My Cure Tinnitus

A technique called Acoustic Coordinated RESEt Neuromodulation to treat tinnitus has been developed in Germany, and some patients are finding that it brings relief from the constant ringing in the ears that accompanies tinnitus symptoms.  This technique works by finding the pitch of the patients tinnitus.  Once the pitch is determined, the patient will then wear a portable neuomodulation device to listen to a series of chimes just above and below their tinnitus or ringing ears frequency.  They will listen to these frequencies between four and six hours per day.  The theory is that listening to these frequencies will retrain the brain to stop firing these sounds, thus eliminating their ringing ears.

Acoustic Coordinated RESET Neuromodulation
(medgadget.com)

It’s not cheap and it takes several weeks before benefits are realized, but when 7 of 10 patients are reporting significant benefits, it’s worth considering if your tinnitus is affecting the overall quality of your life.  This treatment has been scientifically validated and there are several other similar studies being funded for researchers here in the US today.  The main point we would like to clarify is that while this sounds much like “masking,” it is very different.  The idea is not to mask the noise, but rather to retrain the brain not to make the perceived noise at all.

Here is what Carol Davis had to say about this technique in a recent article posted at www.dailymail.co.uk.

Once diagnosed, Jane was seen by a specialist who recommended relaxation exercises and music.

She tried distraction techniques, too, such as opening a window at work so gentle background sounds would take her mind off the sound.

Jane also bought special speakers to put in her pillow that played white noise to override the screaming noise in her head.

‘But nothing stopped it completely,’ she says.

‘And as I became more sleep deprived, I’d get irritable with my three children and with Fintan, my husband.

‘And I worried that the quality of my work was suffering.’

Researchers have previously tried treating tinnitus using electrodes implanted in the brain.

These emit an electrical impulse to stimulate the nerve cells and break up the abnormal firing pattern, but results have been mixed.

Jane did some research of her own, and last summer read about a new treatment, Acoustic Co-ordinated RESET neuromodulation, which had been developed in Germany.

After a hearing test to establish the pitch of the patient’s tinnitus, they then wear a portable neuromodulation device (a bit like an MP3 player) to listen to a series of chimes just above and below their tinnitus frequency for between four and six hours a day.

The theory is that this retrains nerve cells in the brain so they stop firing.

At £4,500 for a six-month treatment, it is by no means cheap — but in the study Jane found, published in the journal Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience, it benefited seven in ten patients, who reported a ‘significant and clinically relevant decrease’ in tinnitus loudness and annoyance within 12 weeks, compared with patients who received a placebo.

‘Yes, it is a lot of money, but I was desperate for some sort of relief,’ says Jane.

‘There is a lot of quackery surrounding a condition such as tinnitus, but this treatment is scientifically validated and it was this that attracted me to it.’

Studies by the maker found an average 50 per cent reduction in their tinnitus, which  continues after treatment ends.

First, Jane underwent a 90-minute assessment where she was played a series of sounds until she could identify the exact pitch of her tinnitus.  You can read the entire original article here.

According to Jane, the therapy has worked for her and she has actually seen a marked improvement in her tinnitus symptoms.  Her hope is that the continued use of the device will eventually fade away her ringing ears for good.  Doctors say more research and larger studies are needed before it will be evident if this technique is a long term fix for tinnitus sufferers.

If you would like to learn more about the research being done here in the US, you can read more about this technique in some of the articles we have posted earlier here on our website.  While masking helps bring relief, it is only temporary, while the goal of neuromodulation is to actually retrain the brain or reprogram it so that the sound is completely eliminated.

Until a real cure for tinnitus comes in a pill form or some type of easy treatment process, then we can only continue to treat the symptoms and hope.  If you are suffering from tinnitus symptoms and you have been unable to find help, then you have come to the right place.  While not everyone’s tinnitus will respond equally, there are ways to help reduce the ringing in the ears that many people suffer from, so don’t give up just yet unless you already know that your type of tinnitus will not respond.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/health/article-2171138/Tinnitus-The-4-500-headphones-eased-suffering.html#ixzz20Liz7J7I

While it is not a complete cure, one way that many people gain relief from the ringing in the ears that comes from tinnitus is by using masking techniques.  Masking continues to bring help to cure tinnitus symptoms, although it will not cure the underlying causes of tinnitus.  Researchers at UC Irvine have found an improved way to use masking in order to relieve people of tinnitus symptoms such as acute ringing in the ears.

Masking To Cure Tinnitus Symptoms
(www.beatcrave.com)

We have posted about this topic previously, and you can find that tinnitus masking article here, so be sure to read it as well, as you will find some masking suggestion on that post as well.  Tinnitus can be debilitating for some people, as the ringing in their ears may be non stop.  If you have tried different options with no reprieve, then you might want to give masking a shot.  We have used masking some ourselves, although we were also able to improve our overall tinnitus symptoms with this strategy.

Here is what Pat Brennan had to say about the masking research that is being done at UC Irvine in a recent article that was posted at www.sciencedude.ocregister.com.

Researchers at UC Irvine have found an alternative way to ease tinnitus, a high-pitched noise or ringing in the ears that afflicts about 60 million Americans.

Many tinnitus sufferers wear “maskers,” ear devices that produce an external sound that’s basically meant to overwhelm the ringing, which varies greatly in severity. This works for some people, but not others.

Fan-Gang Zeng, a professor of biomedical engineering and otolaryngology at UCI, has been experimenting with soft, low-pitched customized sounds that offset or suppress the ringing. The sounds can be delivered by a small MP3 player that’s easy to wear.

