I. What kind of causes of hearing impairment can we help with? To summarize, the causes of tinnitus and deafness can be caused by impaired blood supply to the inner ear, infection (especially viral infection), trauma, noise, tumors, autoimmune diseases, poisoning (especially ototoxic drugs), emotional stress, lack of sleep, aging, etc. Patients with Meniere’s disease can also manifest hearing loss due to the presence of fluid in the labyrinth of the inner ear. Among these causes of hearing damage, some are mild (may manifest as transient tinnitus) and can heal spontaneously, some manifest as chronic lesions that will gradually worsen, while some will become irreversible and permanent lesions that are difficult to reverse (e.g. hearing damage caused by ototoxic drugs and noise is difficult to reverse). In the last decade, we have focused on hearing damage caused by cervical spine lesions and found that up to 84.26％ of tinnitus patients have abnormal flow rate of the vertebral artery-basilar artery system. Therefore, abnormalities in the flow rate of the vertebral artery-basilar artery system will cause impaired blood supply to the inner ear, resulting in tinnitus and deafness. Animal experiments have also confirmed that once the vertebral artery is ligated, the hearing function of the animal is lost, indicating that the vertebral artery-basilar artery system and the hearing function are inextricably linked. Our clinical practice has confirmed that acupuncture and moxibustion therapy (for which we have designed targeted treatment protocols) have a clear ameliorative effect on abnormalities in the flow rate of the vertebral artery-basilar artery system, with 80％ of patients having improved tinnitus symptoms after treatment and 20％ of patients being cured. So, the type of tinnitus that we can help with is – those that are due to abnormal flow velocities in the vertebral-basilar artery system. For patients who do not have abnormal flow velocities in the vertebral artery-basilar artery system, we are not able to provide targeted treatment at this time. Please note that I will continue to publish articles about cervical hearing impairment on my blog and website. In order to prepare for your visit, you will need to have a flow rate test of the vertebral artery-basilar artery system at your local hospital. “If there is such a result, you should consider coming to CJH again. If there is no problem, it is not a problem we can solve. Third, what about pulsatile tinnitus? In about 50% of patients, their tinnitus is manifested as a rhythmic ringing, and this rhythm is consistent with the rhythm of their own pulse, and this kind of tinnitus is called pulsatile tinnitus. The cause of this type of tinnitus is specific and may be due to an abnormality of the blood vessels in the skull (e.g., a narrowed area in the blood vessels for some reason, and when the blood flows through this area, the flow rate increases, resulting in a murmur, which is transmitted to the ear and results in pulsatile tinnitus). In our early studies, we treated patients with pulsatile tinnitus with no success. After consultation with specialists from related disciplines, it was determined that the problem was a localized stenosis of the intracranial vein, which was finally cured by catheterization. According to me, Prof. Li Baomin, Prof. Li Sheng and Prof. Wang Jun of the Department of Neurosurgery of 301 Hospital (i.e. PLA General Hospital) are the leading experts in this field in China, and patients with pulsatile tinnitus can seek treatment from them.