Dr. Shemesh review: Israel Tinnitus Clinic is a Proven Scam 1

DR. SHEMESH TINNITUS CLINIC IN ISRAEL, MY PERSONAL EXPERIENCE

“Then a child in the crowd, too young to understand the desirability of keeping up the pretense, blurts out that the Emperor is wearing nothing at all and the cry is taken up by others. The Emperor cringes, suspects the assertion is true, but continues the procession.” (Hans Christian Andersen, The Emperor's New Clothes; Fairy Tales Told for Children, 1837)

Dear chronic tinnitus sufferer; this letter is written by someone who has lived through the hell of chronic tinnitus and finally found peace. If you recently discovered that you have tinnitus or you have tinnitus for a while, please read my letter.

My Tinnitus started a few years ago after a trauma event to my head and it is still present. The effect was horrendous; Tinnitus robbed me of sleep, ability to concentrate, inner peace, social life and my job. I felt helpless like a victim of Chinese torture with water constantly dropping upon my shaved head. Not long before this terrible occurrence I was fully active in life and I had excellent health. Then, suddenly, everything changed. If you were to place me back in time to Versailles and make me the king of France (or the master of universe) I would still just want to die. While driving along highways and seeing billboards for millions of Euro jackpot rewards, I had only one wish; to win the first prize and give it all to the person who could cure me.

I went to see the local ENT specialist, neurologist and audiologist. The MRI of my brain and hearing test were both normal. My T had a strong somatic component and because I had no problems of equilibrium, my ENT doctor told me, “there was no cure and that I will have to learn to live with this scourge condition for the rest of my life.” The Neurologist was even blunter; he told me “he felt sorry for me because there was no cure and because many (but not all) T patients may commit suicide.” He even told me about two of his Tinnitus patients, a father and son, who both hanged themselves on the same tree (not on the same day). Yes, this was such a horrid story that it sent chills through my entire spine. Very encouraging indeed!

My Audiologist repeated to me that there was no cure, but said that there was a therapy, which could help me manage my Tinnitus, but not cure my condition. He recommended the use of sound therapy.

Of course, I did not want to manage my Tinnitus, I wanted to be cured. I wanted my Tinnitus to go away, and not rely on crutches to support my sanity.

Then I started to surf the internet. I put into Google “tinnitus cure” and found Dr. Shemesh’s website. While reading his website, where the words “cure” and “curative process” are written over a hundred times, I felt like a child in the candy store. I called him to Israel several times and he assured me that he could cure, not manage, the vast majority of his Chronic Tinnitus patients.

The innuendo of “military secret” (mentioned in some of the yuku.com posts) and “the holly land of Israel” suddenly became my two magical words. I thought that I finally found the man who could save me. I believed I would get a “specially designed curative treatment”, which was only available to the soldiers of Israeli Defense Forces, and was designed by Dr. Shemesh in conjunction with Hadassah Medical Center, the top-notch medical facility of the Middle East.

Needless to say, I was extremely happy. I mentioned to my work supervisor that I might need a 5-week leave of absence to receive medical treatment by the Tinnitus “guru”, who agreed to take me under his wings. Shortly, I was fired for requesting a medical leave, but I did not care. The magical “cure from tinnitus” would pay me back beyond my loss of a job. Who cares about work if you have a two-ton gorilla behind your neck trying to suffocate you 24 hours a day.

However, there were many red flags waved before I left. After I contacted Dr. Shemesh through his website, he replied to me with emails sent from hotmail and gmail accounts, not from respectable institutions such as Israeli Army, Hebrew University, or Hadassah Medical Center. I learned that Dr. Shemesh worked alone. I sent half a dozen emails to different members of the ENT department at Hadassah Hospital and no one endorsed Dr. Shemesh. I noticed that his last journal publication was in 2002; additionally, I noticed that nothing was ever published about his metabolic therapy. I read a letter titled “Dr. Shemesh Clinic in Israel - The hope and reality” by Dr. Stephen Nagler, which expressed skepticism about the “tinnitus guru”, but I disregarded it. I wishfully thought that Dr. Nagler might be incapable of seeing the genius of Dr. Shemesh. Finally, after watching the anecdotal videos on Shemesh’s website and in contacting a few patients, I realized that none of these patients had long-term chronic tinnitus. All of them had T for 6 months or less before they started the “curative treatment” and all of them got significantly better within one year of symptoms. This typically occurs quite often, even with untreated patients, who experience a short duration of T onset (spontaneous remission). When I talked to Tim Donahue, his conversation exchange was very short. As I know today, he was already in agony from a recurrence of CT and was no longer able to lie with enthusiasm about Dr. Shemesh. Tim Donahue, committed suicide due to Chronic Tinnitus in spring of 2013; Dr. Shemesh, however, continued to play his video “Tinnitus Can be Cured” for another two years and recently removed it only after an outcry from other patients.
In the back of my mind, I thought perhaps that Dr Shemesh might be a con artist. However, I concluded that no person who is a doctor, who has given Hippocrates Oath and is religious like Dr. Shemesh, could scam someone who is losing his or her sanity from a horrifying condition. I could never do that to anyone, so I assumed that no one would do so to a handicap and suffering person as me.

