I've been following tinnitus research and the most promising treatment is FX-322 [1]. It's a drug that will treat hearing loss, but it could also help diminish tinnitus.
It's currently in phase 2a [2] and results come out next year [3].
>The researchers found that some body tissues regenerate much better than others. They studied the lining of the small intestine, which turns over roughly every four days, because it’s designed to absorb and distribute nutrients to other parts of the body. Drs. Karp and Langer saw the molecular pathways that signal the lining’s cells to turn over quickly and form new tissues.
>Around the same time, another scientific group found very similar cells in the cochlea – but with one big difference: in the cochlea, these cells weren’t active. They saw that the cochlea’s cells didn’t regenerate and form new sensory hair cells. “So that was the formation of Frequency,” LeBel explains. “And Frequency was asking, why is that the case? Why is it that the cochlea isn’t regenerating cells and the small intestine is?”
>This led to the discovery of two small molecules that make up FX-322, which targets these cells, called progenitor cells. Essentially, this process is meant to drive hair cell regeneration: The drug targets pathways to those cochlear cells, and when activated, they divide and form a new cell of themselves, called daughter cells. “And then most importantly, they form a new sensory hair cell,” LeBel says.
That sounds incredible. If it really can reliably do what they claim with no significant negative side effects, that'd seem like one of the most "miraculous" treatments I've heard of in a while, both in terms of the technique and what it could accomplish.
Carl LeBel (Chief Development Officer of Frequency) revealed on the Tinnitus Talk Podcast that several patients in the Phase I/II study reported "improved" tinnitus to their ENTs. How much improvement wasn't measured, but it's one of the reasons they're testing for tinnitus in the phase 2a study.
Otonomy's OTO-413 drug (to fix the ribbon synapses in the cochlea) also seems really promising (results are due out next month). However, for their phase I/II study they're not testing for tinnitus and are actually excluding patients with "bothersome tinnitus". I'm hoping they see the same thing as Frequency and that some patients report improved tinnitus. These two drugs together (regrowing hair cells and ribbon synapses) seem like they could be a good one-two punch against hearing loss and tinnitus.
I get it when my right ear has way too much earwax. J lose some hearing and the ringing wont stop. Just a bit annoying so Im usually wearing headphones with nice soothing music until I can get that wax out.
I'm also following FX-322 and keeping my fingers crossed that the trials result in a real significant effective treatment for my SSHL in my right ear. It would really be amazing!
I've been following frequency therapeutics as well. I don't think the Neuromod treatment would provide much help to me. My tinnitus does not bother me in any meaningful way. The bothersome thing for me is hearing loss. Noisy environments interfere with my ability to hear conversation. Some frequencies I simply cannot hear. Some noises, cheap/bad audio in the higher frequencies for instance, actually hurt my ears. When the hair clippers get close to my ear, it is nearly painful. A lot of people think that is odd because hearing loss should mean I don't hear it. As a musician and audio lover, I would pay a relatively large amount of money to have normal hearing.
I was in a T-bone accident where another car hit me centered right in between the driver and passenger doors. My left ear now has tinnitus, and I too have a hard time hearing conversation in large groups of people. However, after the wreck, I visited hearing specialist several times. I always passed their tests of the faint frequencies. They cannot explain where the ringing originates.?!?! It's one of those things it is hard to get a doctor to believe you since they can't actually see anything wrong. No broken bones, no lacerations, not bruising, nothing. Just ringing that they cannot hear.
Took me a while to understand based on my own hearing loss that it's not about decreased sensitivity to sound. Hearing is about sound volumes that occur between two limits: The threshold of sensitivity (above which you discern that the sound exists), and the threshold of pain (above which the sound is painful). Between those limits lies hearing.
In age-related "hearing loss," the threshold of sensitivity rises while the threshold of pain stays the same or even decreases slightly. So the range of volumes you can comfortably discern becomes narrower. This explains why simply increasing the volume often does more harm than good. What's really needed to treat hearing loss is frequency-specific volume compression.
I've often wondered why sometimes it's worse than others. It's always there. I always hear the ringing, but most times I can ignore it, but there are other times it just seems so much louder.
I would like to know what all those triggers are so I can try to avoid them. Some are obvious - real loud noises, heavy exercise, etc, but others not so much.
I've been dealing with it for nearly 20 years now.
I'm apparently fairly adept at putting it to the background these days, because I mostly don't notice it except for when it's particularly quiet, or something specifically triggers my awareness of it. Certain sounds in certain frequency ranges trigger it off too. My youngest kid had a playful shriek thing she did that would palpably hurt me and cause it to kick off.
Seeing this post on HN itself is triggering and I'm now very conscious of the high pitched ringing sound.
I would be willing to pay good money to be cured of this.
