Inner Ear Hair Cell Regeneration — Maybe We Can Know More

[Nick Pyzik]

I don't know. Promote neurite outgrowth maybe. This is far from my expertise, I've just been doing reading and self research since my T started.

Yes something like that will be very beneficial. Securing the lost synapse connection for people who have just gotten tinnitus will be helpful. I think the main cure would be putting back together the entire auditory nervous system through what I think would have to be stem cells differentiated into neurons and aided by Neuronal Growth Factors so that connections can be secured to the hair cells and throughout the brain.

I mean it's been done through gerbils and has been shown that transplanting differentiated stem cells onto the glial scars of neurons gives them the ability to fix the damaged areas in a much more suitable way.

 

[tomytl]

I agree. Decades is a long time. I would be thrilled though if there is prove that it works for humans in a first clinical trial. Not only for other mammals in laboratories. That is why I was so disappointed that the Genvec/Novartis clinical trial was paused.

I like these quotes from the article:
"as the race to find a cure for deafness gathers speed"
"The research organisation that finds a commercially viable cure for deafness is sitting on a potential goldmine."
End quotes.
And another one I never heard from is Quark.
The more the merrier.

The Genvec Trial was sceptically rated from almost all researchers in the hearing field, nearly all said, if there is no harm to the participants would be a good result...
So Atoh1 alone isn't expected to work.
In the other hand, why should Novartis take the risk for a treatment that isn't promising enough?, so maybe there is something more...
I also can see some differences between the different research teams, some are much more positive than others, but yes, it won't be here tomorrow.

:-(

 

[skoupidis]

The Genvec Trial was sceptically rated from almost all researchers in the hearing field, nearly all said, if there is no harm to the participants would be a good result...
So Atoh1 alone isn't expected to work.
In the other hand, why should Novartis take the risk for a treatment that isn't promising enough?, so maybe there is something more...
I also can see some differences between the different research teams, some are much more positive than others, but yes, it won't be here tomorrow.

:-(

About Genvec: Yes it it was skeptically rated by others, they are the first to try so it is natural that there is negative criticism on them by others. Don't be surprised if we have good results, if not hearing restoration, something useful will come out of it. I do not think that they themselves did not believe in the therapy at all. After all they did try it in mice first... And it is still early to talk about it failing, we don't know that. Maybe it cannot restore full hearing but it may have some effect, help understand and improve the therapy, even give a small boost in hair cells. It is only a first step, and people that it is used to are deaf or with severe hearing loss. We may never know what would happen if people with moderate or small hearing loss would try it because it is not meant for them, not in its current form anyway. Perhaps after adjustments it may be available for other cases, even help indirectly with tinnitus.

About the article about various directions on hearing loss: Competition is always good. The human race thrives when in competition with each other. Stating that a therapy may be obtained after only a few years but utilized only after decades is a contradictory and arbitrary assumption that would not be made if there was not a hidden motive to it: They do promote hearing aids in the end of the article...
There is some merit to it of course, safety wise, but why not just say who knows, and end in a lighter, more hopeful mode? Who knows what tomorrow will bring? Just stick to the facts I would say.

 

[tomytl]

One more biotech with a hearing loss programm in the pipeline, I guess it' s reatherly new, because years ago they already has a programm for acute hearing loss, but it was dropped from the program

http://quarkpharma.com/?page_id=25

Now I discovered the partners of Quark from the hearing loss programm, and most of them
are very well known.
http://quarkpharma.com/?page_id=11659
Hearing and balance disorders
Esperanza Bas-Infante, Ph.D., Research Assistant Professor, and Thomas R Van De Water, M.D., Ph.D., Director, Cochlear Implant Research Program; University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine

Richard Kopke, M.D., F.A.C.S., Chief Executive Officer, The Hough Ear Institute, and Medical Director, INTEGRIS Cochlear Implant Clinic at The Hough Ear Institute, Oklahoma City, OK, USA

