Dr. Charlie — ENT Specialist With Tinnitus

Billie, my experience is that EFT and ART often relieve fear reactions within minutes. I would certainly not suggest trying to learn any new method when in the throes of an attack. Once the techniques have been learned, however, both have proven effective to stop acute panic attacks in a matter of several minutes over the phone as well as face-to-face. These methods literally unhook the fear response from the body. With practice, they become more and more efficient.

Dr Charlie

 

For me they were the onset to my anxiety .I now stick to natural meds B6 And B12 .B6 best long term .The Benzo's not suited to me .Some are fine as been said on TT ,scary just reading side affects .Think ones body make up has a lot to play in individuals .Each to there own

 

Well we cant get b12 in france...without a prescription. Doc wont prescribe it. Why not I dont know. Maybe @Dr. Charlie knows why a doctor wont prescribe b12...is it dangerous?
So have nothing else except xanax and when the nervousness hits, no choice but to take one....
They have no problem prescribing benzoes but they wont prescribe b vitamins...
I dont understand it. But if there is a simple thing that maybe @Dr. Charlie can suggest a simple thing to do to bring down the nervousness. Sometimes when the nervousness hits that I find that I pace like a wild but trapped animal. So I go out and try to walk it off if it is not raining. But if there were any simple exercise to do to bring it down.....??

 

Am: Before I respond to your question, please understand that my doing so is not intended as a recommendation for any specific commercial remedy or method. I fully respect the founders and staff of this community, and their guidelines. I am also not putting down TRT. As Dr Nagler has personally testified, TRT is an accepted and effective therapy for sufferers of tinnitus and hyperacusis. Als0, as I have repeatedly said, my concerns with TRT involve cost and time.
At the time TRT was developed by Dr Pawel Jastreboff in the 1980s, no other reliable method was available to T or H sufferers. In an effort to help their patients, physicians often prescribed a variety of useless or even dangerous medications. TRT was and is a huge improvement.

Around 1980, Dr Roger Callahan developed a treatment for his patients who experienced a variety of phobias. He was a brilliant practicing psychotherapist in Southern California. He termed his method, Thought Field Therapy, or TFT. Dr Callahan had studied acupuncture and its meridians along with several other modalities that were considered alternative at the time. TFT involved gentle fingertip stimulation of specific acupressure points, along with unique setup statements that he created. Callahan postulated that ALL fears in the body result from a disruption of the normal energy flow within the circulating meridian system. His theory was quite revolutionary, and largely ignored by those of us in conventional medicine. Many scoffed at his ideas. But he continued to write about and speak about his discovery, and provided case history after case history, demonstrating outstanding successful results. He was often able to help his patients remove lifelong disabling phobias within a few minutes to a few hours at most.

To keep my response as brief as possible while still answering your question, A Stanford University engineering graduate - Mr Gary Craig - studied with Dr Callahan, and developed EFT (Emotional Freedom Techniques.) He has done more than anyone to educate the public about these methods of fear removal. Craig has also proven the technique effective in many thousands of applications around the globe.

After retiring from my medical and surgical practice, I became interested in clinical hypnotherapy as a treatment for several medical conditions, including the pain of severe burns, IBS, tinnitus, hyperacusis, and more. This interest led me by chance to a presentation about EFT. I was highly skeptical of what I witnessed, but I watched people quickly remove fears and phobias of all types simply by stimulation of specific acupressure points. There is a bit more to the technique than I am explaining here, but I saw the method reliably work over and over and over.

Because of my training and personal experiences with tinnitus, hyperacusis, and ocular migraines. I began to apply the method for my own issues. The results have been amazing to me. In time, I began teaching the method to other sufferers. I modified my approach to EFT somewhat, so I termed the modification "Anxiety Relief Techniques," or ART.

The method works quickly because it unhooks the fear response associated with a particular fear-invoking stimulus. In my case, the fear-invoking stimulus was my noise of tinnitus or my fear of sounds that seemed painfully loud to me. I found that I could remove within minutes the fear response to most of my associated fears. These fears included anxiety, outright fear, frustration, guilt, and sadness.

