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Showing posts from May, 2009

Retraining and Desensitizing - Is Neuromonics the Tinnitus Cure?

   Neuromonics is a treatment device for tinnitus developed by an Australian audiologist, Dr. Paul Davis.   It's sometimes looked at as a potential cure, and the medical device company that   sells the device claims an 83% success rate, with tinnitus reducing by 50%-90%.   Neuromonics works by retraining neural pathways in the brain. As a result of the   retraining, a person's auditory system is desensitized to the sound of their tinnitus.   Basically, you wear headphones and listen to the small device. It plays four tracks of   music and ambient nature sounds and has a neural stimulus treatment overlaying the soothing music, which targets the brain's auditory pathways -- helping the brain filter out the disturbing tinnitus perception.  Through testing, the music and overlaying neural stimulus on each device is customized to the patient's audiological profile and personal tinnitus pitch for each ear.  One tinnitus sufferer who was interviewed for an article on the devi

Sounds Help Block Tinnitus Noise

Some people with tinnitus find that other sounds, pleasant ones such as nature sounds or wind chimes, played at a volume slightly below that of the ringing in their ears, can help with the condition.  The idea of an alternate noise is not to block out the sounds, but to create a sort of diversion – something to concentrate on listening to instead of the tinnitus.  The goal is to get so used to the tinnitus as a background noise that you don’t hear it.  There are many products on the market from which you can choose to experiment to see if this is the right approach for you. White sound generators can be anything from a fan that you already have in your house or a channel of static on the television or radio to tabletop devices and electronic ear-inserts with myriad sounds to try.  If the distraction tactic seems to help, you should start reducing the volume of the white sound generators slowly, over a number of months. The ultimate goal here is twofold:  First, to no longer pay attenti

Who Gets Tinnitus?

Tinnitus can affect anyone ; however, older people are usually affected more than children . If a child does have tinnitus, it's possible that he or she might not be bothered by the condition as much as an adult, simply because children tend accept the condition as the norm, not knowing anything different.  Kids and adults alike can suffer hearing damage and loss, though, and are at risk for tinnitus as well, if they are consistently exposed to very loud noises . You'll know if you're at risk if you need to shout to be heard (like at most concerts or bars and discos, but also at sporting events) or if your ears actually hurt.  How many of us haven't experienced that "muted" hearing phenomenon after leaving a rock concert ?  Although a one-time exposure to loud noise does not necessarily cause tinnitus, it's certainly possible that the cumulative damage from even short-lived incidents of loud noise exposure over the years can be quite serious. A comparis

Do You Suffer From Tinnitus?

If you have constant or intermittent noises in your head (or in one or both of your ears), you may have a condition known as tinnitus. The noises can be anything from ringing and buzzing to clicking or chirping all the way to whistling or hissing sounds. For every person who suffers from tinnitus, the description of the condition will be unique to that person. It's important to note that tinnitus is a condition, not a disease. It refers to the perception of ringing, buzzing, or other sounds in the absence of an external source. Tinnitus can be caused by a variety of factors, including hearing loss, exposure to loud noise, certain medications, and underlying health conditions.  And it's not a noise you can run from because there's nothing making the noise in your immediate environment -- tinnitus really is all in your head . Tinnitus ranges from an annoyance to a debilitating and life-altering problem .  Here's a TED Ed video by Marc Fagelson that explains tinnitus, wh