It's Not Your Hair Cells! It's the Stereocicilia and Resulting Ion Balance!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stereocilia_(inner_ear)

Tinnitus just got a whole lot more complicated. I just realized I've spent days weeks months obsessing over an ignorant idea that my hair cells are damaged when in all likely hood that's not the case!!!

This is both a great realization, and a heartbreaking one. Heartbreaking due to the overwhelming ignorance of the word "tinnitus" and its pathologies.

 

If you have hearing loss, it is very likely that you have hair cell damage. Stereocilia are fundamental parts of hair cells and are what make "hair cells" look like hairs. So I am not sure what the insight is. It also doesn't appear that there is any research content here.

 

Stereocilia are part of hair cells, so technically it's hair cells...

 

Simple and guessed theory might be that too much sound pressure can change the default placement and position of the stereocilia which makes them bend when not stimulated and therefore transmit signal to the hair cell generate tinnitus

 

well if this the case how do we fix something like that stem cells? I know you most likely cant answer this xD but i fell like i need to try anyway ;D

 

This is just a thought, but if sound pressure is able to bend and move the default placement of the stereocilia. Couldnt we create a method to use sound pressure to redirect the stereocilia back into its default place?

 

Wish it was that easy. I thought IT injections (AM-101 or OTO-311) would maybe work, but so far no good news there.

 

what is Ion Balance?

 

Just look at what a loud noise can do to your hair cells. I don't think that the damaged cells will generate any sound soon:/

 

Inner & outer, what is the difference?

 

Inner genarates elektricity which is send to brain, outer are stimulated with electricity from brain to amplify/filter sounds up to 70dB - they are needed for distinquish sounds from noise , when damaged no hearing aids can replace their function fully

 

What if instead of sound pressure you substitute ion balance, an ion balance that is out of homeostasis would trigger tinnitus BUT it wouldn't mean permanent hair cell damage IN OTHER WORDS Tinnitus from poor ion balance causes a REVERSIBLE tinnitus.

 

lol it's that noise you call tinnitus and yes it's REVERSIBLE / correctable. Probably through diet and sleep.

 

Are you sure that's from loud noises and not hydrops induced from poor ion balance?

 

No matter how healthy the hair cells, they'll still send your brain a tinnitus signal if they are bathing in endolymph with a degenerated ion balance. You can shoot your hair cells with stem cell all day and not find relief!

 

Restore the ion balance, reduce the tinnitus. It's all about water and salt to achieve balance.

 

The insight is that your hair cells might not be damaged, perhaps it's simply a degraded ion balance, at homeostasis your ion balance is actually upset causing a "jingling/ringing/beeping in your ears" some call this "tinnitus" and yes if this is the case then your "tinnitus" is REVERSIBLE. That would be the insight, do you see, how upset you must be to have thought it was loud music damaging your hair cells permanently when it was all the time reversible, however the more time spent in a high pressure hydropic ear due to poor ion balance will result in deafness overtime due to the irritation of the hair cells. Best to restore balance and stop stressing or you won't reverse your hydrops from poor ion balance and yes you will go very very def over a long time from the ion induced hydrops, which means bad Ear noises called tinnitus of course.

 

Yes it is truely another world inside the ear, yes it's truly complex, yes it will baffle you, yes if we understand the ear we have truely entered into a new world of knowledge, like it will be bigger than Elvis..

 

@Ian Mac that is interesting if it is due to poor ion balance you should also hear in a distorted, because then a hair cell is moved by the sound pressure it opens it's channel for potassium ions to enter. Afterwards the potential differences becomes an electrical signal and it travels to the brain blah blah. But if there actually is an ion disbalance not only you should hear phantom sounds, but also the real sounds should sound funny/distorted.

 

So you say we need to drink alot of water and then our T will go away xD?

 

Ok, so maybe we may not be able to move all the hairs back into there original placement due to the fact that they are damaged and things would be different afterwards. BUT, if we did manage to create a technology to give us a visual representation of what was going on, then couldnt the process still help lower T by giving it somewhat of the original structure before the damage?

 

@Samir I don't freaking know But it looks like the bottom of the hair cell is very thin and I think they usually break at this spot (google "outer hair cell rootlet").

I just would be happy if there was a way to calm down the auditory system and lower the increased neurons spontaneous fire rate. I believe that is the root of ringing

 

Oh really? So why there are two hair cell rows missing on the left? yeah the damage should depend on the pressure, some of them look broken, some of them look just tangled.

And as for increased neural activity theory it is the most convincing to me, because damage hair cells should not transmit sound. I just still don't understand which part of the brain is mostly responsible for generating the sound. Whether it is parts like CN/DCN or just neural pathway.

 

I know this is a little ekstrem but what if you kill all you hair cell and then regenarate them all back with stem cells would that work ? then all the half broken ones would be gone but again that is maybe a little to riski