“There is no cure for tinnutus, but this approach has provided relief in about 80 percent of the 40 people we’ve worked with in clinical trials,” says Zeng, who is focusing on patients with severe ringing.  You can read the entire original article here.

It appears evident that masking can help relieve the symptoms of tinnitus when it comes to the ringing in your ears.  Don’t get excited thinking this process will cure your tinnitus because it will not.  However, if your ringing is loud enough and constant enough to be affecting your overall quality of life, then you should indeed give this strategy a shot.

As we stated previously, we tested this idea personally and found that it does indeed stop the excessive noise when in use, giving us some instant relief at times.  What we have found works best is using holistic treatment options, as it actually quietened the noise without the need for masking.  We found that following a strict diet helped more than anything.  If you have not yet tried a holistic option to treat your tinnitus symptoms, then you should read more and spend some time here on our website.  If nothing else has helped, then give masking as shot, as masking continues to bring help to cure tinnitus symptoms, even if it won’t cure the underlying causes of tinnitus.

While it’s mostly been a fantasy in science fiction movies, biotechnology is inching closer to reality and a company by the name of MicorTransponder is developing neuro-stimulation devices to cure tinnitus. During a recent clinical trial, they treated tinnitus patients with a neuro-stimulation device that delivered very positive results. While this is not a definitive tinnitus cure, it is a start in the right direction. MicroTransponder will continue to test this technology through their Serenity System, which is a neuros-stimulation based system with a small implanted battery and wires that internally connect to the vagus nerve in the neck. The patient also wears headphones and every time they hear a tone, the receive a small burst of neuros-stimulation to their vagus nerve.

Biomedical Research For Tinnitus Cure
sciencedude.ocregister.com

The goal of this strategy is to retrain the brain to shrink the abnormal representation of the phantom sound. In plain speak, they are attempting to rewire damaged neural circuits in the auditory cortex, which is what most researchers believe is the root cause of tinnitus symptoms. All of the firms technology is based on the premise that certain disorders arise from over or under-stimulated nerves, damaged neural pathways or over-allotment of neurons to specific tone frequencies. Here is what Sue Karlin had to say in a recent article about MicroTransponder at www.spectrum.ieee.org.

In 2008, when writers from game developer Eidos Montreal began mapping out the third of its Deus Ex game series, neuroengineer and Deus Ex fan Will Rosellini offered to bolster the scientific plausibility of their story lines.

Rosellini is the CEO of MicroTransponder in Dallas, which develops neurostimulation technology to treat neurological disorders such as tinnitus, chronic pain, stroke-induced motor loss, and post-traumatic stress. The technology uses implantable electronic devices to deliver small pulses of energy to nerves, triggering chemicals that enable the brain to remap specific parts.

A former Arizona Diamondbacks pitcher, Rosellini’s fascination with sports performance led him to neuroscience after his athletic career ended. He has since earned a law degree, an MBA, and a master’s in computational biology, and will soon have a Ph.D. in neuroscience from the University of Texas at Dallas. He helped launch MicroTransponder in 2007 to commercialize the research of Larry Cauller, a now-retired associate professor of neuroscience, who worked on robotic prosthetics that interfaced with human nervous systems.

The Human Revolution writers tapped Rosellini’s knowledge to portray more believable technology for the year 2027, when its story takes place. They came to the table with a wish list of 30 superhuman abilities for their characters. Rosellini whittled it by a third according to how existing science might realistically evolve, even helping them smooth over a major criticism involving rapid healing of characters.

“Players didn’t like automatic health regeneration, because it made the game easier,” says Rosellini. “But it was a necessary part of a game play feature, so I spent a lot of time examining how vagus nerve stimulation [which exists today as a treatment for depression] could speed the healing process. We added that information to booklets laying around and in e-mails you can see on computers in the game.”  You can see the rest of the original article here.

While this sounds like pure science fiction, scientists and researchers are capable of much more than we can currently imagine, and we are truly on the cusp of augmenting our bodies by using technology and science, and the reality is that researchers are closer than most can imagine to making these augmentations a reality that many might no care to believe.

Between this technology and all of the research that is going on with drug treatment studies, we feel sure that a tinnitus cure is just around the corner.  While we expected something like this to be forthcoming soon, we were excited to finally hear officially that MicorTransponder is developing neuro-stimulation devices to cure tinnitus, and that they were already having some small successes.  In time, nerve stimulation and nerve regeneration might be a common occurrence.  Any help in reducing the growing number of tinnitus sufferers would be welcome news to those that suffer from tinnitus symptoms.

It’s now believed that a certain structure in the brain could be very important in finding a tinnitus cure!  Southern Illinois and the University of Illinois at Urbanna-Champaign have received a federal grant to help researchers target a specific part of the brain in order to help cure tinnitus.  These researchers believe that a chemical in the brain called GABA plays a role in tinnitus, and they are receiving a grant of almost one million US dollars in order to help develop a drug to treat the ringing in the ear symptoms that plagues up to to ten percent of the adult population in the United States alone.

Scientist will be using rats while trying to identify differences in brain chemistry between those with tinnitus and those without.  If they can find and identify these differences, they believe that they can develop an effective drug to help treat tinnitus symptoms, particularly the ringing ears that most people develop that have the condition.  There appears to already be drugs that these researchers have in mind, but they would not identify them.  The fact that they have these drugs already in mind seems very promising to us.  Here is what Dean Olsen had to say in a recent article about this that was posted at www.enterprisenews.com.

Scientists in Springfield, Ill., believe a specific part of the brain will become a useful tool in developing medicines to treat tinnitus, a chronic ringing in the ears that affects millions of Americans.