This emerging field is known today as energy psychology. I find this term misleading in many ways, but haven't come up with a more descriptive term to date.

It is my hope that I can share what I have learned with anyone suffering as a result of experiencing tinnitus, hyperacusis, migraines, or other forms of anxiety. At age 78, I also hope to share my knowledge and experience with other medical professionals, so that they may pass forward what I have to share with them.

Bless you,




Dr Charlie

 

I think for using meds, it has to be done with wisdom. For those who have not suffered panic and anxiety disorders, it is very hard to understand that at times the symptoms are so severe and overwhelming that for some, will power or strategies simply cannot easily tame the body reactions. For me, during the initial T & H attacks, they triggered relentless anxiety and panic attacks that I became suicidal, not knowing how to survive repeated attacks daily and hourly. Panic attacks were with me the minute I barely woke up while the T was screaming loud & high pitch. I couldn't fight something which didn't even allow me a fighting chance while not really awake enough to reason or do something to avoid the attacks. I was sooo glad that Prozac eventually helped halted the attack symptoms and Ativan eased off the sharp edges of anxiety symptoms. Then at that point, I realized I have some chance to survive the T & H because they could no longer trigger my panic attacks.

Using some of the CBT techniques, I was able to counter the catastrophic thinking with more realistic ones. After a year, I was off the meds and have been for 5 years. But the latest panic attacks brought me back to these meds again and I know that I will only use them until the panic can subside. I know some of the best strategies out there are coaching us to welcome the panic attack and stay with it instead of running from it. I have no problem doing that for a few attacks. But the brain says what if it comes back relentlessly like before day in and day out, and the body reacts to such a stupid 'what if' thought to substantiate the fear response, then the only alternative for me is using meds to halt the process. Honestly, after some time struggling with anxiety/panic attack symptoms a few tears ago, the fear for T was secondary to the fear for panic attacks it triggered. LOL. I sure want to learn some great strategies to help counter anxiety & panic disorders. I will remain positive that all will be well with my latest health challenge. It will take time and patience though.

 

Dr. Charlie, from your description above, you seem to imply that EFT is not a psychological based technique (like telling people to face up to fear), but something which involves physical stimulation of acupressure points. So I assume ART is also similar in approach. Now I live in Vancouver Canada and there are a lot of Oriental acupressure points treatment places here which will relieve stress and tensed muscle. Are we talking about the similar things?

 

Billie: You are correct. EFT and ART are not psychologically based. Emotions are stored in the subconscious mind, and only called into consciousness when a particular stimulus evokes them. Cognitive-Behavioral type therapies, or "talk" therapies work with the conscious mind. While I recognize that "talk" therapies can be very helpful for many situations, using a conscious tool to attempt to correct subconscious problems (such as deep seated fear) is like trying to paint a wall with a hammer. It can certainly be done, but may not be the most efficient tool for the job.
The concept that all fear results from a disruption in the body's circulating energy system is revolutionary. Removing fear by acupressure point stimulation (with a few more details) represents a new paradigm in self healing. In my opinion, based on considerable experience over the past 10 years, conventional therapists could improve results significantly for their patients by incorporating this new paradigm into their therapy. Many have already done so.

Also, it becomes quite easy to "face up to" a fear when you know how to reliably remove it.

Studies have shown that acupuncture alone is far less effective than EFT or ART, so a bit more is involved than simply stimulating a few acupuncture points.

Dr Charlie

 

@Markku

amandine said: ↑
Well we cant get b12 in france...without a prescription.

@Markku said
Are you sure?
Because I can find it on Amazon France...

http://www.amazon.fr/s/ref=nb_sb_no...MÅŽÕÑ&url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=b12

Markku, Thanks ever so much for sending me that link to Amazon france for B12.
How mad is that? When I went to the pharmacy here and asked for B12, pharmacist said non, need a prescription, So when at docs I asked her for prescription for B12 and she said only with blood test. Did blood test later that week which was sent to doc and still dont have a prescription for B12. Quite honestly once I couldnt get it over the counter at the pharmacy, I didnt even think to see if I could buy it from Amazon france. i just assumed that I couldnt.
I mean that is odd isnt it? Doc and pharmacist both said I need prescription for B12 and yet it is easily available on Amazon france.
Go figure!

