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Botox May Smooth Your Wrinkles and Stop the Ringing
in Your Ears
Sept. 17, 2004 - Now there is a new health reason
to use Botox that may be a good way to hide your vanity use of the
product that makes you look better. A preliminary new study says it can
stop the ringing in your ears.
Botox is best known as a way to remove wrinkles in
the skin. The new research indicates that Botox injections may ease the
irritation of tinnitus, otherwise know as ringing in the ears.
Researchers caution that more study is needed, but initial results are
promising.
Tinnitus, or the presence of noises (ringing,
whistling, hissing, roaring, booming) in the ears, is a common complaint
affecting an estimated 10-20 percent of the general population. Chronic,
persistent tinnitus can affect ones ability to work, engage in social
activities, and sleep. For some, the problem is much more harmful,
affecting their mood with resulting mild to severe depression. Five
percent of the general population are affected by tinnitus to a severity
that it causes them to seek help.
The clinical causes of tinnitus have been explored
in an effort to explain why this disorder affects individuals so
differently, with some having only mild recognition of the symptom and
others having true annoyance and more serious interference with their
quality of life. Many experts now believe that tinnitus is affected by
the autonomic nervous system.
Botox is well known as a remedy to skin wrinkles
and frown lines, but many are not aware it is also used for more serious
medical conditions, including strabismus, spasmodic altered voice
production, failure of the voice muscles to relax, and cervical dystonia.
More recently, Botox has shown significant benefit
through nonparalytic effects for problems including neuropathic pain and
migraines. Specifically, in management of migraines, Botox is suspected
to block not only acetylcholine, but inhibit release of other
neurotransmitters and neuropeptides important in the autonomic pathway.
It was Botoxs proven benefit in disease processes
via blockage of autonomic pathways, and that a significant aspect of
tinnitus is believed to be effected via the autonomic pathway, that lead
researchers to examine whether Botox could possibly impact the
perception of tinnitus.
The authors of Evaluation of Botox in Treatment of
Tinnitus, are Katrina R. Stidham MD with the California Ear Institute
at San Ramon, Perry Solomon MD, Director-Bridges Medical Clinic-for
Botox rx for Migraines and Hyperhydrosis, and Joseph B. Roberson MD,
California Ear Institute and Let Them Hear Foundation, all from
California.
Their findings are being presented at the American
Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation Annual
Meeting & OTO EXPO, being held September 19-22, 2004, at the Jacob K.
Javits Convention Center, New York City, NY.
Learn more about the specialty and otolaryngic
disorders at the AAO-HNS Internet web site,
http://www.entnet.org.
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