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New treatment hopes to provide relief for 50 million Americans suffering from tinnitus
www.cbs58.com ^ | May 2, 2018 9:33 PM CDT | By: Christine Flores

Posted on 06/01/2018 8:50:30 AM PDT by Red Badger

Tinnitus is a problem that plagues up to 15% of the American population. It's a constant ringing in the ears without a cure.

The American Tinnitus Association says hearing loss induced by loud noises or age is a frequent factor but trauma, ear canal blockages, and even taking some prescription medications can cause the ringing, a ringing for which there is no cure.

"I tried masking, including have to have a fan on when I went to sleep or having a machine that makes sounds like the sound of rain," said Nick Stein who suffers from tinnitus.

Nick Stein says he's tried just about everything to relieve the ringing in his ears. His doctors suggested he try the Levo System.

Dr. Yu-Tung Wong of Cedars-Sinai Medical Center says recently the FDA cleared therapy trains the brain to ignore the ringing.

"It's very difficult to say you are going to be able to make the sound disappear completely, what you're trying to do with most tinnitus therapies is to make the sound more tolerable," said Dr. Yu-Tung Wong.

The technology mimics the sound of a patient's tinnitus. The patient then listens to the sound on an iPod while sleeping for 90 nights nonstop. The brain becomes more accustomed to the sound over that time.

"At night time when you're sleeping, your brain is more plastic, it's more receptive to these kinds of changes," said Dr. Yu-Tung Wong.

Nick believes the sound of his ringing has been reduced by 50%. "My mood has improved, my focus has improved," Stein said.

He says he's grateful he can now go for days and hardly notice his tinnitus.


TOPICS: Health/Medicine; Science; Society
KEYWORDS: ear; hearing; ringing; tinnitus
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To: euram

The Buzz, Ring and Hiss.


81 posted on 06/01/2018 12:30:15 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: GregoTX

Well put. I was wondering that, too. My brain must be desensitized somewhat over the past 35 or 40 years because I “tune it out” (as dear old dad used to say).


82 posted on 06/01/2018 12:34:28 PM PDT by ProtectOurFreedom
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To: Hot Tabasco

LOL, I am so sorry...


83 posted on 06/01/2018 1:07:23 PM PDT by rlmorel (Leftists: They believe in the "Invisible Hand" only when it is guided by government.)
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To: Red Badger
I have had it so long, 40+ years, I just ignore it anyways....

^This^, though sometimes I do notice it because something’s different.

Maybe it’s louder than usual or the frequency is suddenly unique compared to the usual range of sounds, but otherwise it’s kinda like the trains going by Elwood Blue’s apartment.

I keep hoping it’s some form of communication, you know, from “the other side”, but I haven’t found a decoder ring that works on it... yet.

See, maybe the ringing is from something that’s waiting for a handshake return to begin transmission, sorta like in that Star Trek movie where they had to go back in time to get a whale in order to answer the probe or the earth would be destroyed.

I figure it’s probably something like that, but then again, the world was remarkably surreal after that last head trauma, so maybe my bell is still ringing, so to speak, on multiple levels?

84 posted on 06/01/2018 1:44:05 PM PDT by GBA (Here in the matrix, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream.)
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To: Interesting Times

Thanks for the ping. My tinnitus was caused by exposure to loud noise in jet aircraft, but now I pretty well ignore it.


85 posted on 06/01/2018 1:53:40 PM PDT by zot
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To: rlmorel

Remember that Christmas song “I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas”?........Enjoy it for the next hour......LOL!


86 posted on 06/01/2018 2:06:18 PM PDT by Hot Tabasco (Mother nature is a serial killer......)
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To: Hot Tabasco
Nope, never heard of it.

But that got me thinking and now “Muskrat Love” is playing in my head and skipping a groove, over and over again, so thanks a lot.

87 posted on 06/01/2018 2:16:22 PM PDT by GBA (Here in the matrix, merrily, merrily, life is but a dream.)
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To: Red Badger; Envisioning

Ringing Ping


88 posted on 06/01/2018 2:17:21 PM PDT by waterhill (I Shall Remain, in spite of __________.)
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To: LambSlave

I have tried it with no success. :(


89 posted on 06/01/2018 2:24:57 PM PDT by iceskater
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To: oh8eleven; Red Badger; Envisioning

AM Radio works best for me at night. Sometimes tuned into total static low volume. Usually just C2C or RedEye.


90 posted on 06/01/2018 2:25:45 PM PDT by waterhill (I Shall Remain, in spite of __________.)
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To: Red Badger

Exactly right. I think Rush lost his hearing due to use of pain killers.


91 posted on 06/01/2018 2:43:14 PM PDT by YogicCowboy ("I am not entirely on anyone's side, because no one is entirely on mine." - J. R. R. Tolkien)
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To: YogicCowboy

Oxycontin...............


92 posted on 06/01/2018 2:45:03 PM PDT by Red Badger (When Obama and VJ go to prison for treason, will Roseanne get her show back?...)
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To: goodnesswins

Quinine can cause it too.


