University of Minnesota Tinnitus Research with Acoustic and Body Stimulation

It appears @kelpiemsp is leaving this forum…I will ask @kelpiemsp if you can please re-consider as your posts and updates regarding this current trial is what helps me cope and give me some kind of hope..

The treatment in this trial may or may not eventually work, it may or may not help me, but your updates, good or bad is all I look forward to on this site..

I would be very very grateful @kelpiemsp if you can keep updating us regarding anything from this trial…

If you rather not, can I please provide you with my personal e-mail, so you can send me updates..??

Btw, just do what I do, I come in to TT and just check the research news area for updates, especially yours and then leave!!

 

What makes you think that? Did he say anything?

 

He was involved in a debate and this was his last post...I really hope I'm wrong, but that's how I took it...

 

Oh I think he just meant it was time to go to sleep (or something like that)... I don't think it means he's not coming back to TT.

 

Let's hope.

I think he took the weekend off...

 

Hi @kelpiemsp

The reduction on t has been stable?

When you have to go again?

 

@kelpiemsp Did you have another treatment?

 

I do this Friday. But I am entering the point of the study where they will no longer tell me the timings and that sham or even timings that will make my T temporarily worse could be thrown in. I am concerned that people will be reading too much into my responses. My last session was certainly a negative or at the least undid the previous progress I had made as my T went back up from low 70s and maskable to ~85dbs these last two weeks. But I will post an update this Saturday. I know that I have not received my EEG timing (this is the hypothesizes/customized timing that they believe will offer the most reduction) so maybe that will be me this week. Fingers crossed!

 

I hope @kelpiemsp has not left TT for good. His updates on this treatment provide hope and information for a lot of people. He is a very valuable contributor to this community.

 

Yeah just time for bed. I was slightly annoyed. Lol.

 

Thanks for keeping us informed @kelpiemsp We're all in the same boat there. This has been in the works for a long time now and could provide a ton of relief. Looking forward to your next update!

 

Why do people keep saying this? He is obviously still posting and updating.

 

I want to do something about my tinnitus now.
Would using a shock pen in the nerves in my neck and a signal timing app be able to mimic somewhat the results of this trial?

 

@kelpiemsp
Just wanted to say thanks for your regular updates.
We really appreciate it.

What I am wondering about this device is that it seems to be very difficult to set it up correctly for each individual.
If the inventors of this already take weeks and month to find the right setting, what about a "normal" audiologist who will sell that device in other countries?

Maybe I am wrong, but this is my impression. I even cannot tell if my T is at 14 kHz or 15 or even higher. It sounds more like multiple dog whistles. Don't know how they will adjust this. Nevertheless, there is always hope - in particular since my T is highly somatic.

 

Someone else is trying to create the device. Most of the stuff is available if you shop around and are pretty knowledgeable with electronics (i.e. an electrical engineer). That said, the wrong timings will make Tinnitus worse. So.... there is that.

 

That's great. Have you heard about the simple vagus nerve stimulation? That can't make it worse can it?

 

It doesn't seem to be difficult...I think they are just experimenting to answer a couple of questions. 1) Does the same timing work best for most people? 2) Are there, say, 3 or 5 timings that will fit most of the population? And then you can adjust it and see what works best (I know this was the hope early on, but haven't spoken with the PI in a while) and 3) Does getting the most accurate timing and offset based on EEG provide a significant enough decrease from other timings that it makes sense to offer it as a more expensive option. Just thinking from the business side of things. Also, it doesn't really matter a whole lot if you can or can't match your tinnitus. FWIW when you have people attempt to match their tinnitus by tone...apparently they just suck. The only people who constantly match the same tone are musicians. From what I have been told.

 

because I made an unintentionally ambiguous comment while in a conversation in another thread!

 

I of course would never hold you or them to anything, but how confident do they seem to you that their approach will be successful at some point in providing some sort of relief..?

 

I think they are excited because they are seeing significant drops in masking level and THI. That being said....having T eliminated is very unlikely (at this point anyways... no one has done it for long periods of time). So I think a lot of it, is managing expectations. Will you be able to wear earplugs and hear your T? Most likely, we are human, and yes the majority of humans will hear T in this circumstance. But who knows what happens when it gets to be used longer.

I know this... neuromodulation is really taking off in neurosciences at the moment. And different types. For example, there is research about using ultrasound. If you focus many different ultrasound beams from different angles and have them converge at the same point...you can effectively do deep brain stimulation without an invasive procedure. I know that in the United States the National Institute of Defense, the Department of Defense, and DARPA, are all funding this research. So whether it be the University of Minnesota, Michigan, or someone else... some people see this is a new frontier.

 

@kelpiemsp sry to be off topic here, but this is something that i asked myself yesterday. When someone puts in foam ear plugs in a silent room, do you think the majority of people would hear some kind of tinnitus?

 

In 1953 Heller and Bergman placed 80 tinnitus free individuals (university members) in a soundproofed room for 5 minutes each.The subjects thought they might be undergoing a hearing test, but actually experienced 5 minutes of total silence. 93% reported hearing buzzing, pulsing, whistling sounds in the head or ears identical to those reported by tinnitus sufferers.

 

I can help you make a electronic circuit that you can use to switch a tens unit on and off with sounds. I know electronics. I can even help you shop for the parts.

 

If you read the info provided by @kelpiemsp you would have read that there are ways with this that could actually make your tinnitus worse. I would advise you to not jump ahead and do something like that.

 

Would the wrong timing make someone's tinnitus worse for a short period or permanently?

 

Probably temporary but since no one has done this before (hence the trial) we can't know for sure.

 

I guess If the decreasing is temporary then the increase is temporary too. But no one knows for sure.

 

Many months ago a few of us were going to build our own. However, it caught the attention of Susan Shore/her team and concerned them to be posting about it on a public forum. Apparently it can potentially make the tinnitus much, much worse. Our project died a long time ago.

Building the device is not hard, but the timing is everything.

 

It caught the attention of Shore? That's wild. I know the timings can make it worse because these last two weeks have been very loud. I had a session yesterday. And well my tinnitus is as low as it has been in recent memory. They will no longer tell me the timings, but I just finished session 10 and 13, 14, 15, and 16 are the actual trial. But whatever they did yesterday... please take my money. A fan on low plus the crickets (real!!!!) masked my tinnitus last night. But I didn't even need to mask it. Oh what a pleasant day this will be

 

Amazing!! So if you had to rate it on a scale from 1-10 what is/was it?