@Dr. Charlie
Thank you for your detailed response.
I like to be always open to new ideas and concepts.
I did find EFT video on youtube about 2 months ago. Had a quick go at it but certainly at the time it all seemed a bit silly. Maybe I was wrong?

Hope you had a very pleasant Thanksgiving.

 

Billie:
You are absolutely correct. Panic attacks often represent a fear of having another panic attack. With the first panic attack, you often feel that you are about to die. You never again want to experience that severe degree of fear.

Once you are confident that you can reliably remove the fear itself, and restore the normal flow of your circulating energy system, the panic attacks generally subside.

Dr Charlie

 

amandine:

I had a similar reaction the first time I watched a video of the method. And again when I saw a live demonstration. I required several exposures and many questions answered before my skeptical brain allowed reality to sink in. It was not a trick. It was not distracting people's attention from their issues of fear. It actually deleted the fear response from their systems. Once I understood what was happening, I applied those methods developed by earlier practitioners to fears commonly associated with Tinnitus and Hyperacusis and Migraines.

So yes, when first exposed, I also misunderstood. In my experience, most people do. In fact, I enjoy working with skeptics. It's fun to watch their mouths drop open when a phobia or fear of 10 or 15 years duration simply vanishes about 15 minutes into a session.



Dr Charlie

 

Hi Dr. Charlie,

I am 42 years old, normally energetic, very fit, and healthy (weight train 3 days per week, aerobics 5-6 days per week, I do eat oatmeal, grains and low fat dairy but have for years, consume 5-7 servings of fruits and vegs per day, nuts, don't smoke, nor drink, etc.) and don't consume much in the way of "processed" foods.

I started getting rather bad and consistent Tinnitus 24/7 about two weeks ago. Prior to that, I was getting hints of it for a couple of weeks for very brief periods of times. I had been using a pair of headphones for work one day and the volume was very briefly loud for a couple of moments before turning it down. I never wear headphones so the overall sound of them seemed weird even at low volume.

On any rate, I have had TMJ issues for years and wear a nightguard every night as I clench my teeth in my sleep. I am due for a new one as I wear them down every 1-2 yrs, but decided to go to a TMJ expert this time instead of my dentist. I have been getting slight ear and minor headaches at times - and occasionally a slight flutter or minor plug then pop feeling in my ear....maybe every 4-5 days. My jaw muscles are sore and teeth hurt too.

I went to my general Dr. and and ENT - both said my ears look great. I did take an audio test and showed loss; I'm at 40 db and at high frequencies drop down to 60-70. This surprised me as my hearing seems pretty good.

Last year in Nov 2013, my father passed away. Prior to that time, my life was getting very, very stressful and for the first time in my life I developed anxiety and sleep issues. Even though things calmed down in my life after his passing, my anxiety stuck around and my sleep has generally been okay (actually did a sleep study last year and was normal).

I tried several SSRIs and just could not use them more than a week because of side effects even at low dosages - mostly insomnia issues. I am thinking of giving Amitriptyline a shot. I've also been using guided meditation and some CBT techniques to help manage anxiety.

I've been prescribed by a psychiatrist I see monthly .5 mg of Klonopin I use once a night - since June. I switched to 10 mg of Valium the last 10 days just to rule out the Klonopin which I think has no association to the Tinnitus.

I had been using 20mg of Prilosec once a day, but quit taking that about a month ago (ironically, the Tinnitus started around the time I quite taking it). Acid reflux has been good and Gastro Dr I saw last year for it said it was brought on my anxiety and late night eating which I stopped.

I was also using 10 mg of Buspar per day (prescribed) when the Tinnitus started although went off it and was only on that for two weeks.

What is interesting though --- unlike many, my anxiety is actually LOWER since the Tinnitus started. I guess because I am so focused now on it and I do find it more tiring to deal with. But I don't fear Tinnitus. It does kind of get me mopey and depressed (especially today) - but I don't get scared of it...just damned annoyed and am trying to learn how to cope with it and improve. I was a a restaurant last night that was fairly loud and it was nice to have it largely drowned out.

