Acupuncture for Tinnitus

How Chinese medicine understands tinnitus

In Chinese medicine, the ears are linked with the Kidney, and the channels of the Liver and Gallbladder run around the side of the head. So tinnitus is not read only as an ear problem. The key questions are how it started, what it sounds like, and what makes it louder.

The common patterns are:

• Liver Fire or Liver Yang rising. The sound starts suddenly, is loud and high, and gets worse with anger, stress or a sleepless night. There may be headaches, a red face or a bitter taste. This is an excess pattern, and treatment aims to calm and clear.
• Phlegm-Heat. A loud, roaring sound with a blocked, full feeling in the ear, often with dizziness, a heavy head and a sticky tongue coating.
• Kidney deficiency. The sound comes on slowly, is lower and steady, and is worse when you are tired. Pressing a hand over the ear may ease it. It is often seen with age, with poor sleep, a weak lower back or night sweats.
• Spleen Qi deficiency. The ringing is worse after a long day or a big meal, with tiredness and poor digestion.

In this view, loud and sudden usually points to excess, and soft and gradual to deficiency. That changes the treatment. Calming something that is overheated is different from building up something that is worn down.

What treatment involves

Your first visit includes a lot of questions: when the tinnitus started, which ear, what it sounds like, your hearing, sleep, stress and general health. I look at your tongue and take your pulse, then explain your pattern in plain terms.

Acupuncture is usually the main treatment. Points are commonly chosen around the ear and also on the hands, feet and elsewhere on the body, based on your pattern. Tight neck and shoulders are often part of the picture and are treated at the same visit. Treatment aims to ease the loudness and the distress the sound causes, and to help with the poor sleep and tension that often come with it.

When the pattern calls for it, Chinese herbal medicine is a formula written for you and dispensed at the clinic in Keswick. It is taken daily between visits and adjusted as things change.

Tinnitus that has been there a long time tends to change slowly. Plan on 5–10 treatments to judge progress. Research on acupuncture for tinnitus is still developing.

Between visits

• Protect your ears. Wear earplugs or earmuffs around loud tools, engines and concerts, and keep headphone volume low.
• Don’t sit in silence. A fan, soft music or a sound app at night can make the ringing less noticeable.
• Watch caffeine, alcohol and salt. Some people find these make the sound louder. A short diary helps you find your own triggers.
• Look after sleep and stress. Tinnitus often feels worse when you are tired or tense.
• Ask about your medicines. Your pharmacist can tell you if any of them list tinnitus as a side effect. Do not stop a prescribed medicine without advice.

When to see your doctor first

Tinnitus should be checked by your doctor, who may refer you for a hearing test. Get medical help:

• The same day if you have a sudden loss of hearing in one or both ears. This is urgent; early treatment matters.
• Right away, by calling 911, if tinnitus comes with sudden weakness, facial drooping, slurred speech, severe headache or loss of balance.
• Promptly if the tinnitus is in one ear only, or beats in time with your pulse.
• Promptly if you have ear pain, discharge, fever or spinning dizziness.
• If it started after a head injury.
• If the noise is causing anxiety or low mood that is hard to manage.