Magnesium Could Offer Fresh Hope to Tinnitus Sufferers

An interesting and insightful article:

https://www.dddmag.com/article/2017/03/magnesium-could-offer-fresh-hope-tinnitus-sufferers

A diet high in Magnesium may at least keep T from getting worse. I'm glad to see that there is good research going on. It should give all T sufferers hope.

Magnesium Could Offer Fresh Hope to Tinnitus Sufferers
Tue, 03/14/2017 - 7:56am 1 Comment
by Martine Hamann, University of Leicester, The Conversation

You may be familiar with the experience of a ringing sensation in your ears after a night out enjoying some good music. Perhaps you’ve never given it a second thought as the sound normally disappears on its own. But what if you were to wake up in the morning and still have the ringing in your ears? And what if the ringing never stopped?

This is tinnitus – better described as the phantom perception of sound. Tinnitus affects 10 to 15% of the adult population worldwide and there are currently no drug therapies available on the market. The reason for this is a limited understanding of how tinnitus sets in and what prevents it from going away.

My work at the University of Leicester is focused on filling in the current knowledge gaps – and Dr Thomas Tagoe, one of my former PhD students, funded by Action on Hearing Loss, made some exciting discoveries which were recently published in The Journal of Experimental Neurology. The discovery is not a magic pill against tinnitus, but reveals some of the mechanisms underlying its development and provides avenues for possible treatment.

Phantom sounds

The generation and transmission of signals in the brain are subject to constant changes. In particular, signals can be boosted or tuned down in a process known as “plasticity”. When signals are boosted, it is referred to as “long-term potentiation”, a process which is critical in our ability to learn and store memories.

Knowing that tinnitus is a phantom sound which does not exist in the outside world but is perceived, suggests that somewhere in the brain there are cells generating a false signal in response to a sound which does not exist. Studies show that auditory signals are transmitted from the cochlea, in the inner ear, to a brain structure called the dorsal cochlear nucleus. So in our quest to find out how tinnitus sets in and what prevents it from going away, this is where we started: in the dorsal cochlear nucleus.

Cells in the dorsal cochlear nucleus are capable of boosting their signals. Based on previous results Thomas had obtained in the lab, we had good reason to believe that this ability could be compromised after multiple exposures to loud sound. If true, this would be strong evidence implicating the dorsal cochlear nucleus as the false signal generator, making it a target for therapeutic intervention.

To test this out, we designed a research programme which would induce tinnitus in an animal model. This involved creating an experience of multiple exposures to loud sound, testing for limitations in the signal boosting capacity and finally assessing whether this is pivotal in the generation of the false auditory signal called tinnitus.

Our suspicions were right: exposure to loud sound prevented the dorsal cochlear nucleus from boosting its incoming signals. What was even more interesting was that loud sound exposure turned up the dials, saturated the signal transmission and left no more room to boost the signal any further. Exposure to loud sound therefore altered brain plasticity, leaving the dorsal cochlear nucleus in a compromised state.

What triggers tinnitus?

First, there is an exposure to loud sound – either instantly from an explosion or multiples experiences over a long period of time. This induces a temporary period of hearing loss or a “hard-of-hearing” experience, where the whole world appears to have turned down its volume. During this period, cells in the dorsal cochlear nucleus try to compensate for this low surrounding volume by boosting their signal.

This intervention is successful, but by the time the temporary hearing loss disappears, the signal boost has been stored as a “memory” in the dorsal cochlear nucleus, a memory which is not easily forgotten. The consequences of this scenario is tinnitus, a false signal generation which is perceived in the absence of an external stimulus. In brief, we have shown that tinnitus is a state of continuous painful learning.

We showed that tinnitus sets in at a specific sound frequency, after the experience of loud sound exposure. Better yet, we showed that a high magnesium diet can prevent the dorsal cochlear nucleus from turning the dials all the way up and locking this in place as a memory. With that intervention, we were able to prevent the subsequent perception of tinnitus.

The next step is to identify drugs which can prevent the development of tinnitus and also reverse it. We now have a good starting point and are looking for drugs which can elevate magnesium concentration in the brain or mimic its action. Until this work is complete, however, we’ll have to rely on the tried and tested safeguards – limiting noise exposure or wearing ear protection.

Best and worst forms of Magnesium:

http://www.naturalnews.com/046401_magnesium_dietary_supplements_nutrient_absorption.html

 

personally covered myself with Mag oil (google Dr Sircus) for months ,it sorted out my irregular heartbeat which came from too low calorie diet with lots of weight training and running but didnt touch my T

 

I've been meaning to get some magnesium and add it to my daily cocktail, but it's difficult to find out what type of magnesium is best to try! Supplements can be complicated.

@carlover , can I ask what type of T you have? Both ears/head or just one ear? Thanks!

 

I really really hope they wil find A cure soon, please just set us free from the torture all day long...