I left for Israel. I did not consider the Tinnitus clinic of a major university center located close to my town. I wanted to travel to the exotic Holly Land of Israel and get help from the Holly Man - Dr Shemesh. Since I suffered immensely from the intractable ringing in my head I did not care for logical thinking anymore. I thought I finally found my savior, my protector, my father and my god. Here he was, in flesh and blood, ready to save me from my torture. His name was Dr. Zecharia Shemesh, a graduate of Hebrew University and the self-proclaimed “god of Tinnitus”.

My first surprise occurred when the taxi dropped me off in front of his "medical clinic". The clinic did not look like the modern building pictures from his website, the actual clinic was a pit in the basement of an old ugly building (see first picture below; in the upper row is the picture from his Website, in the lower row is reality). Dr Shemesh, however, was very warm, attentive, and he promised me 90% chance of a “success”. Therefore, I did not care about the location.

The second surprise followed shortly after I paid him $3, 500.00 US dollars for consultation fee. Dr. Shemesh asked me to sign a document, where I had to give up any request for a refund if the treatment is not successful. (see second picture below; in the upper row there is a written claim indicating a 90% success rate from Dr Shemesh’s recommendations regarding his Medical Treatment, in the second row there is a disclaimer about his zero refund policy from the Contract Agreement). It struck me, as odd, that a man with only a 10% failure rate would worry about a small fraction of patients that he could not help.

I was required to travel to two very remote laboratories outside of Tel Aviv (Herzliya and Haifa) to get my blood test done. Shortly my tests came back, all of them negative for any “metabolic imbalance". Dr. Shemesh explained that sometimes it only seems there is no imbalance. With his “hawkish eyes” and his “intuition at play” he expressed that my upper normal value of Vitamin B12 was actually “severely decreased”. He then offered to me a “personalized treatment tailored just for my needs”. I was to slowly raise my Vitamin B12 levels with very small dosages together with other vitamins and minerals to “keep my entire metabolism in balance”. When I asked him why he does not want to increase the value at once with inexpensive vitamin B12 I can buy in a pharmacy, he explained that it should be done slowly, or it would not work. Everything sounded crazy, but here I was thousands of kilometers away from home. I already gave the man $3, 500.00 dollars for initial fee; I paid another $2, 500.00 dollars for a small rental studio, $1, 800.00 dollars for the air ticket and $1, 000.00 dollars for laboratory tests. I could not just go home. I thought, perhaps, this man is an unrecognized genius that knows something, which the rest of the world does not know… or, so I deeply hoped.

After 5 weeks, I returned home with plenty of his capsules. I was instructed to keep increasing the number of pills each eight weeks until I would find the “correct” dosage. I did not feel any decrease in the loudness of my Tinnitus; after self-evaluating the intensity at least a few times a day, my Tinnitus was actually getting worse. Dr. Shemesh explained that this was a “good sign”. He revealed that I was experiencing a “healing crisis” that my body was trying to readjust to a new “metabolic environment” caused from his capsules. I was told to keep increasing the number of capsules to “decrease” the perceived ringing, and of course, I had to keep paying Dr. Shemesh more and more money for my supply of very expensive vitamins and herbal supplements. I did not want to lose the initial “health investment into myself" (this is one of Shemesh’s catch phrases that he uses), therefore I kept paying him more and more money. I found myself in a vicious cycle. The more I listened to my T, the louder it became, the more capsules I took, and of course, the more of my money was transferred from my account into the account of my "savior". I also believed that if this “god of Tinnitus” cannot help me, than no one else could. I was thinking of suicide daily. My Hyperacusia was so strong that even typing on my computer was bothersome. I could not speak loudly because my own voice made my Tinnitus worse. I could not speak on the telephone, just only whisper. I was lost in the deepest level of Dante’s Inferno and even my “god from Israel” could not help me. When I was at my lowest point, 15 months into taking his multivitamins, minerals and herbs, I saw the movie “The Silence of Lambs” and recognized myself in the role of the woman at the bottom of the well; my torturer at the top was Chronic Tinnitus!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R2JWHIrr1KY

Fifteen months after starting with the medicinal capsules from Dr. Shemesh, I finally decided to forget about the “cure”. I walked over to the Tinnitus Clinic located close to my home and I learned about T management techniques instead of continuing with the capsules.

