New Drug (Furosemide) Could Cure Tinnitus, Say Scientists

Anyone heard of this?

http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/482661/Drug-could-cure-tinnitus-say-scientists

At least one in 10 British adults has tinnitus – a constant ringing in the ear – and 600,000 suffer so badly that their quality of life is blighted.

Tinnitus is caused by nerve damage in the inner ear and can be the result of exposure to loud music, an ear infection or even a cold.

Now researchers at the University of Western Australia have found guinea pigs given tinnitus by exposure to loud noise appeared to be cured by a drug called furosemide.

It works by lowering activity of the auditory nerve, reducing neural hyperactivity in a specific part of the brain that processes sound.

Dr Helmy Mulders, who led the research, said: “Studies in human tinnitus sufferers are still needed to confirm our results but lowering the activity of the auditory nerve may be a promising approach.”

The study was funded by the charity Action on Hearing Loss.

 

The drug is already on the market, maybe it's some kind of variation

 

http://www.rxlist.com/lasix-drug.htm

 

I found this. It seems like it helped 50% of the cases but had some nasty side effects.
http://www.tinnitusjournal.com/detalhe_artigo.asp?id=367

 

http://m.medicalxpress.com/news/2014-06-scientists-closer-silencing-tinnitus.html

 

^^^ so what there saying again is that this fuerosemide has the potential to stop T but it has to be acute and in the ear and when it becomes chronic its stuck in the brain so i figured that was what autifony was trying to do and target the brain but now since there starting with acute T in there trial we wont know for years if it will work for chronic... :-/

 

Grace, acute tinnitus is under 3 months - anything beyond that is CHRONIC.

 

Dan , that's just a theory because nobody knows for sure

 

Some say it isnt chronic until a year, some say 6 monthes.. Who really knows? Im saying that if they're going to start the autifony trials out on acute T only, then we will be waiting much longer until we see results on whether it will work on chronic cases which i am confused about cause i thought autifony was aiming to target the brain inwhich T is "stuck" there compared to less then 3 monthes where its not. (According to their theory). This feurosemide looks like it will only be useful for acute if it goes anywhere such as am101. Rarely will they ever discover something for CHRONIC

 

Acute or chronic shouldn't make a damn difference, either T is in the brain or it's in the ear and considering that if it was in the ear it would be easy for them to pinpoint where the problem would lie then the only other place it would be would be the brain!

My understanding of acute T is that it is the kind that we all would have experienced before we all got chronic T and that, to me anyway, is a different kind of ring to the one that I am experiencing with chronic T.
Like having two blocks of wood belted together and experiencing that doooooooooooonggg kind of ring that goes away in a short period of days or even weeks which is allot different to the static type hiss that I am experiencing with my chronic T!

So IMHO I really think that this talk of chronic and acute is irrelevant when talking of these drugs because lets face it if they don't target the brain at all T is not going to be cured!!!!!

 

Further to my post above, The only real problem or problems I can see arising with upcoming drug treatment is with chronic T it may be more stubborn and the brain may resist more than with sufferers who have had T for a shorter amount of time as the brain can be a stubborn bastard!

 

what Rich said...

 

I agree with Rich. The whole "in the ear for 6 months, in the brain after" seems so arbitrary to me. It's clear that T is a neuroscience problem except in the case of "disco tinnitus".

 

Yeah exactly. Idk im just confused that giving a pill targetting the brain to someone that has T in there ear.. Whats that gonna do? Maybe prevent it from stickin in the brain idk. I was just looking forward to autifony cause they were targetting chronic cases to begin with but if there startin with acute idk what results there gonna see with that.

 

Chin up Grace,
With the fear of repeating myself, I really believe that acute T is in the ear and is completely different to what we so called chronic sufferers have and has nothing to do with time either!
I think they (Autifony) are stipulating sufferers up to a year because they are not completely confident that it will work on long term sufferers, they know (through the results with there rats that it does work on short term sufferers), and obviously need a successful trial so they can get more funding to continue,(remember science no matter what it is can only survive on funding from the sponsors or the government) and if they don't show results, the money will start running out!
So they are basically insuring that these trials are as successful as they can be.
Autifony does work on the brain and does not work on any assumption of T being in the ear it repairs the sodium-gated potassium channels to and from the ear to the brain(that is my understanding of it anyway!) so you can keep relying and looking forward to Autifony.

Rich

 

Grace, can I direct you to this post by rtwombly
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...ing-loss-and-tinnitus.1607/page-14#post-51417

He or she explains Autifony allot better than me!

Rich

 

Thank youu

 

hi guys

it seems furosemide is having some knd of effect on the auditory nerve

anyone have tried it?

New research funded by charity Action on Hearing Loss suggests that tinnitus can be eliminated by blocking signals between the ear and brain, offering hope to suffers that a cure is within reach, with prolonged exposure to loud music or working in a noisy environment often the main reasons why people are affected by the distressing condition.


One in ten people in the UK are affected by tinnitus everyday - ranging from a light buzzing to a constant roar in the ears and head - which can have a detrimental effect on quality of life from problems sleeping to being able to concentrate at work, and it can lead to depression and disruption to everyday family life.