Same here, my awareness of it comes and goes, but I swear the effect itself varies from time to time. I seem more likely to notice the ringing if there's white noise in the background, like from a fan or AC, but it's just a theory.
For me its worse when my introversion is acting up. Its like having a song stuck in your head. It really only goes away if you engage with the rest of the world.
Edit: I stand corrected, there is a specialized CE certification that reviews limited fitness for purpose, although it does not seem very comparable to something like FDA requirements for double blind testing etc., so I'm still highly skeptical. Original comment:
There may be something here, but their presentation leaves a "snake oil" impression. Mostly because of their repeated emphasis on "CE" certification, as though that had any bearing on the effectiveness of this treatment. They even say it has "CE-mark certification for the treatment of tinnitus", which is really misleading, as CE simply means it complies with certain regulations regarding the construction of electronic devices, nothing at all about fitness for a given medical purpose.
No, there is CE marking for medical devices in the EU which means it has achieved conformity for the Medical Devices directive. Generally equivalent to FDA regulation.
This is going to sound silly to most people, but I've been suffering from Tinnitus for a long time. This technique won't cure it but it certainly brings relief for me, to the point where I can ignore it.
When my Tinnitus is particularly piercing, I imagine it as a radiant bright white line in my head. I then mentally begin to reduce the radiance of the light until it is gone. This dulls the sound immensely, I'm still aware of it but it no longer hinders me.
For bonus points, I use a similar technique for getting rid of ear worms. In that case, I mentally put the song into a wooden box, close the lid and let it fall into the sea. Works every time.
There are several of these kinds of mindful/imagination techniques.
https://rewiringtinnitus.com/ also provides some in book and audio form, where you visualize your tinnitus as a knob you can turn or a person making the noise.
Doesn't really work for me though, though sometimes it does seem like I can "tune" my tinnitus a bit.
OK. That is interesting. Every so often something incredible comes out, like this. I assume that this only relieves certain types of sources of Tinnitus, as I know there are several causes.
So, the question is, what percentage of people can be relieved with this?
I got mine from war, having survived mortar round blasts as a child on several occasions from as near as 3 meters (for example, one shell exploded right above our living room window while I was playing cards with my cousin, another exploded killing a woman and injuring several others while I was lying down behind an apple tree, having heard the sound made when a mortar shell is launched). I highly doubt that this would work on me, but I wouldn't mind trying it out.
Has anyone tried this kinds of treatments? The internet seems full of snake oil cures. To my knowledge the only medically accepted treatment for tinnitus is antidepressants, so you don't feel so bad about having tinnitus.
I've had chronic tinnitus in my left ear since doing a hand-stand pushup over a year ago. I'd really enjoy not having this ringing. I wonder when/if it will make it to the United States.
Related, another a sound therapy that's been around for 50+ years called Berard AIT - Auditory Integration Training - that uses modulation/oscillation that helps treat many things including tinnitus; a book called "Hearing Equals Behaviour: Updated and Expanded" is on Amazon.
I definitely want to dive deeper into Lenire to see how or if it differs.
I have very noticeable ringing in my ears ever since I can remember. 2 things
1 Hearing tests have always indicated I have excellent hearing.
2. The ringing doesn't bother me, even in extremely quiet environments. Speaking of, the most peaceful quiet I've encountered was in a bamboo forest somewhere in middle China. I'll never forget the utter silence.
Same for me, the tinnitus is actually comforting. Like the noise when showering vs taking a bath. As long as my hearing is fine, I’m fine. The only solution for tinnitus is habituation. Fighting it puts it into focus and makes it worse without fail.
I worked at a place that had a cube farm with white noise generators to suppress background noise. These things triggered the small amount of tinnitus I have, also some co-workers complained. The frequencies they put out definitely matters- ones with no high pitch output are definitely better.
(pretty sure my Tinnitus was from a certain Metallica concert..)
It’s the same with ANC. It’s still noise pumped into your ear. So even though you may perceive it as silence because it cancels out the sound waves entering your ears, it’s still sound entering, and thus facilitating tinnitus when exposed to it too long. Even though you feel it’s been 8 hours of silence.
I think my tinnitus is caused by my microbiome. When I eat poorly (sweets, sugar, junk food, refined carbs, etc), I suspect that some bad bacteria multiply too much in my gut and they create some toxins that cause me tinnitus. When I eat more salads (vegetables, green leaves), lots of fiber, my tinnitus dissapears completely.
It simply could be from the inflammation that sugars/carbs cause in the body, as well is if your body is reacting to certain foods you're eating - it will impact your nervous system; inflammation has a depressant effect.
Hopefully something will work out eventually. Each of my ears has tinnitus of various pitches and while you get used to it, its disconcerting to hear a sudden new pitch every couple of months and know that you've permanently lost some kind of hearing (and gained a new persistent aural 'tone').
