Can Tinnitus Be Cured? What Is Going to End Up Being the Cure?

I get this warm fuzzy feeling inside - if I could record this fuzzyness it would probably mask my T - when you say 'sooner than later'

 

What it will be like for us!

29 years old and hearing myself for the 1st time!

 

Very touching. I can't comprehend how wonderful an experience that must be. She has a very good language for a born deaf person?

Actually, there has been sensorineurally deaf people reporting that their tinnitus dissappeared after turning on the cochlear implant. And then staying away several hours after turning the device off for then to return. Does that smell like 'regenerating the ear removes tinnitus?' I think so.

EDIT: Oh well. Maybe I can comprehend. I just imagened pure silence.

 

Hi was just wondering if there has been any new developments in way of treatments in our lifetime ?? Does anybody believe that there will be anything effective found in the next 10 years? I know these questions are v common and usually the answers are usually nothing new .. Any hope anybody??

 

If you would have read the forum you would have found alot of answers to your questions ... what do you mean by `usual answers are nothing new` ther eis heaps going on and even 1 research team believe they can abolish hearingloss AND tinnitus in the next 10 years. So I would suggest to read to the forum.

 

Damn, link? (or name so i can google myself!)

I have a similar thread called "What do you think is going to end up being the cure?"

 

http://hearinghealthfoundation.org/

 

Why is it that tinnitus is so low on the priority list in terms of finding a cure? I'm assuming it's not as bad as other diseases or disabilities so it's not a big deal for scientists

 

Your comments give me hope.

 

Let's say in 8 years they can restore your inner hair cells. But won't the Tinnitus be in our brain by then?

 

I don't think there will ever be a solitary cure. I feel that future treatments will help out with certain types of tinnitus and won't help out with others.

 

Hi, I have been doing my own method, because if you wait for someone else, it will be a long wait. Check my thread on Finally Getting Better - this is rehabilitation of the central nervous system - you never get fast results - i have been using my own method of constantly get no noise, treat it like a sprained ankle or broken foot, use enough meds to sleep, have small amounts of pink/white noise. keep active. this morning after 2 months of this and having a few ups and downs, like a down 2 weeks ago from a loud clanging sound from a mixing bowl right next to my ear, i am slowly pulling myself out. there will be no "cure" but a rehabilitation, depending on how much or little hearing loss you have. i have 30 db of hearing loss, so i will never be cured, but i look forward to still being able to function and get a lot better.

 

I second that erik. This has been my believe since day one and I have told the ENT's Ive been seeing, they don't seem to get it all. On my recent assessment just earlier this week the ENT said the cause is not important for the diagnose. What a moron, I have to use my honest language on this cause that's so wrong. Of course the cause is connected to the diagnosis and therefor also the treatment. We as patients understand this, we obviously need to educate the medical people. That's the crazy part in this T madness. Rarely do we see that with other illnesses (yes, I choose to call it an illness) and rarely does the patient have to fight for justice like we do.

 

T has always been in your brain ... I would be careful to adopt an idea that states that tinnitus can be in the ear, and move to the brain. imo it is always in the brain, it can never be in the ear. the cause is in the ear but T is in the brain. Anyway, when the brain get new input from the new hair cells it has to adapt to this information and T will disappear. there are several cases that prove this where removing of wax buildup or hearing aid or other types of treatments helped the T to vanish.

 

@erik,

From the same source you referred to I found a little something on myofascial dysfunction. Very interesting lead. A typical thing the average ENT wouldn't know a thing about due to lack of knowledge and interest. The 01.11 I'm having a Skype session with someone that only deals with somatic T and muscle orientated release methods, Yet again, something ENTs and audiologists wouldn't even bother to look into.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23906831

 

I like it Eric! I think there are so many different forms of t but there must only be a few root causes, there are just too many people afflicted for it not to be ignored! ( and made money from pharmaceutical companies!)

 

In the waitingtime, 8 years is a long time, we need a remedy and a pill to take the noice. and the fancy emotions.

 

I would be willing to receive severe electric shock to "reset" the brain so that the hyperactive neurons that are firing electric impulses too often could come to rest. It's like a tambourine gone mad, something needs to settle the rattling. I know that some epileptic patients have been getting sensors surgically operated into the surface of the brain cortex that's guilty of creating the seizures, to calm down hyperactive and over sensitive neurons. It's quite similar to what is going on constantly in the auditory cortex according to many scientists. I think epilepsy and T could be closely related in that sense. It's a brain disorder no doubt and the brain is fueled by electricity among other things. So perhaps epilepsy drugs or some sort of impulse control will turn out to be the thing that kills the phantom effect.

 

TMJD also causes a T with visible(in tests) hearing loss. Altough TMJD is treated, i think it would be too late after the damage is permanent. I wonder how about for muscle dysfunction? Would it be helpful to treat the dysfunction at early stages of T ? Would it be too late to treat muscle dysfunction for those who have chronic T?

