Can Yokukansan Make Tinnitus Better?

Effects of Yoku-kan-san on undifferentiated somatoform disorder with tinnitus

Yokukansan is a Japanese Kampo traditional medicine, comparable to Traditional Chinese Medicine, but... is readily available packaged over the counter in drugstores in Japan! It seems moreso marketed towards people with teeth grinding issues. I have purchased this myself and am potentially seeing some benefits. It comes in either as pills or water-soluble packets - I bought the pill kind.

I've been taking it about a week and a half, but unfortunately misjudged the dosage/package size, so I will need to purchase more to continue to see if it helps. So far I've had overall less volume and some days with no (!!!) noticeable tinnitus at all. But it hasn't been constant, and to be fair I am taking it alongside other supplements.

With the research, there was an story that taking Yokukansan (YKS) cured a woman, who'd been suffering from tinnitus for 3 years, after taking YKS for only two weeks. Sounds too good to be true but hey, why not try. I personally do not know a ton about traditional medicine, but Japan has very strict drug safety standards, many things regularly prescribed in the US are banned or controlled substances there. All that is to say that if it's deemed safe enough to sell at corner stores I personally feel comfortable trying it.

If anyone's interested, I will try to post some images from the box I'm taking. If you order, the packaging comes with health warnings/dosage information/ingredients etc. I'd recommend using the Google translate app on your phone, it has a camera mode that will translate the text on the box. YKS contains liquorice plant so use caution if you have high blood pressure.

 

Can you please give information on the medicine and picture of the box. Where can we order it from?

 

Is there any way of ordering Yokukansan to the US?

 

Yes, I'm in the US and I ordered it here.

I was in Japan a few months ago and wish I'd heard of it then, I'd have brought a ton back lol because this price online is very marked up plus the shipping fee is high but still if it helps, it helps! The powder might be more affordable but I haven't tried it. It's also available online if you Google it.

Keep in mind I've found out that the full adult dose of these pills is 4 x 3 times a day, therefore a a 48 pill box won't last long.

 

An update:

I FINALLY got my next shipment of this. Unfortunately due to the delay I was not expecting such a gap in treatment and it's basically starting over, and I'm for whatever reason not getting the same level of relief I got when I was taking this before - but I don't know if there's other factors at play right now. (I'm in that big SoCal winter storm right now and my tinnitus has been the worst it's been in a month - wondering if it's just the weather/atmospheric pressure making it flare up.)

I started my first round of YKS a month ago, and I had near-instant relief within 3-4 days. Now I'm 4 days in again and not getting that. I will continue... I really hope it turns around this time.

I'm incredibly disheartened and the depression is back now. This was the only thing giving me hope.

I still think it's worth a try for folks as my first round overall made my "baseline" lower but I'm not seeing any gains on round 2 so far.

 

It is possible that the treatment effectiveness is being impacted by external factors.

I've tried herb-based medicine similar to this one, and it has unfortunately not yielded much good results; this is intriguing enough to put a pin in, though. Maybe taking YKS in tandem with something else (tea, vitamins, whatever that feels like it would help) could have some interesting results.

Don't lose hope. If it helps, even just a little, that's a good sign.

 

I've been meaning to update here, thanks for the reminder.

I am still taking this and I do genuinely believe that it helped me lower my volume overall - but not a total "cure" yet unfortunately, and I think I've plateaued in terms of reduction with YKS. It lowered my volume quite a bit but not to a level I'm happy with (granted the only level I'm happy with is GONE! haha.)

I'd still recommend a try if people are interested. I'd imagine this is more helpful to those with somatic tinnitus, only because this product is marketed towards those with teeth grinding issues. (Hence why there's cartoony teeth on the box, haha.)

 

Who else has tried this?

 

→ Reviewing Kampo medicine (Traditional Japanese Herbal Medicine) for otology/neurotology diseases

Interesting article.

 

Very interesting! I'd be interested to try another formulation as well. I'm planning a trip there (unrelated to the tinnitus), possibly later this year... I wonder if I should try seeing a doctor while I'm there.

 

If you are unable to see a doctor, a pharmacist may be the next best thing.

 

I stopped taking the YKS for a day or two after some wonderfully quiet days and had a huge spike today. I'm not sure if it's related or just noise exposure at work, but either way, I'm taking it again!

 

Are you still on Yokukansan?