Arches Tinnitus Formula—What’s the Score?

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A man wrote,

I noticed an ad in the current issue of Hearing Health magazine for Arches Tinnitus Formula. Has anyone had success with this product? The absence of a company address in the advertisement makes me wary.

It seems any magazine ad I see for a tinnitus remedy offers only a toll free number. When I call the number, my experience is that the price of the product is sky high and any questions about the formula will be brushed off because the formula is proprietary.

I realize some people do experience success using a homeopathic product, yet I’m also aware that the American Tinnitus Association has stated there is no medical cure for tinnitus.

I agree with you. I like to see people stand behind their products with full contact information prominently displayed. However, sometimes ads are cramped for space so they leave this information off. The good news in this case is that if you go to the Arches website you will find their contact information—name, address, phone number and the name of the person behind this product—namely, Barry Keate. (I’m well aware that there are other tinnitus products being hawked that have no such contact information on their websites—and of those I am really leery.)

More good news. The ingredients for Arches Tinnitus Formula are not proprietary. In fact, there are only three common ingredients in the Arches Tinnitus Formula, namely, zinc, garlic and Ginkgo biloba.

The interesting thing about their Ginkgo content is that this is one tinnitus formula that actually contains a therapeutic dose of Ginkgo, in contrast to many other tinnitus formulas out there that only contain a token amount of Ginkgo. (This is one reason that so many studies of Ginkgo as a remedy for tinnitus have not shown positive results—the researchers deliberately or through ignorance used an inadequate dose in their studies.)

For example, the German “E” Commission did a detailed study on Ginkgo and determined that the therapeutic dose was 480 mg a day. Ginkgo extract should be standardized to contain 24% flavone glycosides, 6% terpene lactones as well as contain a minimum of 2.6% bilobalide.

Guess what? The Ginkgo content in Arches Tinnitus Formula is standardized to exactly that. Furthermore, their recommended dose is 480 mg per day—exactly the amount the German “E” Commission found was needed for an effective therapeutic dose.

Even though the Arches Tinnitus Formula contains a therapeutic dose of Ginkgo, you need to realize that Ginkgo doesn’t work for everyone’s tinnitus. Ginkgo taken at the effective dose of 480 mg per day helps between 26% and 82% of the people taking it, depending on which study you look at. This is not to say that everyone’s tinnitus goes away completely, but taking a therapeutic dose of Ginkgo does help reduce the tinnitus in numbers of people—and any reduction in tinnitus volume/annoyance is a blessing to be sure.

Arches Tinnitus Formula is not a homeopathic product—it is a supplement type of product. In my opinion, it is one of the better herbal tinnitus products available. Sure it will cost you—about a dollar a day—but what drugs are that cheap?

There is no single magic pill that will cure tinnitus. The best approach is to try several things at once or sequentially—and hopefully each will help reduce your tinnitus a certain amount so that you end up with a significant reduction in your tinnitus. I give many of these tinnitus reduction strategies, including using Ginkgo and other herbals and minerals in my tinnitus book, “When Your Ears Ring! Cope with Your Tinnitus—Here’s How“.