Upon the recommendations of the Audiologist, I decided for sound therapy. I decided to use one of the main three sound therapies used in the West, which are Zen, Soundcure and Neuromonics. At the same time, another neurologist encouraged me to use electric stimulation of the brain called tRNS (transcranial random noise stimulation). tRNS is not currently available in the United States; it is approved only for clinical research. Fifteen months after being “treated” by Dr. Shemesh and two years after I got Tinnitus, I started with suggested sound therapy and concurrent tRNS treatments. I was using sound therapy daily and tRNS about 10 days per month.

My Hyperacusia was permanently cured in only three days. It took, however, much longer to get my CT under control. I felt the first positive changes in 14 days. One year later, the ringing decreased to such an extent, that I was bothered by the Tinnitus only one or two days a month. I am not cured, but I no longer suffer. Now, I do savor life. I can go to a loud rock concert, sit in front of the speaker and relish… The loud music does not make my T worse. I actually enjoy listening to loud music; I feel like someone is giving a massage to my brain. However, remember, that my Tinnitus was not caused by loud noise degeneration of my cochlea hair cells (but head trauma) and I do not have any hearing loss.

While being “treated” by Dr. Shemesh, I came in contact with four other patients. One of them continued with his therapy for 12 months, the second for 18 months, the other two completed a full 24-month period. Not one person got cured; no one got any better. Additionally, when they told Dr. Shemesh they wanted to discontinue with his overpriced capsules, he asked them to add a very potent psychoactive substance Venlafaxine to the multivitamin regimen for 6 months. This would only serve to prolong the time these sufferers were paying him for capsules. He told them that Venlafaxine had no serious side effects and no withdrawal symptoms, which is absolutely not true. Suicide is one of the most dangerous adverse effects of this drug. Only Dr. Shemesh would know if the patients who killed themselves (Ray Ennis, Tim Donahue, Gaby Olthius, maybe more?) were taking this very dangerous psychoactive drug before they chose death.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venlafaxine

In hindsight, I lost 12 thousand dollars and 15 months of my life, and gained nothing except plenty of sweet cheap talk. Others, who completed the 2 year treatment were less lucky; some patients have given to Dr. Shemesh all of their life savings and after two-years they all still have Tinnitus as before or their symptoms have gotten worse.

Yes, Dr. Shemesh was very kind to me and gave me plenty of compliments; he said I was exceptionally gifted, intelligent, etc. However, there were two occasions when he lost his cool and almost threw me out of his office. In both cases, he got visibly upset with two simple questions. I asked him “why he is no longer working with Hadassah Medical Center” and “why he did not publish any results of his work”. His raised the tone of his voice, became red in the face and cried in anger claiming that administrators at Hadassah Hospital were worse than politicians in the old Soviet Union. In regards to publishing his work, he replied that he keeps “everything in his head” and one day in the future, he will teach his daughter all his secrets.

In retrospect: I've learned the following from my journey to "Hell & Back."

1. The "curative treatment" described by Dr. Shemesh on his website is a lie; as far as I know, no one who had Tinnitus for two years or longer was ever permanently cured. Dr. Shemesh is medically so vague that he really says nothing in detail or in specifics. Many of his statements, as we have learned, are actually redundant lies backed with no scientific facts. He lies about his past medical work; he lies about the Israel Military; he lies about his clinical publications; he lies about Tim Donahue’s history pretending he does not know Tim committed suicide due to recurrent Chronic Tinnitus (Tim's actual condition was contrary to the message shown in his video - he never was cured); he lies about “two books on tinnitus” he is just about to publish; he lies about patient success rates; he lies about the secretive pharmacist; he lies about his capsules, etc. On his website there is no mention, at all, about capsules...or what the hell does he actually do in his protocol!

2. While visiting his office, I met several of his so-called “cured” patients who surprisingly were still visiting his office and were paying him money for capsules. I wondered why these people were still paying him money if they were “cured”? When I talked to the "cured" patients alone, they told me that they still hear T, but they continue to purchase capsules because they want to feel “emotionally in control".

3. If you psychologically suffer from an illness such as Chronic Tinnitus, you will emotionally change into a child. The longer and worse is your suffering, the more unrealistic you will become in your thinking. You will believe almost anything if you are completely desperate, you will easily become a victim of con artists promising you the “cure”, even if you know there is no cure and everything sounds crazy. We hear the word "management protocol" and we say no, I want to be "cured." None of us really ever grows older in our brain's personality; we are the child of our childhood years. Only the human body eventually erodes and we get old - our thoughts and emotions have no age, no time clock.