93 posted on 06/01/2018 2:45:23 PM PDT by YogicCowboy ("I am not entirely on anyone's side, because no one is entirely on mine." - J. R. R. Tolkien)
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To: rlmorel

We have a real hoot when my son and I get together with my mom.
My over 80 mom is VERY hard of hearing, my tinnitus has me looking at peoples lips and my son talks so low neither of us can understand a word he says.

I avoid large crowds, concerts, etc for the same reasons you give.
I just don’t need the aggravation anymore.


94 posted on 06/01/2018 3:53:31 PM PDT by oldvirginian (Horsepower=how hard you hit the wall, torque=how far you take the wall with you.-RIP John Winters)
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To: rlmorel
flight deck ears... iirc, good for around 30%
95 posted on 06/01/2018 4:22:45 PM PDT by Chode (You have all of the resources you are going to have. Abandon your illusions and plan accordingly.)
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To: lilypad
"Caffeine"

Well I guess my 4 -5 cups of coffee a day habit is not helping. I guess I'll just keep dealing with it. 12 year's of ringing in the ear's non-stop, 24-7 /365. I do listen to a "masking" program when I go to bed.

Program consists of some classical music, nature sounds (birds, rain, etc.) The only part I won't listen to is the meditation chant's, & the sound of a train on bumpy tracks.

96 posted on 06/01/2018 4:26:37 PM PDT by Stanwood_Dave ("Testilying." Cop's lie, only while testifying, as taught in their respected Police Academy(s).)
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To: Red Badger

Please add me to this list if it’s legit. Too much Rock’n’Roll does it every time.


97 posted on 06/01/2018 5:19:39 PM PDT by Drumbo ("Democracy can withstand anything except democrats." - Robert A. Heinlein)
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To: Chode

LOL. I have to admit, when I was young, I LOVED loud things.

I know that there were things I blew up that were loud enough to leave my ears ringing and nearly deaf for a short interval.

Once, when I was 10 years old living in Yokosuka, Japan, I was over near the Mikasa Battleship Memorial because there was a way you could get through the fence there.

Anyway, there were a bunch of Japanese school kids around the same age, boys and girls all dressed in uniforms and me on my side. We were laughing and throwing lit firecrackers over the fence at one another. I lit a firecracker, reared back to throw it, and it blew up in my hand which was holding the firecracker about an inch away when it went off prematurely.

It was so loud it cause me acute pain in that ear, and I was deaf in that ear for some time after, but the hearing eventually came back...I never thought I had a deficit there.

I do admit to taking off my helmet and ears a few times next to a plane at full throttle because I was curious. I wanted to see how loud it really was. It was loud, but not scary loud.

The loudest sound that really did scare the crap out of me once was on my first cruise, after the ship pulled out of Norfolk and headed east and north, I went for a walk on the level right under the flight deck to explore. I was up near the bow, and they shot a plane off as I was walking next to the compartment. I had no idea what it was, had never heard a catapult fired. Basically standing next to it on the other side of the bulkhead.

It was so unepected, loud, and sudden, everything was shaking, and the WHAM at the end when the cat hit the end of its stroke. It was magnified to me because I had no idea what it was, and my sphincter most definitely tightened up, and I got that panicked feeling for split second in the pit of my stomach. When I look back, it is funny, but in the moment, it never felt that great to have that instantaneous and unexpected split second burst of fear that shoots through you.

On this subject, I tend to trace my ear troubles back to that firecracker, I think because tinnitus sounds so much like the noise my ears were making after that thing went off. Seems exactly the same, just not as loud. Very much like getting your bell rung, which I have done a few times.

Heh, sounds like a giant tuning fork...you get that coppery taste in your mouth...


98 posted on 06/01/2018 8:19:54 PM PDT by rlmorel (Leftists: They believe in the "Invisible Hand" only when it is guided by government.)
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To: oldvirginian

Right...the crowd thing is weird, isn’t it?

Somewhere earlier in life, your brain could extract the speech of a person speaking in a very loud environment, and effectively filtered out everything else. Pretty neat the way your brain and ears could work together and do it.

Now...I can be looking right at the person a foot away, seeing the mouth moving, but all the other sounds including the person’s voice sounds like a room full of people banging pots and pans together at once, and my ears are rattling at the same time as if a thick canvas sail had ripped and was snapping in the wind.

Everything mixed together. If it weren’t physically uncomfortable/painful, it would be kind of funny, but the discomfort takes the ludicrousness/humor part away, all you want to do is get out of the room and walk outside the joint!


99 posted on 06/01/2018 8:27:40 PM PDT by rlmorel (Leftists: They believe in the "Invisible Hand" only when it is guided by government.)
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To: rlmorel
i've had it for thirty years, but it's from gunfire...

my best friend has flightdeck ears and gets 30% disability, talk to the VA

100 posted on 06/01/2018 10:44:58 PM PDT by Chode (You have all of the resources you are going to have. Abandon your illusions and plan accordingly.)
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