When you first get Tinnitus and you are told there is no cure it's only natural to become depressed about it. So I thought I would post some papers that show that perhaps it's not all doom and gloom.
There have been a variety of studies using different techniques that have reported success in curing someone's Tinnitus. The downside is that time and time again these treatments seem to work great for a few, okay or others and the rest they do absolutely nothing. Why this is the case is unclear but what I wanted to highlight is that unlike a leg which has been amputated (and there are no cases of anyone's leg ever growing back) there are cases which people have reported their Tinnitus has gone!
For example using a TENS machine cured a small number of people. In this study 6 patients reported a reduction of 100%
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20505927
In this one 23% of the participants reported that they could no longer hear their Tinnitus afterwards,
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17956803
This study shows that rTMS seems to have got rid of Tinnitus in 20 out of 62 patients
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20236173
Another talks about Tinnitus being absent in some of the patients given rTMS
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19175380
There have been some claims that LLLT has cured a small number of people.
http://www.clinicasdeaudicion.com/ruidos_oido/Ear_Menieres_Tinnitus.pdf
Recent research in the past year seemed to show support for the potential effectiveness for LLLT for help heal damaged hair cells,
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22734788
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22138884
There was also a study showing that several cases of Pulsatile Tinnitus was cured through surgery,
http://journals.lww.com/otology-neu...=2007&issue=01000&article=00009&type=abstract
Now I would certainly not recommend this for anyone but this next study showed that out of 151 patients 101 reported complete relief of Tinnitus when they had their Cochlear nerve severed. Worthwhile improvement was noted in 43 patients and 7 patients obtained no improvement.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7671835
Now I want to emphasis and make clear I'am in no way advocating any of these treatments for people to go and try for themselves. I wanted to highlight this condition has indeed been cured in some people in the past but for reasons unknown they never seem to work consistently for people. However we might finally understand why when we can see inside of the ear. For those that do not know EPFL and Harvard medical school have got together to develop new technology that will allow them to actually see what is going on inside our ears. It may be a possibility much sooner then people think.
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-epfl-harvard-loss.html
Finally some news many people might not be aware of. There is there is evidence of stem cells being present in our ears!
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22102534
If this is accurate there might be a way in the future to activate them and repair the damaged nerves and hair cells.
I hope this post has been informative for some people. For me it gave me a sense of hope knowing that at least some people have reported getting rid of their tinnitus and were enjoying silence again. With more and more companies each year getting on board the Tinnitus bandwagon I'm optimistic that enough data will be found about this condition for people to eventually formulate a cure.
There have been a variety of studies using different techniques that have reported success in curing someone's Tinnitus. The downside is that time and time again these treatments seem to work great for a few, okay or others and the rest they do absolutely nothing. Why this is the case is unclear but what I wanted to highlight is that unlike a leg which has been amputated (and there are no cases of anyone's leg ever growing back) there are cases which people have reported their Tinnitus has gone!
For example using a TENS machine cured a small number of people. In this study 6 patients reported a reduction of 100%
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20505927
In this one 23% of the participants reported that they could no longer hear their Tinnitus afterwards,
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17956803
This study shows that rTMS seems to have got rid of Tinnitus in 20 out of 62 patients
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20236173
Another talks about Tinnitus being absent in some of the patients given rTMS
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19175380
There have been some claims that LLLT has cured a small number of people.
http://www.clinicasdeaudicion.com/ruidos_oido/Ear_Menieres_Tinnitus.pdf
Recent research in the past year seemed to show support for the potential effectiveness for LLLT for help heal damaged hair cells,
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22734788
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22138884
There was also a study showing that several cases of Pulsatile Tinnitus was cured through surgery,
http://journals.lww.com/otology-neu...=2007&issue=01000&article=00009&type=abstract
Now I would certainly not recommend this for anyone but this next study showed that out of 151 patients 101 reported complete relief of Tinnitus when they had their Cochlear nerve severed. Worthwhile improvement was noted in 43 patients and 7 patients obtained no improvement.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7671835
Now I want to emphasis and make clear I'am in no way advocating any of these treatments for people to go and try for themselves. I wanted to highlight this condition has indeed been cured in some people in the past but for reasons unknown they never seem to work consistently for people. However we might finally understand why when we can see inside of the ear. For those that do not know EPFL and Harvard medical school have got together to develop new technology that will allow them to actually see what is going on inside our ears. It may be a possibility much sooner then people think.
http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-epfl-harvard-loss.html
Finally some news many people might not be aware of. There is there is evidence of stem cells being present in our ears!
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22102534
If this is accurate there might be a way in the future to activate them and repair the damaged nerves and hair cells.
I hope this post has been informative for some people. For me it gave me a sense of hope knowing that at least some people have reported getting rid of their tinnitus and were enjoying silence again. With more and more companies each year getting on board the Tinnitus bandwagon I'm optimistic that enough data will be found about this condition for people to eventually formulate a cure.