Perhaps it's not all bad news for alternative medicine. A new study has discovered that Ginkgo biloba could be an effective treatment for tinnitus.
Researchers carried out a meta-analysis of five studies, involving over 400 patients, and found that the herb, at daily doses of between 120 and 160 mg, helped patients with chronic tinnitus.
Interestingly, the study, published originally in 1999, has just been unearthed by the British Medical Journal, which had published a study in 2001 that suggested that Ginkgo is an ineffective treatment for tinnitus at 50-mg doses.
(Source: British Medical Journal, 2003; 327: 'This Week in the BMJ')