Cliff A. Megerian, MD, F.A.C.S, Professor and Chairman of Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery, Professor of Neurological Surgery; Director of Otology and Neurotology, Medical Director of Adult and Pediatric Cochlear Implant Program, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, Ohio, USA

Yehoash Raphael, Ph.D, The R. Jamison and Betty Williams Professor of Otolaryngology: Director, Otopathology Laboratory; Department of Otolaryngology, Kresge Hearing Research Institute, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

Leonard P. Rybak, M.D., Ph.D., Professor Department of Surgery, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Division of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, Springfield, Illinois, USA

Richard Salvi, Ph.D., SUNY Distinguished Professor: Director, Tinnitus Center, Center for Hearing and Deafness, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA

Hinrich Staecker, M.D., Ph.D., Professor, Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS, USA

 

[Nick Pyzik]

Now I discovered the partners of Quark from the hearing loss programm, and most of them
are very well known.
http://quarkpharma.com/?page_id=11659
Hearing and balance disorders
Esperanza Bas-Infante, Ph.D., Research Assistant Professor, and Thomas R Van De Water, M.D., Ph.D., Director, Cochlear Implant Research Program; University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine

Richard Kopke, M.D., F.A.C.S., Chief Executive Officer, The Hough Ear Institute, and Medical Director, INTEGRIS Cochlear Implant Clinic at The Hough Ear Institute, Oklahoma City, OK, USA

Cliff A. Megerian, MD, F.A.C.S, Professor and Chairman of Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery, Professor of Neurological Surgery; Director of Otology and Neurotology, Medical Director of Adult and Pediatric Cochlear Implant Program, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, Cleveland, Ohio, USA

Yehoash Raphael, Ph.D, The R. Jamison and Betty Williams Professor of Otolaryngology: Director, Otopathology Laboratory; Department of Otolaryngology, Kresge Hearing Research Institute, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

Leonard P. Rybak, M.D., Ph.D., Professor Department of Surgery, Southern Illinois University School of Medicine, Division of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery, Springfield, Illinois, USA

Richard Salvi, Ph.D., SUNY Distinguished Professor: Director, Tinnitus Center, Center for Hearing and Deafness, State University of New York at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA

Hinrich Staecker, M.D., Ph.D., Professor, Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, KS, USA

Interesting find. Have you bumped into any stem cell using companies/programs for both hair cell regeneration and auditory nerve? I'm mainly looking for the neuronal regeneration though. I know there is one called OTOSTEM which is founded by an enormous group of researchers. The sad thing is that they haven't updated anything on their site for 2 years. I'm hoping some kind of new information can be uploaded to the site this year. It'd be cool to see if there were anymore companies/programs out there constructing a path for a cure with stem cells.

 

[tomytl]

Something very important and good to be here, a delivery nethod for inner ear drugs from Draper Lab is ready to test in human.
http://www.betaboston.com/news/2016/01/26/draper-device-could-help-develop-drugs-for-hearing-loss/

 

[bill 112]

Looks like another piece of the puzzle may be solved real soon Nice find.

 

[Nick Pyzik]

Before all this there needs to be an accurate way to determine what exactly is damaged and to what extend. Therefore I can understand that this "ear in a dish" technology could be very helpful.
Imagen this: in the distant future we could have a biological microphone.

That would be cool but there is just so much to how we hear. Sure we have hair cells that pick up sounds like microphones but the nerves are what allow us to hear that sound in a special way. I mean, the brain basically lays out these nerves in an almost orchestrated way where everything is perfectly together and arranged in a special way. I'm not sure how that would play out if biologically conducted through a brand new ear. Still pretty cool to think about though.

 

[tomytl]

Interesting finding of tinnitus/hearing loss research.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-01/meae-bc012816.php

 

[Zorro!]

Interesting finding of tinnitus/hearing loss research.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-01/meae-bc012816.php

I hope they can find the brains "amplifier", and most especially the knob to turn it down.

 

[Nick Pyzik]

Interesting finding of tinnitus/hearing loss research.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-01/meae-bc012816.php

Very cool. Matches up to the issues with my hearing now.

