Finally a Cure for Tinnitus: Here’s a Potential Treatment for the Ringing in Your Ears

Some individuals reported hearing noises but without external sources. The condition is called tinnitus, and there's reportedly no cure, but following the advancement in technology, tinnitus maskers have been developed to help ease the condition.

Finally, a Cure For Tinnitus

Tinnitus is a symptom of an underlying medical problem rather than a separate illness. Examples of these conditions include Meniere's disease, high blood pressure, age-related hearing loss, and various medication-related ear diseases. There is no cure for the said condition.

However, Treble Health offers a potential solution to individuals suffering from the said condition. They use strategies based on cognitive behavioral principles to integrate tinnitus coaching with sound therapy treatment.

The Treble Maskers Bundle is a cognitive-behavioral-style coaching, sleep headphones, mindfulness training, and tinnitus maskers combined into a scientifically validated tinnitus treatment.

Sound therapy can be done using tinnitus maskers and sound machines. One can listen to pink or white noise. White noise is all the different frequencies of sound played at once, while pink noise is the milder version. Calming sounds like natural water sounds, and crickets are recommended.

Tinnitus maskers are the closest thing we have to a treatment for tinnitus. However, researchers are working on solving the issue by addressing the source and may be close to finding one.

By activating a nerve in the neck while playing a range of tones, researchers could eradicate tinnitus in rats, a chronic ringing in the ears. The discovery raises hopes for a human tinnitus cure in the future.

The method the researchers employed, known to produce substances that promote changes in the brain, was vagus nerve stimulation (VNS). In addition to the tinnitus frequency, they matched it with other tones being played. The scientists reasoned that this method could cause brain cells to tune in to frequencies different than the tinnitus frequency.

For almost three weeks, the researchers gave noise-exposed rats with tinnitus 300 tones to listen to during VNS. The rats' tinnitus had vanished, according to assessments of their behavior and brain activity.

"The key is that, unlike previous treatments, we're not masking the tinnitus," Dr. Michael Kilgard of the University of Texas, one of the lead researchers, said. "We are eliminating the source of the tinnitus."

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What Is Tinnitus?

Tinnitus is hearing sounds in one or both of your ears. When you experience tinnitus, the noise you hear is usually undetectable to others and isn't brought on by outside sounds.

Tinnitus is a prevalent issue. About 15% to 20% of people have it, and elderly folks are most likely to have it.

An underlying illness, such as age-related hearing loss, an ear injury, or a circulatory system issue, is typically the cause of tinnitus. Treating the underlying cause of tinnitus or using other therapies that lessen or hide the noise will help many people's tinnitus become less visible.

According to Virginia Gural-Toth, AuD, CCC-A, manager of the Audiology, Balance, and Tinnitus Programs at the Center for Audiology at JFK Johnson, tinnitus "doesn't usually exist alone. Often, there is reportedly a comorbid condition like untreated hearing loss.