinnitus really differs widely on a case-by-case basis across those who have it. A few people have also said that the tinnitus got worse before it got better when acupuncture treatments were pursued. I will also say, if your acupuncture sessions are <30 minutes in length and the acupuncturist places needles in <3 locations per session, I would advise you seek treatment from a different acupuncturist or at least try a different one to see if you get any improvements with the tinnitus. If considering acupuncture, a little background reading about tinnitus and its numerous causes may come in handy for you as well if this has not been previously pursued. My acupuncturist recommended a TCM book that is coming up on my reading list, but I would need to dig thru my emails to find the title of it after the demobilization from my most recent cruise is completed this weekend.

Hoping that pairing continuing acupuncture with chiro adjustments, TMJ treatments, and and preventive self-care at home will continue to help my tinnitus moving forward.

 

Curious where the needles were placed (scalp, ear, body points etc)?

 

Hi @lcj - I am not too familiar with the names of all the acupuncture points on the body, and when trying to look them up, it seemed many were too close together for me to definitively pinpoint which exact ones were used. In my first 4 sessions, needles were always bilaterally placed in the same areas on my feet/ankles, hands/wrists, and the inside of the middle of knees at the beginning of the sessions. Pictures are attached where I try to ballpark the locations where the needles were placed.





My acupuncturist would let me chill for about 15 min with those needles in place. Then, a second round of needles would be bilaterally placed on and around the ear and scalp. I stumbled across this link - https://acupunctureofaustin.com/acupuncture-found-effective-for-tinnitus/ - from one of your other posts. Using the main diagram of the head from it, I have indicated all of the acupuncture points on and around the ear and scalp that have been tried on me in some combination during these sessions with some short-term success (although I cannot remember exactly which combinations were tried and when).



By my fifth session, I was pretty sure that my tinnitus to caused by some neck and TMJ issues which led to the progress I made discussed in my previous post above. If you are contemplating acupuncture and have not done it previously, it still something I recommend trying out if you can find a good acupuncturist.

Conventional medicine did nothing for me with my tinnitus and I got my best diagnoses and treatments so far from a neuromuscular dentist, acupuncturist, and chiropractor. So there is something to said for blending "alternative" and conventional medical treatments when trying to treat your tinnitus. My acupuncturist sees dozens of people each week suffering from tinnitus, and like me, he is very interested to in discovering the causes of tinnitus in the patients he sees. The lack of a peer-reviewed, systematic, holistic, and cross-disciplinary set of guidelines for assessing and treating tinnitus that leverages conventional and alternative medicine has infuriated me (or if it exists, the lack of awareness across the various medical specialties that deal with tinnitus of said guidelines). I am fairly certain I have ID'ed the cause of my tinnitus and my treatment is just beginning. If it is successful, I plan on writing a case study with the help of my doctors (some of whom are already on board) and will try it get published somewhere to draw attention to this obvious problem.

But I digress... hopefully the info helps a bit and good luck with the tinnitus treatments in the future.

 

Thanks so much for taking the time to write this and identify the points used! I really appreciate it and hope it helps others as well.

I’m surprised at the volume of tinnitus clients your acupuncturist receives. Would you mind leaving their info or PMing it to me? Perhaps my acupuncturist could benefit from speaking with them.

 

Yes, if you believe in its effectiveness.

 

Hi everyone. I've been dealing with hearing loss, hyperacusis, and of course, a high pitched ringing from acoustic trauma for almost 2 months. I was diagnosed with sensorineural hearing loss. I know that it may seem relatively minor to some people but as a student and a person suffering from ADHD it is incredibly distracting to me and seriously (was) hurting my education.

I visited a homeopathic Dr that my parents bought me to, and he said that he thinks my nerves are still inflamed. Not sure if he's actually correct about that, as all he did was rub my head for and spine for 30 minutes, but he recommended acupuncture. I'm personally enthusiastic about it, and so are my parents, but I'm asking here to see if anyone has anything to say about it?

Obviously I'm not going to be getting acupuncture anytime soon, living in NY, but I'm trying to plan ahead.

Treatments I've already tried include Prednisone and Lipoflavonoid.

 

It didnt do anything to reduce my tinnitus, but it did help with my anxiety

 

I like acupuncture. I have somebody do it and cupping. Does nothing for my tinnitus. I have seen 3 therapists. I just use it to relax.