One night last week for an hour or two it dropped quite a bit in volume. Another night I woke up and it was seemingly gone! Only to reappear when I woke up.

Question: could anxiety have brought this on, or is it TMJ. When I open my jaw and keep it locked pressing my hands on my lower jaw to life it, I can sense the Tinnitus sort of change slightly. I wonder if the headphones at work had something to it too. I have a hard time believe the TMJ could be the main cause, but now I wonder?

I would appreciate your thoughts and possible direction I should take.

I'm also a home theater buff with a big surround sound system, but never played at ear hurting levels. But I realize I need to keep an eye on it.

Thank you very much for your time.

 

Dr. Charlie the Z drugs don't work for sleep and my dr. said to take Amitriptyline inwhich he wanted to use for insomnia to help me sleep as this did not work I tried masking, it did not work ,nothing but benzos will let me get any sleep I'm not one that wishes to take any drug but what can I do .Without sleep I feel to much stress and I can't function.I've had 2 bad panic attacks and have got .5mg klodipin s.I am going to a mental health professional Monday do you think a low dose that is monitored .5mg klodipin is too dangerous .I did not take any antidepressants . I really need to do TRT or some kinda treatment .But I know it cost alot if done professionally.I'm just trying to hang on Job life ect.what do you think just 3 month into tinnitus now . I have a pretty good understanding of T now but trying to convince my brain that I do is the hard part just want to get to feeling back normal again,anxiety is the worst part.

THAnk YOU for your compassion and listening
through your understanding of our concerns
it helps us to understand and deal with our
conditions better, Michel

 

Dr. Charlie... I'm a little late on the "welcome", though some of that is due to reading all the posts and replies you have generated in short order...For good reason! What comes through to me loud and clear is your openness and caring attitude. I am amazed at the depth and degree of your responses to so many people so quickly, and on or near Thanksgiving no less!

Indeed it is good to have a life-experienced ENT on board, and apparently the ability to not get fixed on any ideology that forestalls taking a look at new ideas. That's great! I'm hopeful that a fruitful relationship for all on TT , you included, will unfold as in the end I don't think too many of us care where we get help from, as the key is: "whatever works!" Looks to me like you will be adding to that adage, and already have.

However, if I may be so bold as to offer a few suggestions? I quote:

One last response: Why did I retire from my practice? I was exhausted. I received my MD
degree at age 22, was double trained, with full residency trainings in both Otolaryngology and
Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, and enjoyed an extremely busy practice for 40 years. Today,
at the tender age of 78, I continue to enjoy learning new ideas and concepts, and sharing this
knowledge with those whom I believe can benefit from what I have learned.

Ummmmm....With all due respect, you may find your "retirement" somewhat "busy" getting involved with TT!
I too am 'retired' (more due to T and Reactive-T/H than 'age') and can hardly keep up with just the few major threads I try to keep abreast of. Certainly I find too little time to offer as much help as I would wish to in a wider net, as private Conversations can proliferate richly as much as the dynamic accumulation of main threads! And for me, even after 58 years of T there is so much to learn, let alone comment on. *(Now I've a got a new one to look in on ref. your ART, etc. - as see there is a thread on it already).
Anyway...I'm sure you have been checking out TT enough to know how active it is, so hope we don't bury you in a huge snowball of questions too soon!

One thing that may help with that (and one of my "shticks" I encourage members to do) is that you may find adding a summary of your basic outline and viewpoints [like maybe brief explanations or links to EFT & ART] in your Profile under the Information tab. Often it can forestall repeat questions with a simple click for new respondents/members who may not have the 'history' of prior threads and content, because they missed them or were plain not on TT yet. You can even put a link to your "Introduction Post" in there and it will lead to your current thread...with that quote above for instance.
I find it extremely helpful when members put in at a minimum the basics of their tinnitus or hyperacusis for instance, as it allows me to avoid a long search (often with no result) trying to find the what/when/how of what they have, so that I can respond to a question or post in a more informed way. Parachuting in blind has its limitations with something as perplexing as Tinnitus.

