Botox May Smooth Your Wrinkles and Stop the Ringing in Your Ears

Main Category: Public Health
Article Date: 18 Sep 2004 - 16:00 PDT

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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 one's 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. CONTINUES.................www.seniorjournal.com