This article along with this article here http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/07/150713095145.htm - show that the brain does try to adapt to this new hearing change with its plasticity but I think although new nerves develop to take the place of old ones, it actually does more worse than good. I think it could possibly be dealing with afferent and efferent nerves although I haven't looked to much into them. I do know that they both have a special association with the hair cells and work in conjunction together. The other possibility is that Outer Hair Cells, the ones that help amplify sound to the inner hair cells, are affected greatly by new nerves forming to them and since these new nerves don't act like the previous ones, it could be causing more of a deafness type of conflict. The nerve fibers play a big role in how we hear frequencies and not just the hair cells themselves.

 

[Zorro!]

Very cool. Matches up to the issues with my hearing now.

This article along with this article here http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/07/150713095145.htm - show that the brain does try to adapt to this new hearing change with its plasticity but I think although new nerves develop to take the place of old ones, it actually does more worse than good. I think it could possibly be dealing with afferent and efferent nerves although I haven't looked to much into them. I do know that they both have a special association with the hair cells and work in conjunction together. The other possibility is that Outer Hair Cells, the ones that help amplify sound to the inner hair cells, are affected greatly by new nerves forming to them and since these new nerves don't act like the previous ones, it could be causing more of a deafness type of conflict. The nerve fibers play a big role in how we hear frequencies and not just the hair cells themselves.

I agree. As it is I wish my brain wasn't over-compensating as it tries to fill in the neural gaps. In my estimation that's definitely where my T and H is coming from.

This does make me wonder how "new" stem cell nerves will affect T and H once they develop the ability to implant them? Isn't there a chance they could cause the same hyper reaction in the brain? It will be interesting to see how things play out in years to come.

 

[tomytl]

I agree. As it is I wish my brain wasn't over-compensating as it tries to fill in the neural gaps. In my estimation that's definitely where my T and H is coming from.

This does make me wonder how "new" stem cell nerves will affect T and H once they develop the ability to implant them? Isn't there a chance they could cause the same hyper reaction in the brain? It will be interesting to see how things play out in years to come.

I strongly believe, that if signal ias coming again to the hearing processing part of the brain T will be lowered or fade out. Since my strong cold and fever in december I have pressure problems again and some fluctuating hearing.
T increased very much again analog to the effected left side.
13 years ago I experienced heavy hyperacusis and yes, after 3-5 years things normalized until the next incident happened...

 

[Nucleo]

This article along with this article here http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/07/150713095145.htm - show that the brain does try to adapt to this new hearing change with its plasticity but I think although new nerves develop to take the place of old ones, it actually does more worse than good. I think it could possibly be dealing with afferent and efferent nerves although I haven't looked to much into them. I do know that they both have a special association with the hair cells and work in conjunction together. The other possibility is that Outer Hair Cells, the ones that help amplify sound to the inner hair cells, are affected greatly by new nerves forming to them and since these new nerves don't act like the previous ones, it could be causing more of a deafness type of conflict. The nerve fibers play a big role in how we hear frequencies and not just the hair cells themselves.

The problem with new nerves is that you might have to ''learn'' how to hear all over again. Sensory systems in humans are not very plastic in the adult stage.

 

[Reinier]

The problem with new nerves is that you might have to ''learn'' how to hear all over again. Sensory systems in humans are not very plastic in the adult stage.

I wonder to what extend.
There is already a base. I noticed with the hearing loss on my right ear I am able to understand words by the simple mechanism that my brain (data base section) fills in the gaps. Although I do not hear a T sound in the word letter I know it is there.

 

[Zorro!]

The problem with new nerves is that you might have to ''learn'' how to hear all over again. Sensory systems in humans are not very plastic in the adult stage.

This is exactly what I was wondering. It would be great if the new nerves could simply operate via the old pathways but if not then who knows how the brain will react to the new signals via a new pathway. I hope it works out of course.

 

[skoupidis]

Well, it can't be all that bad... I mean if the problem in the nerve is fixed and all.