So again, great to have you and no doubt I will have some questions in due course, but will let you get over the initial blizzard first.

Best to you and your wife... Zimichael

 

Thanks for your suggestions, Z.
The staff of this forum prohibits including links to any commercial sites. This includes links to sites that, in turn, display links to commercial sites. All of my information sites and blogs contain links to my commercial sites. I understand and respect the decision of the staff. Many so-called cures or treatments represent pure hype and hope, and should not be permitted on such a legitimate and helpful forum as this one. It's very difficult for site overseers to discern the legitimate ones from the bad.

Dr Charlie

 

Thanks for this info, Dr. Charlie. Many of us here take magnesium citrate to help t, but it was recently discussed that "citrate" could be a hidden source of MSG/raising glutamate. Have you heard of this? Or do you think it is safe. Thanks.

 

I have no personal experience with citrate causing a problem.

The following site does list citrate as an excitotoxin, however. You might experiment to see if it worsens your
noise. Or play it safe and avoid it.

http://www.realfoodwholehealth.com/2011/05/excitotoxins-msg-and-hidden-names/

Let us know if you experiment with it.

Dr Charlie

 

dh42: My question would be, "Could anyone possibly predict how so many medications would interact in one body." I think we both know the answer, and it is "Absolutely not."

I am not a mental-health professional, so I must defer to your psychiatrist. My suggestion is for you to make absolutely certain that each of your physicians knows what the others have prescribed. I believe it dangerous to have so many medications in your system over a relatively short period of time - within 6 months or so. I would ask one physician - probably the psychiatrist - to manage all of your medications, and to help you gradually reduce your dosages if medically advisable in his or her opinion.

Yes, TM joint imbalance can cause tinnitus. Consult a dentist or orthodontist who is experienced at balancing the bite - not just any dentist. And of course protect your ears from loud noise exposure of any type - via earphones or otherwise.

Bless you,

Dr Charlie

 

@Zimichael: Thank you again for your kind words. I look forward to sharing reliable information that might help anyone who suffers from this perplexing disturbance of their auditory system.

In response, allow me to share a story that illustrates the speed at which new ideas are sometimes adopted in the healthcare field. I was initially guilty of ignoring a therapy (TFT) that had removed a very limiting phobia for my wife. I then dismissed EFT as "pure nonsense" when first exposed to it. I strive today to remain open minded to new ideas. I reject many of them after examination, but I vow to at least give each a fair look. Being retired (but still busy as you pointed out above,) enables me to explore new concepts more fully than I might otherwise.


.......................................................................DR SEMMELWEISS........................................................................


In Europe and the U.S during the early 1800s, the reported maternal mortality rate was 18%. That is, of every 100 women who delivered a baby in a maternity hospital or clinic, 18 died of a severe infection known as childbirth fever. A young obstetrician in Vienna—Dr Ignaz Semmelweiss--reported in 1840 that he had reduced the death rate in his clinic from 18% to 1%. Only one woman died of every 100 who delivered under his care. The young doctor eagerly shared his findings with every gathering of physicians that would permit him to speak. You might expect that he became an overnight celebrity, praised and honored by all for his contributions. Right? Make sense?


Hardly. Semmelweiss’s colleagues ridiculed him, taunted him, and laughed behind his back. What he suggested seemed preposterous. But he persisted. He tried to convince them to listen, or to come watch what he was doing. They refused. In time, his fellow physicians became very annoyed with his ridiculous claims. They finally convinced his family that Dr Semmelweiss was crazy. “To protect the public and the medical profession,” they had him committed to an insane asylum. Twenty years after being confined against his will, Dr Semmelweiss committed suicide in that same asylum.


In 1890--fifty years after he had first reported his findings--Semmelweiss’s recommended method was accepted.


What could possibly have been so radical and revolutionary as to enrage his colleagues to that degree?


Dr Semmelweiss had recommended in 1840 that his fellow physicians wash their hands between deliveries, and then rinse them in a weak chlorine solution. This single recommendation has saved the lives of millions of mothers and babies since 1890.


