Recent content by Dr. Gans

Please forgive my overdue response. But you pose an excellent question. When practicing meditation it is important to feel as comfortable as you can so that unnecessary discomfort doesn't get in the way of your practice by being a distraction. So, YES, if listening to music while meditating...

I have not been a diligent writer, and I apologize for that. I appreciate all of your comments and questions. In brief, I am a big fan of anything that works to bring tinnitus relief. If you find that a meditation practice gets in the way of your mind's ability to habituate, then it is time to...

I am pleased to share with the Tinnitus Talk Forum community a recent publication in the journal, Mindfulness in April 2015. The study can be found at the following link: Mindfulness Based Tinnitus Stress Reduction (MBTSR) 12-month follow-up study Cut and paste the following link into your...

Hi Mario, Good to hear from you (and yes, I don't participate too often with tinnitus talk so glad you found me). That is great to hear you have joined an MBSR course in your area and your questions are good ones. First off, we know that reduced stress makes tinnitus bother go down. When you are...

Again, a great question. Like any habit, the longer the habit is in place, the more conditioned we are to head down the same path. The same is true for thoughts. The more often we believe a certain thought, the more etched in our brain the thought becomes. It becomes the "nee normal" and every...

Great comments. The magnitude of tinnitus is about the perception of the tinnitus signal rather than the measurable magnitude of the tinnitus. I believe it was Jasterboff years ago who wanted to know the decibel level of the tinnitus sensation for a person who was mildly bothered by tinnitus...

Hi Cullenbohannon, I am embarrassed with how long it has taken me to reply. Your message somehow escaped me. But you ask an excellent question. Absolutely the State of Mind of the tinnitus sufferer can delay and even prevent habituation. Can you be more specific with the state of mind you are...

I have attached an article I wrote on what appears to be happening in the brain of the person with tinnitus. Take a look and let me know your thoughts.

Thanks for all of your comments. It is baffling and frustrating for so many people that there is no cure yet. But new management programs like Mindfulness Based Tinnitus Stress Reduction (MBTSR), which I am happy to talk more about, focus on putting the responsibility for healing into the hands...

It is unfortunate that there are no medical cures for tinnitus and I just worry that if there is a medical cure or pill that you can take for tinnitus in the future, it might have side effects that would be even worse than the tinnitus itself. Until there is a cure, management is the place where...

So great meeting folks at the Conference in Iowa. What did you think of the Conference? Did you learn anything new about tinnitus? What were your impressions??

I attended and presented my work at this years' University of Iowa Tinnitus Conference and met a few people from Tinnitus Talk there. I really enjoyed meeting them in person and it really helps to put a face with a online presence :) The Conference was excellent with Dr. Rich Tyler leading the...

And that goes for anyone there. Please come up and introduce yourself. It will be so fun to actually see TT faces in person! Like Dr. Nagler mentioned, there should be a strong TT contingent there :)

Hi Hudson, be sure to come up to me and introduce yourself! I'm looking forward to the meeting. There are some really good speakers coming and I have found that the Iowa Conference is the only one like it that really gets the audience up-to-date on management tools that are available. Be sure to...

Hi Lynn, the course is specific to tinnitus but the principles and skills taught are quite similar for all of the things you mentioned. There is an introduction to the course that describes what to expect. There is a saying, "Pain in life is inevitable, but suffering is optional". The course...