As @tomytl said, deterioration is only temporary when you overcome the specific hearing problem (infection, inflammation etc) and T gets down to its basic level.

It is only logical that T will become even smaller or even go away altogether if the hearing further improves.
If and when the hearing is totally fixed one day, the logical assumption is that the T will go away at no time at all! After all, damaged hearing is the cause of T in the first place, something that comes IMMEDIATELY after the incident. And stays there as long as the bad hearing remains.

All these are only assumptions, of course, but they do make much more sense than the opinion that the T will remain after hearing restoration...

 

[Nick Pyzik]

@Nucleo @Zorro! These new nerves that the brain allows to grow out and reconnect with the hair cells that have lost their original nerves are acting almost like a one way ride to the brain. As it says in the article I linked, these new nerves that grow out act as incoming signals that I personally think don't have neurotransmissions going on and like I said, do more harm than good for allowing us to pick up sounds. A good example is yesterday I was working out at a gym I go to. It had been about 4 months since I tried listening to music through headphones and I wear my inner-ear headphones without playing music to protect my hearing at the gym because of all the loud noises going on there and since I haven't invested in custom earplugs yet. I turned on a song I would always listen to before and sure enough I couldn't make out what I was hearing through these high quality inner-ear headphones that should be blocking out sounds outside of my ears. I never had an issue with them the last time I used them which was last year. I could barely process the song because of the sounds going on around me in the gym and because of the way my ears pick up sounds now. I wasn't even playing the song loud, it was about 4 notches up on an Iphone.

These issues really match up to what these two articles are talking about and how the brain tries to get the gain level back down to its original hearing level but in the end you have a harder time hearing things, your threshold is out of wack, and you don't get the neurotransmissions like you did before from the previous nerves you had. This is exactly what has happened to my hearing and why I can't hear music the same or feel emotions from sounds even though I can still hear the whole frequency range.

If the use of stem cells being differentiated into neurons and transplanted into inner ears becomes a thing, then (as I've read) we should be able to get both afferent and efferent nerves back into our auditory system and even reconnect lost signals from the inner ear to the brain depending on how long you've had your hearing issues.

 

[Nucleo]

Yes sure restoring connections might be a good thing but if they have been lost for a while, and they don't reconnect exactly the way they were before, the brain will have some adaptation to do.

As far as we know, tinnitus or other pain disorders arise because of some maladaptative plasticity that occurs after major neurological changes.

 

[Nick Pyzik]

Yes sure restoring connections might be a good thing but if they have been lost for a while, and they don't reconnect exactly the way they were before, the brain will have some adaptation to do.

As far as we know, tinnitus or other pain disorders arise because of some maladaptative plasticity that occurs after major neurological changes.

Yeah so for people who have had their tinnitus from noise damage for a few weeks, maybe a month would be better off with an NT-3 type of treatment to try and reconnect the lost synapse connections than people who have had this issue for years. I'm not sure how a stem cell transplantation would work for that long of a time but it could possibly fix any lost connections still going on and even form new connections between the hair cells and brain. Only more tests can show that data and the researchers working with this in Japan show good results by transplanting on the glial scars that are left over from the lost connections. I think keeping these glial scars intact is the best thing we can do if it has been a very long time since our tinnitus incidents or what not because that's where the differentiated stem cells do their job to the best of their abilities with healing any damage.

 

[swc5150]

I wonder to what extend.
There is already a base. I noticed with the hearing loss on my right ear I am able to understand words by the simple mechanism that my brain (data base section) fills in the gaps. Although I do not hear a T sound in the word letter I know it is there.

I have a roadie who lost hearing due to too many of our concerts, and thus developed T as well. He got hearing aids last summer, and they stop the T completely. I'm assuming this is due to re-establishing the lost frequencies. When he takes them out, it doesn't take long before the T returns...talking minutes. Kind of makes me question the chronic versus acute thing too. He had T for years before getting the hearing aids, so if the brain "adapted", wouldn't the T remain regardless? T certainly is an enigma!