Because his suggested method did not fit with their existing knowledge and beliefs, his fellow doctors refused to seriously consider his claims. They were afraid of being duped, of looking silly, of jeopardizing their own practices or professional reputations, or of simply being proven wrong. It felt safer to simply ignore these radical claims, bury their collective heads in the sand (or elsewhere equally dark,) and silence the threat itself—Dr Semmelweiss.

I shall endeavor to keep an open mind.

Bless you,

Dr Charlie

 

Dr. Charlie,

Thank you for your response!

Yes, my general Dr. and Psych Dr were both aware; the Psych Dr. is even more aware, of course, as I see him monthly.

Question: when you say "dangerous" - is it dangerous to experiment with an anxiety and anti-depressant at low levels - quitting it relatively briefly (say a week) because of side effects - before moving onto another to experiment or see how I react? I thoughts these drugs were out of the system with 1-2 weeks? My doctors don't seem to see an issue with this.

For example, I was on .5 mg of Klonopin since June before switching over to 10 mg of Valium for the last two weeks. Is there danger in switching back to the Klonopin? I don't want to give the impression all of these drugs were taken at the same time.

I was also told it was fine to take Prilosec, but I haven't been on that for over a month now.

 

@dh42: I believe it quite risky to experiment with any mind-altering drug - especially anti-anxiety type medications, such as SSRIs or benzodiazepines. It is my understanding that some of these medications require several weeks on average to achieve a stable effect, and at least that many weeks (or longer) to clear one's system. I would personally allow plenty of time for clearance before adding a new variable to my body.

http://www.emedexpert.com/compare/ssris.shtml

http://www.breggin.com/31-49.pdf

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzodiazepine_withdrawal_syndrome

Again, I must defer to your personal physicians, who have direct knowledge of your body and your responses to medications.

Bless you,

Dr Charlie

 

Very well said.

Friends, the best @Dr. Charlie, @Dr. Hubbard, I or any other clinician can do on this board is give readers some general principles. What we post should be considered more along the line of "food for thought" than some sort of directive. Indeed, even among ourselves we will often differ on what the most appropriate meal might be. Please please please heed @Dr. Charlie's words here and run any and all suggestions from us by your own doctors, who will surely know you and your tinnitus better than we.

Dr. Stephen Nagler

 

Dr. Charlie...

Thanks so much for your replies.

Indeed, I totally forgot about the "commercial implications" in suggesting information links and am very pleased to know that you are so cognizant and aware of that aspect. Tinnitus is for sure ripe for such abuse and I'm sure many of us have had experience of that.

Your story of Dr. Semmelweiss is a classic. Sad, disturbing, and no doubt repeated too numerous times to mention in a wide spectrum of human endeavour and history.
Ironically I have experienced just such "intransigence" on occasions myself, though with one that comes to mind have had better luck than Semmelweiss as was able to witness the "rectification"...In my early days as as practitioner and proponent (plus somewhat of an activist I guess) of organic agriculture, I used to give fairly large presentations to farmers, media, colleges, etc. all over the country. Despite my solid experience and detailed presentations, I was often ridiculed as totally unrealistic and "dancing with moonbeams" as one farmer put it.
My response on this particular occasion was emphatic: "Within my lifetime we will see organic food in places like Safeway!" This was greeted with hoots of laughter and much shaking of heads.

Now I think you live in the USA, and you appear to be quite conscious of food and nutrition, so I'm sure you will know that organic foods are not only in Safeway and have been for years, but have exploded in growth worldwide over the past 15 years...Etc., etc.

I hope we do not have to watch "a Semelweiss" in relation to a true tinnitus cure. Hopefully I am not "dancing on moonbeams" with that wish.

Thanks again for your time and openness... Zimichael

 

@Zimichael.
I find nothing wrong with people who dance on moonbeams. Imagination is the key ingredient to all creativity. God blessed us with this marvelous human mind. I imagine we were intended to use it.

So...moonbeams, unicorns, rainbows...as long as one's intent is pure, I respect their efforts. And yours!