 

There's no such thing as chronic T cause that's like saying eternal T, and we all know that's impossible to tell. Is 1 month chronic? One year? 10 years? People have all sorts of conditions for years before it resolves itself for no obvious reason, the concept of chronic is therefor pointless. Based on this I don't believe it's too late for anything cmurem. When you write TMJD, are u actually referring to a dysfunctional temporomandibular joint in the jaw, aka TMJ?

 

Of course we know nothing about what causes T for every cases? However what i accept as true data is generally T refers to an inner ear damage even without visible hearing loss, and this damage is irreversable. I have also hearing loss at high frequencies and it progressed over time about 7 months, this makes me be sure that i have a damage. If muscle dysfunction is treated T will relieved, then i think this type of T may be caused by irritated neurons in the cochlea, not a damage. They say in some cases if temporomandibular joint disorder(TMJD) is treated T will be relieved, but i wonder in which cases? Even with TMJD caused sensorineural hearing loss cases? Hearing loss alone also can cause T so is the culprit hearing loss caused by TMJD or only TMJD? Lot's of questions.. However we have no definite answers. While i am thinking about T, all my thoughts are based on Hearing Loss Foundation articles and members.. Maybe i am wrong that i accept only one authority but i do not see any other respectable organisations or approaches.

 

People who recover completely from concert T after like 8 months... How is this possible?

Were the inner hair cells just bent, instead of broken? What's the explanations for success stories?

 

I see. But then why do Auris Medical only take "3 months and less"-patients for the AM101?

 

Probably they determined it after a sitatistical survey..

 

Do they have any reason to doubt AM101 will work for people who have had it for 10 years?
If no, couldn't this be a cure?

They say acute tinnitus, but if it is ALWAYS in the brain and there's no change, I don't see why that would be relevant.

 

I`m no scientist I form my opinions through reading all the scientific findings. Auris has not yet come out with there findings. They only are doing tests at this moment so I don`t know what is going on there. I suspect that they have discovered something that can trick the brain in not reacting with T to an existing hearing trauma by fooling the pathway from the ear to the brain. Maybe this pathway is gone after three months because of the natural healing proces of the ear. Maybe the pathway is gone because it dies of ... I really don`t know. And maybe they just don`t know if it works with people with chronic T because they haven`t tested it yet and it could work (my hope! ) ...

The main point I was making is that T phantom sound is created in the brain. it is not a sound in the ear the moves to the brain after 3 months and starts causing havoc there ... T is always caused by the neurons. It is just a matter of tricking the brain in not to react this way ... how that works I really don`t know. But when these neurons are engaged again with solid information coming from the ear ... say for instance with haircell regeneration they will imo adapt back again and start working normally... the neurons are fine in themselves, they are just confused ... so when they get orders from a `boss`, the ear or some other device they will function properly.

 

I understand. I wrote this mail to Thomas Meyer in Auris Medical

Dear Dr Meyer

I read that AM101 is for acute tinnitus, 6 months and less (?). Are you sure it won't work for chronic cases, for example people who have had it for 5 years?

Basically, what I want to find out is whether this project is of any relevance to my situation. I have had tinnitus since may 2013.

As we discussed, I am unable to participate in clinical trials.

So a best case scenario would mean AM101 treatment in what, 5 years? (I've got the money...)

Would there even be any hope of AM101 to ever help me?

 

ad this: `please hurry up!`

 

I am wondering... If we accept the hypothesis that T is the brain adjusting to missing input on certain frequencies, and if we assume that the hearing loss is not total, then could a perfectly fitted hearing aid not do the same as repairing the inner ear?

 

Hopeful -
That's why a lot of people wearing hearing aids experience tinnitus suppression. I wear them, and they help me. But the aids tend to delay habituation, so a lot of times I take them out.

There is a conundrum, that no aids can be "perfectly fitted". If there is hearing damage, the damaged cochlear hairs can't be amplified. The hearing aids will amplify the cochlear hairs that are adjacent to the area of damage (some people call these "sidebands").

In my opinion, the culprit causing tinnitus is the efferent nerve connected to the cochlear at the location of the damaged cochlear hair:

• The brain has neurological circuitry that is constantly comparing sound levels between the left and right ear for each frequency. All mammals have this circuitry, which the brain uses to locate sound sources
• These neurons are tonotopically mapped (hard wired) to locations in the cochlear and upper brain. (Example: A 4Khz cochlear hair is mapped to a 4Khz location in the upper brain)
• Hearing damage is due to the inner cochlear hair cells being damaged
• It is well known that the cochlear can amplify signals by mobilizing outer hair cells. But also the efferent nerve connected to the inner hair cells acts as a response control in the circuit.
• If there is a imbalance in volume at a frequency, the brain sends a signal (a voltage) on an efferent nerve to the associated cochlear hair to amplify the signal.
• Ultimately, all sounds energy in the cochlea is converted electro-mechanically into neuron currents. But if the cochlear hair can't hear an external sound source, it experiences only the voltage from the efferent nerve. We experience this voltage as the tinnitus sound.

Again, these are my opinions, which are not original ideas. The problem is, no doctor has been able to setup an experiment that will be able to measure this voltage. So, the above remains an "opinion", until someone can prove or disprove this idea.