 

[Zorro!]

Yes sure restoring connections might be a good thing but if they have been lost for a while, and they don't reconnect exactly the way they were before, the brain will have some adaptation to do.

As far as we know, tinnitus or other pain disorders arise because of some maladaptative plasticity that occurs after major neurological changes.

I'm sure there will be some adaptation challenges with this type of treatment. And those challenges will probably vary from person to person. Still, I would gladly risk being a guinea pig for the initial stem cell trials. Even if things didn't work out for me I'd be happy knowing I helped researchers to some degree.

 

[Zorro!]

Yeah so for people who have had their tinnitus from noise damage for a few weeks, maybe a month would be better off with an NT-3 type of treatment to try and reconnect the lost synapse connections than people who have had this issue for years. I'm not sure how a stem cell transplantation would work for that long of a time but it could possibly fix any lost connections still going on and even form new connections between the hair cells and brain. Only more tests can show that data and the researchers working with this in Japan show good results by transplanting on the glial scars that are left over from the lost connections. I think keeping these glial scars intact is the best thing we can do if it has been a very long time since our tinnitus incidents or what not because that's where the differentiated stem cells do their job to the best of their abilities with healing any damage.

Have you come across anyone taking human test subjects for this type of procedure yet? I know here in America it takes forever to test invasive type experiments on people because the powers that be are phobic of legal complications. But I could see traveling to a different country if they were doing legitimate trials on humans in regards to this problem.

 

[Zorro!]

@Nucleo I turned on a song I would always listen to before and sure enough [B]I couldn't make out what I was hearing [/B]through these high quality inner-ear headphones that should be blocking out sounds outside of my ears. I never had an issue with them the last time I used them which was last year. [B]I could barely process the song[/B] because of the sounds going on around me in the gym and because of the way my ears pick up sounds now. I wasn't even playing the song loud, it was about 4 notches up on an Iphone.

[COLOR=#000000]This is really fascinating in a horrible way. Can you make out the words while listening to a song? Or is it that you can hear the song but are mentally distracted and just don't follow along? Can you follow the melody or is there no recognition of a melody at all? Is it white noise? Unintelligible?[/COLOR]

 

[Nick Pyzik]

Have you come across anyone taking human test subjects for this type of procedure yet? I know here in America it takes forever to test invasive type experiments on people because the powers that be are phobic of legal complications. But I could see traveling to a different country if they were doing legitimate trials on humans in regards to this problem.

No these were just tests on I believe on hamsters or gerbils. Some kind of animal. But the documents I was reading, and these tests were discovered around December, that transplanting the stem cells on top of the glial scars of the inner ear produced a profoundly more successful treatment than just injecting them into the glial scars. Good news right there. They even talked about how this could work very well with humans and to get to the location for transplanting they would have to surgically transplant them at a lower area of the head behind the ears. We just have to wait for more information. Who knows how long it'll take for this procedure to be used with humans. I'm actually relying more on other countries for a treatment like that because I think the US is a little behind on it.

 

[Nick Pyzik]

[COLOR=#000000]This is really fascinating in a horrible way. Can you make out the words while listening to a song? Or is it that you can hear the song but are mentally distracted and just don't follow along? Can you follow the melody or is there no recognition of a melody at all? Is it white noise? Unintelligible?[/COLOR]

I didn't listen for to long, but overall I could tell what song I was playing and could follow it since I had listened to the song a lot in the past. I noticed that songs I've already heard in my life and can remember parts of are much more easier for me to follow even with noise going on. I mean it's not great though. Now if its a new song I've never heard before then its much harder for me to follow the melody and most importantly remember what I had heard. Melody, lyrics, (being a drummer I like following the drums and remembering how they went too), much harder for me to do that.

