Recent content by Joeseph Stope

This OCT technology scanner dates back to 1991. It is unfortunate that it has been widely available in most eye doctors’ offices for routine inspections of glaucoma and macular degeneration for so many years. Yet, thirty-four years later, someone is only now considering adapting it for auditory...

Well, they should restart the process. There is no need for more double blind placebo studies. Take ten random patients. If it works on the first, the second, and so on—curing all ten out of ten, or at least not harming any of them while curing 50 percent—I am sure their stock price would rise...

This sounds reeeeally big, maybe even a breakthrough? Years ago, I read a scientific article describing how inner and outer hair cells resemble a microscopic wheat field. However, they could not be viewed in vivo because the cochlea is one of the hardest bones in the body, and its proximity to...

The tinnitus I have is more of a ringing, and I would say it’s on the left side—either in my ear or maybe my brain. It’s constant 24/7 but reactive to loud noise, certain herbs like basil, rosemary, and oregano (due to their salicylates), as well as colds, the flu, or headaches. These all spike...

Hey, Big Spender! No, just kidding. It seems this paper has caused a lot of excitement. A reason to celebrate? Well, I hope so, but don’t bet the farm on it. I am inclined to look at it—how would I explain it? Maybe the way an American looks at the US national soccer team. They are not very...

Speaking as someone who habituated to tinnitus back in the 90s through TRT but never fully adapted to noise sensitivity or hyperacusis and then later experienced a return of tinnitus, I find the work of the Bionics Institute intriguing. For example: a) If they measure the tinnitus volume of a...

@Mathilda, mulling over your story and comparing it to the days when I was bouncing from doctor to therapist, some things you said brought back memories. You mentioned a 20% reduction in tinnitus—I’m happy to hear that, and I hope it lasts. About 25 years ago, I did a therapy program at a...

The modern world is becoming louder rather than quieter, increasing the risk of further hearing damage. Whether due to acoustic trauma, aging, a flu virus, or a pharmaceutical side effect, the chances of experiencing hearing issues grow with each passing year. If there were a drug that could...

My sympathy. The brand of vaccine might have played a role, the company that manufactured that particular vaccine. In situations like this, where a new virus emerges and multiple vaccines become available, it is often only afterward that we learn which one may have had unintended effects.

This could be very important. Now, all we need to do is go back and test those failed pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical candidates using this new delivery method. All you tinnitus punters out there, get yourselves on the list for the upcoming trials! I am volunteering for the placebo group...

Well, the Donald is older now than Joe Biden was when he started. If CNN is anything to go by, Elon Musk’s push to downsize the federal government is leading to all sorts of blunders—like firing the people in charge of nuclear defense, the ones overseeing bird flu control, or those responsible...

Is Ebselen the new Viagra? Just kidding, but it would certainly spark competition among other biopharma companies. A combination of a drug that helps with a tinnitus spike and another that repairs synapses, hair cells, stereocilia, or whatever (say after a new noise exposure) would be on every...

If you end up in an emergency room with severe COVID-19, surrounded by a surgical team trying to keep your lungs open (God forbid), they will be completely focused on keeping you alive and breathing. They are not going to ask whether you have a history of auditory problems. They are on the front...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eleanor_Maguire The brain scientist linked above conducted a comparative study on the brains of London taxi drivers and other groups, such as bus drivers. The study revealed that taxi drivers, who had to memorize not only street names and locations but also how...

That really is something the guys and gals in white coats need to figure out. I recall one research group mentioning that their drug had difficulty accessing the lower frequencies of the cochlea. Kind of fundamental, don’t you think? It’s like saying, "We have the wonder drug, but we can’t...