New Here: Tinnitus Since I Was 18, Got Worse Throughout the Navy

Was referred here from Reddit. I've had tinnitus since 18, got worse throughout the Navy, but I never was really aware of it because it was always masked by shipboard noise. After I retired, I ended up in a big office in Japan that had no noise, and the ringing got my attention more often. I ordered a pair of Bose headphones, and I couldn't believe how crisp and clear things were... and just getting those practically eliminated my tinnitus. They were however, big and bulky, so I went to my doctor to get hearing aids, and this military doctor tells me that tinnitus can be a debilitating condition. PRIOR to that, I was managing it just fine. Now I've been aware of every pitch change, and now it really started to bother me.

Around this time a YouTube video came out, which intrigued me. I started doing research, contracted out a couple doctors to review research for me, then I finally found an embedded design company to build, what is called here, a DIY Bimodal Stimulation Device... it's not really a DIY job since I have an embedded engineer, software engineer, and a project manager overseeing the design and construction. Circuit boards are made and assembled in China... with engineering done in another country.

I joined this forum and have shared what I'm working on because it does work, I can feel certain things happening when I used the device. I just hope that folks are confident that help is right around the corner... either through the UoM or other devices that will be on the market, and this is closer than you might think. We have forked off a bit from what the UoM is doing, and will have the second hardware design in testing (which really means... I just test it on myself)... then after that... who knows... I'm still trying to work out what to do with it... all I know is that I want my life back so I can enjoy a beach, read a book, meditate, go into a sensory deprivation tank, and not have my tinnitus at the level it is at right now. I'm still working out how to make the design available - I'm not in this to make money - there are FDA-related issues, and I don't want to expose myself to lawsuits if something doesn't go right... but, we may also make it available in another country and the programming, doctors, etc., would be accessible via telemedicine.

In either event, nice to have found this forum.

Disclaimer: I am not a medical doctor and am not qualified to give any type of medical advice.

 

Super fascinating, bravo for taking a cure into your own hands. For now I’m just waiting. Maybe bimodal stimulation/neuromodulation is more promising than I thought. However if you wanted to make it commercially available then you’d probably have to go through 10 years of clinical trials and go through the FDA.

But if you do get a working model, I’m sure there are plenty of people on this forum who’d be more than happy to be your personal guinea pigs. You could ship it to us directly.