Hear Complex

Claims for treatment

Hear Complex claim that it “could help to soothe out some irregularities within the auditory system, including noise or feeling like you’re starting to feel hearing damages [sic]” [1].

What is the treatment?

Hear Complex is a capsule taken twice daily [1]. The ingredients of Hear Complex are listed as Ginkgo biloba leaf extract, Rhodiola root extract, magnesium sulfate, vitamin B6, and vitamin A [1].

What are the downsides of treatment?

Potential side effects, allergic reactions and drug interactions from Ginkgo biloba [2]. Magnesium can cause minor but unpleasant side effects [3].

Cost – although we have been unable to trace a selling site listing a price.

Has there been research into this treatment?

Although there have been no papers published on Hear Complex as a supplement, there are a number of papers on the effects of its component parts.

What does the research say?

The limited evidence does not demonstrate that Ginkgo biloba is effective for tinnitus when this is the primary complaint. 4] It does not reduce the intensity of tinnitus or improve quality of life. [5]

There is no evidence that the use of vitamin B6 [6] or Vitamin A [7] improves symptoms in adults with tinnitus. Vitamin B6 and pre-formed Vitamin A can be harmful in large doses [6,8].

There is limited evidence that magnesium [9] may help tinnitus in people who are deficient in these elements.

There is no evidence that rhodiola is effective for tinnitus and there is limited evidence for its claimed therapeutic properties [10].

How high quality is the research?

A-C

Would Tinnitus UK support further studies into this treatment?

No

Comments

Practice guidelines do not recommend the use of Ginkgo biloba as a treatment for tinnitus [12, 13].

** A = Systematic review/meta analysis. B = Randomised control studies. C = Cohort studies. D = Case control studies. E = case studies/reports. +/- to be used to indicate quality within bands