Under evaluation: vagus nerve stimulation against tinnitus
Battling hearing loss is a topic that I sadly neglected in 2010. I aim to correct this by sharing at least 1 post per mo nth this topic.
Let us start 2011 with a short report on tinnitus, a poorly understood condition characterized by a persistent noise in the ear. It usually “comes in the form of a high-pitched tone in one or both ears, but can also sound like a clicking, roaring or whooshing sound.”
Millions of people of suffering from some form of tinnitus. Unfortunately, there is currently no cure for tinnitus. Therapies to ease the symptoms include reducing the persistent sound or simply learning to ignore it. However, studies indicate that tinnitus adversely affect quality of life.
Conditions associated with tinnitus include “allergies, high or low blood pressure, tumors and problems in the heart, blood vessels, jaw and neck.”
A research study led by Dr. Michael Kilgard at the University of Texas at Dallas and Dr. Navzer Engineer at MicroTransponder, Inc indicates that tinnitus is not only in the auditory system but in the brain itself. The research team tried to find a means to reverse tinnitus by essentially “resetting” the brain’s auditory system. They did this by electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve (VNS) of lab rats using a tone. Through VNS, they could induce release of chemicals responsible for changes in the brain using different tone frequencies. By monitoring the neural responses in the rat’s brain auditory cortex during the test, they could determine that VNS plus tone stimulation restored responses to normal level – an indication of the absence of tinnitus. They were also able to demonstrate that VNS could reverse tinnitus even in noise-exposed animals.
This technique has a great potential in brining relief to tinnitus patients. Testing the method in humans is being planned.
This is not the first clinical application of the of VNS. The technique is already used in treating depression and epilepsy.
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After I read this article I remembered about a friend of mine that had some alcohol problems and had to stay in one of the rehab centers from our city for about one week. Before he left he started to complain about noises he started to hear in his ear, everyone thought it was from the alcohol. At the clinic he was consulted by a medic and he was told he has tinnitus and nothing can be done to stop that, luckily he got used to it and it does not bother him anymore . In the end everything was fine, now we gather and laugh about that situation.