April 12, 2001 – Research recently published in the British Medical Journal concludes that ginkgo biloba has no more effect than a placebo in the treatment of tinnitus. The research, conducted with 978 participants, contradicts other previous research.
The study participants, who must have suffered from tinnitus for at least a year, even had much lower placebo improvement results (10% rather than 30%) than expected.
According to commentators, these negative results can be explained by the poor characterization of the participants and the short duration (12 weeks) of the research. Indeed, some of the research done before has shown that the effectiveness of the treatment of tinnitus with ginkgo biloba was determined by the duration of the problem, its periodicity and its unilateral or bilateral nature. Ginkgo, which acts by reducing swelling and improving capillary microcirculation, would therefore hardly have an effect on chronic tinnitus while it would give positive results on recent tinnitus (less than a year).
HealthPassport.net
Drew S, Davies E. Effectiveness of Ginkgo biloba in treating tinnitus: double blind, placebo controlled trial. BMJ. 2001 Jan 13; 322 (7278): 73. Full text available free of charge on the BMJ.