4. Unfortunately, there are no agencies stopping fraudulent “gurus” like Dr. Shemesh (or Dr. Wilden) from advertising their false claims. Publishing a medical paper for peer review (case report, review article, medical series etc.) costs nothing and does not need the FDA approval. The FDA is not an enemy of the sick populous. The FDA is not owned by rich doctors or the pharmaceutical industry to promote expensive treatments compared to “natural” ones. The most expensive treatment for Tinnitus is actually Dr. Shemesh’s unproven “treatment”. In the course of two years, you will pay at least 10 thousand US dollars ($3, 500.00 initial fee, about $5, 500.00 for two-year supply of his multivitamins, $1, 000.00 for the lab work). You will also spend another 5 to 8 thousand dollars for travel, lost wages, hotel and food if you are not from Tel Aviv. Moreover, at the end, your Tinnitus will be the same or even worse. Finally, the Israeli Army never put a hold on Dr. Shemesh’s protocol methods. A military hold on medical publication is only one of the many lies Dr. Shemesh sells to suffering people.

5. A psychologist explained to me how well-educated professional people rationalize their own thoughts and self-beliefs, in order to justify false and dishonest behavior. In their minds, the lies they express are god given truths based on what they want to see and hear. This includes people who are religious followers and even well educated doctors. Dr. Shemesh is only one among the many dishonest persons in this world, he is certainly not alone.

6. No one has yet invented the “magic pill” that cures Chronic Tinnitus, and if one did, it would make worldwide news. The medical community would be aware of it and the inventor would not keep the procedure from peer review because positive clinical trial results would be the best advertisement. When a legitimate cure is developed, it will be patented and the work will be published. The responsible individual will receive the Nobel Prize and become millionaire. Only Dr. Shemesh advertises his “fake and false treatment” on obscure internet websites with anecdotal videos!

7. A medically managed approach for Tinnitus is actually not a bad deal. Yes, you may hear a faint background noise if you listen to it, but your life is almost back to normal. My condition changed from seriously thinking of suicide 5 days a week (especially while taking "medicine capsules" from Dr. Shemesh) to mild annoyances occurring 1 to 2 days monthly. I am not tortured anymore because I got help from legitimate and clinically proven methods for the treatment of Chronic Tinnitus.

8. Chronic Tinnitus sometimes improves or completely disappears by itself. I know ten people who have suffered with Tinnitus from 6 months to 7 years. Their age at the time of diagnosis was between 30 to 80 years. Nine of them today hear nothing and one hears only faint Tinnitus if he listens closely to it. All ten of them used no therapy. None of them visited Dr. Shemesh, but if they did, Dr. Shemesh would ask for their praise of him and request an anecdotal video.

In summary, I think we have to give the devil (Dr. Shemesh) his due. His website is an exceptional tool by which he attracts gullible people from all over the world. To make the website look more “scientific” and “legitimate” Dr. Shemesh and his son have added links to the first-class research community called “Tinnitus Research Initiative” (TRI). However, they failed to mention that Dr. Shemesh has never published anything about treatment for Tinnitus and he has never been a member of TRI. Dr. Shemesh with his son has recently redesigned his website adding pictures of Israel hospitals and medical diagrams, using simplified terminology and hooky-catch phrases. They are making their website visually softer, easier, with more colorful pictures - the key design is to catch emotionally vulnerable sufferers who read "curative process", "cure", "excellent improvement"! Dr. Shemesh has been stealing money from sickly persons for over 20 years; Tinnitus sufferers who are half crazed and are vulnerable to the false presentation of his website have been travelling to the Holly Land for decades. His website is like a “spider with a gigantic web” to catch people in a state of pure misery.

My final advice to you, Tinnitus sufferers, is to trust only official medicine (clinically proven methods) and run away from self-proclaimed “gurus” who are selling “the cure.” Use your common sense, if they had the real cure, they would not be offering their “secret deals” on the internet! Do not look for exotic therapies, better work with a trained Audiologist who is experienced in the area of tinnitus. Look for specialists in your area who are trained in sound therapy applications. In the USA, FDA cleared sound therapies are Zen, Soundcure and Neuromonics (do your research, as these devices are expensive). In the European Union, they use only the first two devices; however, Neuromonics has applied for a license, which it will most likely receive within a year.

If you are, still not convinced that Dr. Shemesh is nothing more than a very skilled con artist, then do the following. On his website Dr Shemesh brags about “the unique medical treatment that was formed following a series of clinical studies that began in 1981 at Hadassah Ein-Kerem University-Hospital and was later continued as a co-production with the Israeli Defense Forces”. In truth, the mere existence of such a project is very questionable because Dr Shemesh does not offer any evidence to substantiate such a claim.

Therefore, ask Dr. Shemesh to email you the website links for the published reports of the above joint project. (Be careful, the nine articles you can read on his website are not about treatment!). Your request for information will be denied, Dr. Shemesh will stop communicating with you and you will know that everything he says is a Big Fat Lie.