Posted on 10/16/2015 9:16:24 AM PDT by Red Badger
People who have it say it can be excruciating. Tinnitus causes pain and a constant ringing in the ears that makes it almost impossible to concentrate or enjoy a social gathering.
Worst of all, there's little they can do about it. There are treatments that can help, but no cure.
Now, neuroscientists at Georgetown University Medical Center and colleagues in Germany say they've discovered the brain condition that causes it. It's not a cure, but researchers say it is the first step toward finding one.
Writing in Trends in Cognitive Sciences, the scientists describe how the brain mechanisms that normally control noise and pain signals can become dysfunctional, leading to a distorted perception of these sensations.
Like an electrical engineer, they were able to trace the flow of these signals through the brain to where “circuit breakers” should be working — but aren’t.
Brain injury
Josef Rauschecker, a member of the German research team, says a brain injury sometimes scrambles the sensory apparatus. He says tinnitus can occur after the ears are damaged by loud noise. After the brain reorganizes itself, it continues to “hear” a constant hum or drum.
Meanwhile, chronic pain can occur from an injury that often is healed on the outside but persists inside the brain.
“Some people call these phantom sensations, but they are real, produced by a brain that continues to ‘feel’ the initial injury because it cannot down-regulate the sensations enough,” Rauschecker said. “Both conditions are extraordinarily common, yet no treatment gets to the root of these disorders.” Key to a cure
The researchers believe the key to finding a cure for Tinnitus is repairing the brain's “circuit breakers,” restoring the brain's central gatekeeping system for control of perceptual sensations.
Doctors say people who have tinnitus may also complain of fatigue, stress, sleep problems, and anxiety.
You may be at higher risk of developing tinnitus if you are over 65 and male. Also, people exposed to loud noises for extended periods of time and those with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) have higher rates of tinnitus.
Symptoms
How do you know that ringing in your ears is tinnitus? The symptoms have been described as hearing sounds when no sound is present. The ringing may not actually be ringing at all, but more of a buzzing, hissing, or squealing. They may be low or high frequency sounds and interfere with your ability to concentrate.
If you think you are suffering from tinnitus, you should tell your doctor. They may request a medical history, conduct an exam, or run a series of tests. For starters, a doctor will likely check the ear itself to make sure there isn't a build-up of wax or a foreign object lodged in your ear canal.
Tell your doctor whether the noise you hear is constant or comes and goes. Does its frequency change, or does it rise and fall? If you suspect that you have age-related hearing loss, inform your doctor, since the two conditions are often related.
The doctor may order an audiogram (hearing test), an auditory brain stem response (ABR), or even an MRI. The purpose is not only to locate the cause but to rule out the presence of tumors.
I’ve got crickets too. Had them for years now...
I know a TON about iodine supplementation. I love iodine. I don’t believe it will cure tinnitus though as I have that and I take at least 50mg per day.
You can’t get enough iodine in food because of the toxins we take in that compete for iodine so you really have to supplement with it and you have to take mgs not mcgs
I can’t remember not having ringing in my ears. The thought of being able to experience quiet is intriguing. I wonder if the lack of constant high-pitched noises would help with my tendency to cringe or jump at certain types of noises. It would be very nice to find out someday.
Same here. I have had it for 40 years..........................
Some medications also cause ringing in the ears as I've come to learn the last month.
Nerve pain medications can also cause ringing in the ears. I take elavil for neuropathy related nerve pain in my feet and shortly after my dosage was upped I started hearing this loud siren in my left ear. Ironically, elavil is also recommended to relieve nerve pain. Go figure.
I’ve recently read that many people develop the ringing in the ears because they are grinding their teeth at night - though I’m not sure how THAT would be treated, only the negative impact minimized.
That is terrible. I really hope they find a way to get rid of this.
What is magnesium oil and where would I get it?
I’ve had tinnitus my whole life. Found a trick on the internet where you cover your ears and tap the back of your head. It works; each time basically reduces the magnitude by an order of ten, so if it’s really bad I might have to do it twice. Pretty amazing.
you can get it at amazon or swansonvitamins.com or vitacost.com
it’s called magnesium oil but it’s not actually an oil, its just pure mag chloride.
my husband soaked his feet and the PF went away. let me know if you have more questions.
20% off promo code for Swanson brand
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’m perfectly fine with it, as I can’t hear it anyway over the loud rock music.
Actually, I have it too. I went to a doctor about it a long time ago and he basically said, “ignore it” and I eventually did. If I stop and listen for it I can hear it, but except when I’m thinking about it, like now, I don’t hear it at all.
BFL
Yep, that’s the trick. It seems like I’m guessing what youthis is just recalibrating the noise floor for what gets filtered out as noise/signal. For whatever reason, over time the brain is permitting perceived signals of high frequency, modest amplitude to be perceived; the trick seems to recalibrate, so everything that should be filtered out gets filtered normally again.
I was thinking about inventing some kind of strap-on device that would do the same thing, automatically, programmable to your needs, to tap you in the back of the head for as long as you need it..............B^)
I read that on the Internet so it must be true!
Seriously, I have read that at least a correlative relationship has been reported (in a few medical journals). A few ENT's I've visited also believe this. Myself, mine started after many years of using full strength aspirin almost daily for chronic headaches.
Curiously since starting the medication I'm taking now to help with the tinnitus, my chronic headaches have disappeared. So maybe there's some link there. (sadly my tinnitus hasn't but it's at least reduced somewhat.)
Helped a little. Every bit is appreciated. Thanks.
This was known before the transistor was invented, much less the Internet.................
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