It's not like I'm trying to get distracted by weights clanging around me and music being played through speakers in the gym, but I literally for the life of me couldn't hear the song playing like a normal person with hearing should be able to hear. I know how I could hear with these headphones before my hearing started changing so it's not just me not paying attention to what I'm hearing. There is absolutely something wrong with my hearing because these headphone go straight into your ear canal and these are pretty expensive in-ear headphones. Almost a step down from Custom In-ear Monitors professional musicians use.

 

[Nick Pyzik]

[COLOR=#000000]This is really fascinating in a horrible way. Can you make out the words while listening to a song? Or is it that you can hear the song but are mentally distracted and just don't follow along? Can you follow the melody or is there no recognition of a melody at all? Is it white noise? Unintelligible?[/COLOR]

If I ever do get normal healthy hearing back like it was before or even last year when it started changing a bit, I will burst out crying with emotions. Just like you see in those Cochlear Implant videos of deaf people hearing for the first time. The feelings will be so intense because truthfully I haven't been able to truly experience music and sounds like I did before in about 5 months and won't be able to for another good amount of time. I miss feeling emotions from music and feeling good from what I hear. I miss it all so so much. Music was my life growing up. I just overused and didn't protect my hearing enough and some of it I can blame on my own actions but also I had no idea that the sensations of your hearing could go so quickly in a lifetime.

Although this is a horrible thing to happen in my life, its made me reflect on the past a lot which is a good thing and its caused me to start doing things like being more appreciative of my family, the house they provide me, and friends who are actually there for me. I still miss hearing music like I did before and feeling good waking up each morning. I hope one day I'll be able to get the sensations I experienced before with my hearing back before I grow to a very old age or pass away. I can't even explain how much I miss it.

There are many other things in life than can give one happiness but music was that one thing that I absolutely loved. It was something I could speak to others through since I was never good at actually speaking my intentions verbally. There was a time about 2 years ago when I balled my eyes out hearing the most beautiful post-rock songs I had ever heard from a band. They touched my emotions like nothing else. Listening to a song that once made you look at life in a completely different way and now just hearing it without it meaning or not doing anything to your emotions is one of the worst things to ever happen to me. All I can do really is try to think positively about my life right now but its hard because of these memory issues I have and feeling tired/down a lot of the time.

Oh well, just gotta keep pushing on. Hopefully things don't get worse with my cognitive ability. Sorry Zorro, just had to let that out a little bit.

 

[Zorro!]

If I ever do get normal healthy hearing back like it was before or even last year when it started changing a bit, I will burst out crying with emotions. Just like you see in those Cochlear Implant videos of deaf people hearing for the first time. The feelings will be so intense because truthfully I haven't been able to truly experience music and sounds like I did before in about 5 months and won't be able to for another good amount of time. I miss feeling emotions from music and feeling good from what I hear. I miss it all so so much. Music was my life growing up. I just overused and didn't protect my hearing enough and some of it I can blame on my own actions but also I had no idea that the sensations of your hearing could go so quickly in a lifetime.

Although this is a horrible thing to happen in my life, its made me reflect on the past a lot which is a good thing and its caused me to start doing things like being more appreciative of my family, the house they provide me, and friends who are actually there for me. I still miss hearing music like I did before and feeling good waking up each morning. I hope one day I'll be able to get the sensations I experienced before with my hearing back before I grow to a very old age or pass away. I can't even explain how much I miss it.

There are many other things in life than can give one happiness but music was that one thing that I absolutely loved. It was something I could speak to others through since I was never good at actually speaking my intentions verbally. There was a time about 2 years ago when I balled my eyes out hearing the most beautiful post-rock songs I had ever heard from a band. They touched my emotions like nothing else. Listening to a song that once made you look at life in a completely different way and now just hearing it without it meaning or not doing anything to your emotions is one of the worst things to ever happen to me. All I can do really is try to think positively about my life right now but its hard because of these memory issues I have and feeling tired/down a lot of the time.

Oh well, just gotta keep pushing on. Hopefully things don't get worse with my cognitive ability. Sorry Zorro, just had to let that out a little bit.

