Tinnitus and Pycnogenol® French maritime pine bark extract

Did you know that, according to the American Tinnitus Association:

• More than 50 million Americans will experience some degree of tinnitus in their lifetime
• Worldwide, tinnitus reduces quality of life for 250 million people
• Tinnitus is most commonly caused by noise exposure but can also be caused by head or neck trauma, health disorders or cardiovascular disease among others
• There is no cure for tinnitus but in some cases, it can be managed 

Data source : www.ata.org

Tinnitus is a debilitating hearing condition that causes the constant misperception of sound, including hissing, ringing and rushing noises that can considerably impact overall health and quality of life.

How Pycnogenol® French maritime pine bark extract can help stop the ringing?

Research shows Pycnogenol® is effective in relieving tinnitus symptoms and improving inner ear blood flow. This study corroborates the prominence of Pycnogenol® for improvement of vascular function which spans from the large arteries and veins to the tiniest micro-vessels. 

In a study conducted by the Chieti-Pescara University in Italy and published in Panminerva Medica, 82 patients with mild-to-moderate tinnitus in only one ear, while the other remains unaffected, were studied throughout a four-week period.

Group A patients were administered 150 mg/day of Pycnogenol®, group B patients were administered 100 mg/day of Pycnogenol®, and the control group consisted of patients who received no Pycnogenol®. At the beginning of the study, patients' average initial systolic and diastolic blood flow velocities were 14.3 and 4.22 cm/sec in the low dose Pycnogenol® group and 13.2 and 3.2 cm/sec in the high dose Pycnogenol® group, indicative of insufficient blood perfusion of the ear in both groups. The study found that after treatment with Pycnogenol®, inner ear systolic and diastolic blood flow velocities in the affected ear rose to an average of 21.2 and 8.23 cm/sec in the low dose group and to 24.3 and 12.5 cm/sec in the high dose group. Not only are these results significant for the improvement of inner ear blood micro-circulation and, consequently reduction of tinnitus symptoms, but they also indicate the potentially dose-related effect of Pycnogenol® on the condition. The study also examined in detail the effects of Pycnogenol® on the symptoms of tinnitus. Using a Subjective Tinnitus Scale (STS) at the inception of the study, subjects were instructed to rate their symptoms from "zero" (low intensity of symptoms) to "fifteen" (constant and severe symptoms). The initial STS average value was approximately 8.8 among patients in the Pycnogenol®  group and 7.9 in the control group. After four weeks, STS scores reduced to 5.2 in the low dose group and 3.3 in the high dose group, demonstrating a dramatic reduction of the disturbing background noise in the effected ear. There were no significant changes within the control group.