You might enjoy one of my favorite books, written by Peter Tomkins and Christopher Bird. Chris was a good friend of mine. The title is: THE SECRET LIFE OF PLANTS.

Blessings,

Dr Charlie

 

@Silvine:
I searched through some of my materials to find the answer I thought I remembered. It's from my good friend, Kevin Hogan - also a former tinnitus sufferer.

Combining Buddhist Teachings and Modern Neuroscience

Mindfulness meditation, which is very popular in Southeast Asia and elsewhere, originates from early Buddhist teachings dating back some 2,500 years, said David Creswell, a research scientist with the Cousins Center for Psychoneuroimmunology at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA.

Mindfulness is a technique in which one pays attention to his or her present emotions, thoughts and body sensations, such as breathing, without passing judgment or reacting. An individual simply releases his thoughts and "lets it go."

"One way to practice mindfulness meditation and pay attention to present-moment experiences is to label your emotions by saying, for example, 'I'm feeling angry right now' or 'I'm feeling a lot of stress right now' or 'this is joy' or whatever the emotion is," said Creswell, lead author of the study, which will be featured in an upcoming issue of Psychosomatic Medicine, a leading international medical journal for health psychology research.

"Thinking, 'this is anger' is what we do in this study, where people look at an angry face and say, 'this is anger,'" Lieberman noted.

Creswell said Lieberman has now shown in a series of studies that simply labeling emotions turns down the amygdala alarm center response in the brain that triggers negative feelings.

Creswell, who conducted the mindfulness research as an advanced graduate student of psychology at UCLA, said mindfulness meditation is a "potent and powerful therapy that has been helping people for thousands of years."

What Else Does Mindfulness Help?
Previous studies have shown that mindfulness meditation is effective in reducing a variety of chronic pain conditions, skin disease, stress-related health conditions and a variety of other ailments, Creswell said.

Creswell and his UCLA colleagues -- Lieberman, Eisenberger and Way -- found that during the labeling of emotions, the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex was activated, which seems to turn down activity in the amygdala. They then compared participants' responses on the mindfulness questionnaire with the results of the labeling study.

Blessings,

Dr Charlie

 

Mindfulness is a technique in which one pays attention to his or her present emotions, thoughts and body sensations, such as breathing, without passing judgment or reacting. An individual simply releases his thoughts and "lets it go."

This is quite interesting to me. I am a student of nice techniques to relieve anxiety and panic attacks. LOL.

Does this mean if my body reacts in panic mode, I will say this is 'panic attack', and to anxiety symptoms, I say "I am anxious". Then don't make any judgement why I shouldn't panic or get anxious and also don't react to these attacks? It is hard not to react to panic attack or harsh anxiety symptoms, but if this approach is effective, that will be quite a blessing to learn about this. Is there any good sites to learn about the mindfulness technique in more detail? Thank you Dr. Charlie.

 

Yes, that's my understanding. I suggest checking online for references. I had that particular page saved from an earlier project.

Bless you,

Dr Charlie

 

Billie, I found a reference to a study conducted by this same group at UCLA.


Thirty people, 18 women and 12 men between ages of 18 and 36, participated in Lieberman's study at UCLA's Ahmanson-Lovelace Brain Mapping Center.

They viewed images of individuals making different emotional expressions. Below the picture of the face they either saw two words, such as "angry" and "fearful," and chose which emotion described the face, or they saw two names, such as "Harry" and "Sally," and chose the gender-appropriate name that matched the face.

Lieberman and his co-authors -- UCLA assistant professor of psychology Naomi Eisenberger, former UCLA psychology undergraduate Molly Crockett, former UCLA psychology research assistant Sabrina Tom, UCLA psychology graduate student Jennifer Pfeifer and Baldwin Way, a postdoctoral fellow in Lieberman's laboratory -- used functional magnetic resonance imaging to study subjects' brain activity.

"When you attach the word 'angry,' you see a decreased response in the amygdala," Lieberman said. "When you attach the name 'Harry,' you don't see the reduction in the amygdala response.