 

Hello Paul both ears ,31 years now buddy ,,,spent fortunes trying most things ,when I say fortunes I mean thousands of pounds, when I first got it thought I was going to lose my mind but I habituated,6 years ago an ear infection has really ramped it up ,ear pressure etc I will never habituate to this level its pretty rough ,hearing aids take the edge off
otherwise I would really be in a bad way....good luck

 

Thanks carl, you'll get there! I have both ears also. Getting through the battle of the day unscathed is the goal right now!

 

Also got some attention from CNN today:

http://edition.cnn.com/2017/03/22/health/magnesium-tinnitus-ringing-ears-partner/

Fingers crossed for a quick fix in a couple of years

 

Very interesting, surprised it wasn't covered by the BTA...

 

Magnesium doesn't affect the level of my tinnitus at all, but it's great stuff for relaxing muscles and combating anxiety I have found. Love the stuff.

 

I've been taking magnesium supplements since my tinnitus started almost a year ago, can't say it's helped much. My tinnitus screams all day and night. I'm hoping something will be found soon to stop this torture.

 

Humm. Well I was taking high Mag 1200 mg a day when I got a permanent new tone. How much Mag do you think their diet consists of?

How can we control and permanently set the DCN at specific frequencies? I'm assuming this would not reduce H.

 

Thanks for the find, Mic. That's pretty cool that CNN was discussing T! The article says

It sounds like magnesium may only be helpful in prevention, so perhaps that's why those of us with T who have tried it have had no luck?

 

I just started taking it and i sleep much better, i have it in my left ear, noise induced and is a beeeep sound!...sux but it seemed a little lower!....

 

*the signal boost has been stored as a “memory” in the dorsal cochlear nucleus, a memory which is not easily forgotten. The consequences of this scenario is tinnitus, a false signal generation which is perceived in the absence of an external stimulus. In brief, we have shown that tinnitus is a state of continuous painful learning.*

This is what I have been thinking all the time. Now research may get on the right track finally. Tinnitus is a memory of boosting auditory system. Seems to me the memory can not go away by magnesium intake. That magnesium can only prevent the boost to happen in the first place. To make the memory go away, I guess one may try and stay isolated in a perfectly quiet room 24/7 until the memory of boost of auditory system has gone. The purpose with massive silence is to unlearn what one learned and to erase the memory of the boost.

 

I was thinking exactly this the other day .

 

At that stage you'd still be able to hear yourself breathe and probably even your heart beating, there's no way to achieve 100% silence

 

Yes, but that is your normal noisefloor , filtered out . So maybe , T needs to be reset to that noisefloor.
Stupid idead , but who knows with t.

 

Haha... it doesn't work like that my friend. If your neurons have memorized the information they don't forget easily. It's like learning to cycle. Even if you don't see a bicycle for 20 years the moment you got on it you... ehmm... pardon me I mean your brain... exactly know how to cycle.

The only way is to blast/beam/chemically separate the neurons out of order... like memory loss on a concussion.

 

The only times I can get "silence" are if I'm in a nearly silent room with some outside ambient noise, with my tinnitus on full blast, and then closing off my ears for like 20-30 seconds so my brain recalibrates to hearing the quiet pulsing of my blood vessels in my ear, and then releasing my fingers. I sometimes get a few seconds of pure to near pure silence and honestly it's very weird because it certainly makes my brain feel like it did pre-tinnitus as far as my auditory system is concerned.

If it's learnable, it's unlearnable. Whether they can do a non-invasive treatment through a therapy or we need super futuristic brain tech that can delete specific neurons, it's fixable somehow.

 

I've been using Magnesium Chloride for a couple weeks and feel like it's helping. I am starting to have brief periods of "habituation". I take it at night and it helps chill me out and get to sleep. I in the midst of a recent spike for about the last 6 weeks and think\hope I am getting back to habituation. I was good for well over a year.

 

This is good if Magnesium works for you !

And I hope your spike will calm down...

All the best

 

The funny thing is, if you can say anything is funny with this, do we ever really know if the supplement, sound therapy, or whatever treatment of the moment is really working or are we, habituating, or placebo effect or it's just naturally getting more tolerable on it's own.
In my case I know my diet stinks and I'm a prime candidate for low Magnesium so for that reason alone it's a good choice for me and the NIH studies seem to back it up. I take Slo-Mag, inexpensive and it's coated so no stomach problems. In the beginning it gave me an odd taste but now I don't notice it. I must tell you, I do feel physically good.

 

I have been using Mg before sleep like every night for many years, and had done it the same night when I woke up with tinnitus. maybe it had been even worse if i haven't been using Mg?

 

Hi - I am new to this site & wondering after reading a lot of causes of t resulted mainly from life style functions and/or loud work/concerts with no ear protectors. Have any t issue comments been researched on from where I started my tinnitus ? T.B.I.

 

I started a regimen of vitamin b2 which has magnesium stearate. 100ml per day orally taken. I'm interested to see if there will be any result. My trial will conclude in about one year.