MemberA TENS Unit on Amazon.com
You can buy Tens machines for around £30 in the UK & I've known many people use them successfully for back pain.
Anyway.. I was wandering around the net and came across a few posts about using them for tinnitus. As usual there are sites saying it works and sites saying it's a load of rubbish.
But it seems that it mainly works for people who have T because of TMJ / neck problems etc. & that it gets worse before it gets better (if indeed it is going to get better...).
Interested to know if anyone has tried it?
'One small study showed 46% of participants had improved or completely resolved tinnitus using a TENS unit.7 Patients used the units at home for two hours per day over two weeks time. Intermittent "typewriter" type of tinnitus was the most responsive. Somatic tinnitus without otologic disease had better response than tinnitus associated with otologic causes.'
'The somatic tinnitus syndrome includes those forms of tinnitus that are associated with a somatic disorder involving the head and upper neck. It has been suggested that physiological mechanisms where interactions occur between the somatosensory and auditory systems are the etiology for that kind of tinnitus. Trans-electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) of areas of skin close to the ear increases the activation of the dorsal cochlear nucleus through the somatosensory pathway and may augment the inhibitory role of this nucleus on the CNS and thereby ameliorate tinnitus. In a prospective descriptive study of 26 patients with the probable diagnosis of somatic tinnitus we found that TENS could improve the tinnitus in 46% of the participants (23% did not hear it anymore, and in 23% its intensity was reduced). VAS scores improved from 6.5 to 6.0 after 2 weeks of treatment (p<0.01). Patients used TENS at home for 2h, once per day during 2 weeks (alternating ramped burst, 150 pps, with pulse duration of 100 micro s, amplitude 0-60 mA; average TENS intensity was 27 mA). Intermittent "typewriter" type of tinnitus was the most responsive. Somatic tinnitus without otologic disease had better response than tinnitus associated to otological causes (p=0.047).'
Also found a page on a health insurance site - it mentions TENS treatments but I found the rest of it fascinating. Seems it's a kind of guide for whether they'll pay for the treatments?
http://www.aetna.com/cpb/medical/data/400_499/0406.html
You can buy Tens machines for around £30 in the UK & I've known many people use them successfully for back pain.
Anyway.. I was wandering around the net and came across a few posts about using them for tinnitus. As usual there are sites saying it works and sites saying it's a load of rubbish.
But it seems that it mainly works for people who have T because of TMJ / neck problems etc. & that it gets worse before it gets better (if indeed it is going to get better...).
Interested to know if anyone has tried it?
'One small study showed 46% of participants had improved or completely resolved tinnitus using a TENS unit.7 Patients used the units at home for two hours per day over two weeks time. Intermittent "typewriter" type of tinnitus was the most responsive. Somatic tinnitus without otologic disease had better response than tinnitus associated with otologic causes.'
'The somatic tinnitus syndrome includes those forms of tinnitus that are associated with a somatic disorder involving the head and upper neck. It has been suggested that physiological mechanisms where interactions occur between the somatosensory and auditory systems are the etiology for that kind of tinnitus. Trans-electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) of areas of skin close to the ear increases the activation of the dorsal cochlear nucleus through the somatosensory pathway and may augment the inhibitory role of this nucleus on the CNS and thereby ameliorate tinnitus. In a prospective descriptive study of 26 patients with the probable diagnosis of somatic tinnitus we found that TENS could improve the tinnitus in 46% of the participants (23% did not hear it anymore, and in 23% its intensity was reduced). VAS scores improved from 6.5 to 6.0 after 2 weeks of treatment (p<0.01). Patients used TENS at home for 2h, once per day during 2 weeks (alternating ramped burst, 150 pps, with pulse duration of 100 micro s, amplitude 0-60 mA; average TENS intensity was 27 mA). Intermittent "typewriter" type of tinnitus was the most responsive. Somatic tinnitus without otologic disease had better response than tinnitus associated to otological causes (p=0.047).'
Also found a page on a health insurance site - it mentions TENS treatments but I found the rest of it fascinating. Seems it's a kind of guide for whether they'll pay for the treatments?
http://www.aetna.com/cpb/medical/data/400_499/0406.html
but a lot of what I've been reading actually makes sense. If T can be caused by muscle/posture problems TMJ etc. then possibly it could work. Many of us tend to 'hunch' our shoulders at the computer & I know that often after programming into the early hours of the morning I'd stand up and think my shoulders were 'stuck' - I suppose concentrating on something makes us forget to sit properly.
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