"When you put feelings into words, you're activating this prefrontal region and seeing a reduced response in the amygdala," he said. "In the same way you hit the brake when you're driving when you see a yellow light, when you put feelings into words, you seem to be hitting the brakes on your emotional responses."

As a result, an individual may feel less angry or less sad.

This is ancient wisdom," Lieberman said. "Putting our feelings into words helps us heal better. If a friend is sad and we can get them to talk about it, that probably will make them feel better."

The right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex undergoes much of its development during a child's preteen and teenage years. It is possible that interaction with friends and family during these years could shape the strength of this brain region's response, but this is not yet established, Lieberman said.

One benefit of therapy may be to strengthen this brain region. Does therapy lead to physiological changes in the right ventrolateral prefrontal cortex? Lieberman, UCLA psychology professor Michelle Craske and their colleagues are studying this question.

Hope this helps.

Bless you,

Dr Charlie

 

Some of you might find this interesting:

Drs. Sven Vanneste and Michael Kilgard of the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences used a new method pairing vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) with auditory tones to alleviate the symptoms of chronic tinnitus. Their results were published on Nov. 20 in the journalNeuromodulation: Technology at the Neural Interface.

VNS is an FDA-approved method for treating various illnesses, including depression and epilepsy. It involves sending a mild electric pulse through the vagus nerve, which relays information about the state of the body to the brain.

“The primary goal of the study was to evaluate safety of VNS-tone therapy in tinnitus patients,” Vanneste said. “VNS-tone therapy was expected to be safe because it requires less than 1 percent of the VNS approved by the FDA for the treatment of intractable epilepsy and depression. There were no significant adverse events in our study.”

According to Vanneste, more than 12 million Americans have tinnitus severe enough to seek medical attention, of which 2 million are so disabled that they cannot function normally. He said there has been no consistently effective treatment.

The study, which took place in Antwerp, Belgium, involved implanting 10 tinnitus sufferers with a stimulation electrode directly on the vagus nerve. They received two and a half hours of daily treatment for 20 days. The participants had lived with tinnitus for at least a year prior to participating in the study, and showed no benefit from previous audiological, drug or neuromodulation treatments. Electrical pulses were generated from an external device for this study, but future work could involve using implanted generators eliminating the need for clinical visits.

Half of the participants demonstrated large decreases in their tinnitus symptoms, with three of them showing a 44-percent reduction in the impact of tinnitus on their daily lives. Four people demonstrated clinically meaningful reductions in the perceived loudness of their tinnitus by 26 decibels.

Five participants, all of whom were on medications for other problems, did not show significant changes. However, the four participants who benefited from the therapy were not using any medications. The report attributes drug interactions as blocking the effects of the VNS-tone therapy.

“In all, four of the ten patients showed relevant decreases on tinnitus questionaires and audiological measures,” Vanneste said. “The observation that these improvements were stable for more than two months after the end of the one month therapy is encouraging.”

Researchers at the University Hospital Antwerp, Belgium, and MicroTransponder Inc. also contributed to the study.

A larger study involving four different centers will soon begin in the United States.


Story Source:

The above story is based on materials provided by University of Texas, Dallas. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Journal Reference:

1. Dirk De Ridder, Sven Vanneste, Navzer D. Engineer, Michael P. Kilgard. Safety and Efficacy of Vagus Nerve Stimulation Paired With Tones for the Treatment of Tinnitus: A Case Series. Neuromodulation: Technology at the Neural Interface, 2013; DOI: 10.1111/ner.12127

 

Thank you Dr. Charlie for the nice explanation of Mindfulness. That is surely a good technique to help us reduce the fear of the T sound. Dr. Hubbard in his success story post talked about how he used the technique to help his own T. He seems to say that he was using his loud T as a subject of focus for mindfulness instead of the breath. It takes a lot of courage for average people to face their severely loud T sound head on. But I guess, it will have to take quite some time before the brain can remain calm to face the T sound for newer T sufferers. So I wonder how useful this technique is for the newer folks ? Here is Dr. Hubbard's success story:

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/how-cbt-helped-me-live-again-dr-hubbards-story.4608/