No need to apologize Nick. That was an amazing, beautiful, and yes, sad explanation. I do understand the sense of loss when it comes to music as it was integral in many ways to my life too. Granted, I'm not a musician so my loss isn't as great as yours and I'd never claim that is was. You have my deepest sympathies in this regard though.

It took me a long time to realize that the loss of music in my life was a depressive factor. Seriously, I didn't realize it at first but eventually I remembered how music had been a cathartic and emotional component throughout most of my days. I had songs in my library that could make me cry, make me laugh or just plain fire me up with energy. Having that emotional outlet suddenly truncated by the onset of my hearing issues was traumatizing on levels I didn't even understand initially. Hell, I'm still trying to find a way to fill the hole that was music in my life. Nothing else comes close to what music was for me though.

I do have to say that you have done an amazing job of positing theories on what's happening with auditory nerves. The stuff you have discussed is way more incisive than anything I've heard from an ENT. It's also way more encouraging and uplifting than what the docs tell us. Keep up the good work and here's hoping that when they perfect a stem cell treatment for our auditory nerves that you are first in line to get it.

 

[Reinier]

@Nick Pyzik
I can relate to so much of what you where saying. So much is emotion. As a teenager I used to translate the English lyrics. So it was important to be able to hear them. I was always looking for music/lyrics with "a deeper meaning". I also much appreciated technically well recorded music. Not only pop/rock music.

The weird thing (perhaps not so weird after all) is that sound was able to provoke emotion in me to a greater extend than visual experiences could do. I have read somewhere that this the case for most people.
Well said Nick and Zorro.

Here is another article related to our "condition"
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/305802.php?tw

 

[Ricardo AM]

If I ever do get normal healthy hearing back like it was before or even last year when it started changing a bit, I will burst out crying with emotions. Just like you see in those Cochlear Implant videos of deaf people hearing for the first time. The feelings will be so intense because truthfully I haven't been able to truly experience music and sounds like I did before in about 5 months and won't be able to for another good amount of time. I miss feeling emotions from music and feeling good from what I hear. I miss it all so so much. Music was my life growing up. I just overused and didn't protect my hearing enough and some of it I can blame on my own actions but also I had no idea that the sensations of your hearing could go so quickly in a lifetime.

Although this is a horrible thing to happen in my life, its made me reflect on the past a lot which is a good thing and its caused me to start doing things like being more appreciative of my family, the house they provide me, and friends who are actually there for me. I still miss hearing music like I did before and feeling good waking up each morning. I hope one day I'll be able to get the sensations I experienced before with my hearing back before I grow to a very old age or pass away. I can't even explain how much I miss it.

There are many other things in life than can give one happiness but music was that one thing that I absolutely loved. It was something I could speak to others through since I was never good at actually speaking my intentions verbally. There was a time about 2 years ago when I balled my eyes out hearing the most beautiful post-rock songs I had ever heard from a band. They touched my emotions like nothing else. Listening to a song that once made you look at life in a completely different way and now just hearing it without it meaning or not doing anything to your emotions is one of the worst things to ever happen to me. All I can do really is try to think positively about my life right now but its hard because of these memory issues I have and feeling tired/down a lot of the time.

Oh well, just gotta keep pushing on. Hopefully things don't get worse with my cognitive ability. Sorry Zorro, just had to let that out a little bit.

Hello,
(excuse me for intruding like this in the chat)

Man, your words just described the feelings I have experienced since the last few years....

As well i fight these symptoms since 2012 i also ungrateful punishment for not having protected myself while it was time.
I do not depend of music to pay my bills but music is still part of my way of life and i have to be super disciplined to me not exceed the limits of what my ears can now support (unfortenaly they can not follow up the excitement of my soul).

Well, I know the miracle cure has not yet arrived but I share here a youtube link that have been helped me at least a little (could be placebo but hepls me to concentration at work and i have the real feeling this estimulate a bit my inner cells/ auditory nerve...)



It costs nothing to try this "therapy" (its free of $$££€€) and you can used all the time you need.

All the best!
Cheers,
Ricardo