Researchers at the University of Western Australia treated guinea pigs with a drug called furosemide one week after tinnitus had been triggered by exposure to loud noise. The drug treatment lowered the activity of the auditory nerve, reduced neural hyperactivity in a specific part of the brain that processes sound and crucially the animals treated with the drug no longer displayed signs of tinnitus.

Dr Helmy Mulders who led the research said: 'Studies in human tinnitus sufferers are still needed to confirm our results and to establish whether or not this approach will be effective for people who have had tinnitus for a long time, but our research shows that lowering the activity of the auditory nerve may be a promising approach to treating recently triggered tinnitus.'

Dr Ralph Holme, Head of Biomedical Research at Action on Hearing Loss said: 'There are practical steps people can take to manage their tinnitus, but what people who suffer from tinnitus want the most is a cure to silence the noise. The research we have funded takes us a step closer to this goal.

'We will continue to fund research into treatments, and offer support to people who suffer. As the music festival season approaches, I'd urge music lovers to wear ear defenders and avoid dangerously high volumes on personal music players, which can lead to tinnitus.'


link

http://medicalxpress.com/news/2014-06-scientists-closer-silencing-tinnitus.html#inlRlv

 

just noticed it was already posted

my questions remains about effects on human?

 

Possibly, im sure there gonna check it out. But i read an article about it and they said they "suspect" that this might only work for recently diagnosed tinnitus or acute...

 

So they say anyway but if my belief is true there is no such thing as acute or chronic so this should work either way,I also believe this if successful will be of great significance as it is my belief that H is a direct result of auditry nerve interference,damage what ever you want to call it.I have done every hearing test known to man from audiograms to multiple OAEs even an updated accurate version of an OAE all with perfect results so what else could it be but the auditory nerve.Most doctors and ENTs always overlook the auditory nerve as a culprit and why you might ask,wel its simple there is no way to efficently test auditory nerve fibers and the damage to the auditory would have to be quite significant to appear on an MRI i.e lesion sites from blunt force or an acoustic neuroma for example.Sure there is the BAR test which gives some indication on the nerves status and brain response but as far as being accurate it is not and mainly just used to detect tumours.Every ENT ive seen has been useless to say the least and has diagnosed ETD which I do not have,a ruptured eardrum also which I do not have theyve been preety much just guessing their way through,but every expert I have seen from the UCL professor to an expert audiologist from the U.K who recently attended a T seminar in Co.Carlow Ireland all say they truly believe this is auditory nerve related and have great reason to do so,to be honest haircells....I dont think they play the huge role in this that people tend to believe,I believe the auditory nerve is the real goal so im excited to see scientists pointing their research gun at his underlooked target.Best wishes Bill.

 

P.s lovin the cat pic

 

I hope your right bill! But what about people that get there auditory nerve cut and still have T? Soo confusing!

 

Interesting. Furosemide is listed as a drug that can cause T in the link below:

http://www.health.harvard.edu/newsl...s-ringing-in-the-ears-and-what-to-do-about-it

 

Everything and there mother causes T...the list is just ridiculous. But
All it comes down to is not everyone will react to it and get T otherwise every other person would have it.

 

Good point Grace it is interesting until I researched a bit more about the auditory brain and the auditory nerve,we all picture the auditory nerve as that little pipe looking thing we see on all ENTs diagrams or on google imaes of the middle ear,they show a little bundle of fibers extending out from the cochlea to the brainstem and is about 1 inch long on average which is accurate,but what people fail to remember is that the auditory nerve fibers dont end there they in fact extend all the way up through the brainstem to the brain making them much longer in reality than the one inch were told,and it is possible even though severed at the base that these fibers wraped in the brainstem are still alive to some degree and emitting the same faulty crazy signal known as T.People have had both their nerves severed for other medical reasons and never experienced T until after the surgery like the woman who I wrote a story about on a thread recently who had her left nerve severed due to an acoustic neuroma and experienced T in her right ear after the surgery as these nerve fibers do connect with one another left and right in the brainstem.The right ear was totally untouched during surgery but still experienced T after and why??These are the real questions that need answereing.

 

Yeah totally. your so right. And im glad theres researchers out there that are gonna check this shit out cause damn theres so much to experiment with and whoo knows!!! I love the way you think btw, so determined and those scientists hopefully have that enthusiasm quality about them also cause thats the only way they will find answerss!!!

 

Thats just the way I see things and thanks Grace,why do we presume the auditory nerve is dead just by snipping the base there is no proof of this whatsoever heres a quick example that may help you to question things the way I do,people have nerves extending the length of his or her finger,now lets say he or she cuts the finger in half somehow severing the nerve that extends through it,is the nerve dead as a result??Of course not as the individual in question still has movement and feeling in the finger below the cut proving that the nerve is very much still alive and I believe this is the case with the auditory nerve,now I could be completely wrong but you will never know until you ask and investigate such a question,as a good friend of mine said if you fail to raise a question there will never be an answer.

 

Yeah i get what you mean, never thought of it like that. Good information though, they need to check this out already!

 

Isn't furosemide potentially ototoxic? Just off the top of my head. Either way it's good to see researchers taking multiple avenues of approach towards T treatments.