[+] [-] dasb|5 years ago|reply
It's currently in phase 2a [2] and results come out next year [3].
[1] https://hear2tell.com/2020/09/29/frequency-therapeutics-fx-3...
[2] https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04120116
[3] https://www.hearinglosstreatmentreport.com/estimated-fx-322-...
[+] [-] meowface|5 years ago|reply
>Around the same time, another scientific group found very similar cells in the cochlea – but with one big difference: in the cochlea, these cells weren’t active. They saw that the cochlea’s cells didn’t regenerate and form new sensory hair cells. “So that was the formation of Frequency,” LeBel explains. “And Frequency was asking, why is that the case? Why is it that the cochlea isn’t regenerating cells and the small intestine is?”
>This led to the discovery of two small molecules that make up FX-322, which targets these cells, called progenitor cells. Essentially, this process is meant to drive hair cell regeneration: The drug targets pathways to those cochlear cells, and when activated, they divide and form a new cell of themselves, called daughter cells. “And then most importantly, they form a new sensory hair cell,” LeBel says.
That sounds incredible. If it really can reliably do what they claim with no significant negative side effects, that'd seem like one of the most "miraculous" treatments I've heard of in a while, both in terms of the technique and what it could accomplish.
[+] [-] patorjk|5 years ago|reply
Otonomy's OTO-413 drug (to fix the ribbon synapses in the cochlea) also seems really promising (results are due out next month). However, for their phase I/II study they're not testing for tinnitus and are actually excluding patients with "bothersome tinnitus". I'm hoping they see the same thing as Frequency and that some patients report improved tinnitus. These two drugs together (regrowing hair cells and ribbon synapses) seem like they could be a good one-two punch against hearing loss and tinnitus.
[+] [-] vagrantJin|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tstubben|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pacomerh|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] urgentresearch|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ghastmaster|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dylan604|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dreamcompiler|5 years ago|reply
In age-related "hearing loss," the threshold of sensitivity rises while the threshold of pain stays the same or even decreases slightly. So the range of volumes you can comfortably discern becomes narrower. This explains why simply increasing the volume often does more harm than good. What's really needed to treat hearing loss is frequency-specific volume compression.
[+] [-] unknown|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] quaffapint|5 years ago|reply
I would like to know what all those triggers are so I can try to avoid them. Some are obvious - real loud noises, heavy exercise, etc, but others not so much.
[+] [-] Twirrim|5 years ago|reply
I'm apparently fairly adept at putting it to the background these days, because I mostly don't notice it except for when it's particularly quiet, or something specifically triggers my awareness of it. Certain sounds in certain frequency ranges trigger it off too. My youngest kid had a playful shriek thing she did that would palpably hurt me and cause it to kick off.
Seeing this post on HN itself is triggering and I'm now very conscious of the high pitched ringing sound.
I would be willing to pay good money to be cured of this.
[+] [-] Thaxll|5 years ago|reply
- I did not sleep enough
- I wake up in the middle of my sleep
- I drink a lot of alcohol
- There is a lot of noise arround me
- In few cases it's just random and get stronger for no apparent reasons
[+] [-] m463|5 years ago|reply
And sure enough, one of the overhead fluorescent lights had an electrical humming coming from it.
And it became hard to study from that moment forward.
[+] [-] Cactus2018|5 years ago|reply
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/tinnitus/symp...
[+] [-] mwfunk|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tsmarsh|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ineedasername|5 years ago|reply
There may be something here, but their presentation leaves a "snake oil" impression. Mostly because of their repeated emphasis on "CE" certification, as though that had any bearing on the effectiveness of this treatment. They even say it has "CE-mark certification for the treatment of tinnitus", which is really misleading, as CE simply means it complies with certain regulations regarding the construction of electronic devices, nothing at all about fitness for a given medical purpose.
[+] [-] becurious|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] hashkb|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Corinthian|5 years ago|reply
When my Tinnitus is particularly piercing, I imagine it as a radiant bright white line in my head. I then mentally begin to reduce the radiance of the light until it is gone. This dulls the sound immensely, I'm still aware of it but it no longer hinders me.
For bonus points, I use a similar technique for getting rid of ear worms. In that case, I mentally put the song into a wooden box, close the lid and let it fall into the sea. Works every time.
[+] [-] vldr|5 years ago|reply
https://rewiringtinnitus.com/ also provides some in book and audio form, where you visualize your tinnitus as a knob you can turn or a person making the noise.
Doesn't really work for me though, though sometimes it does seem like I can "tune" my tinnitus a bit.
[+] [-] fwsgonzo|5 years ago|reply
So, the question is, what percentage of people can be relieved with this?
[+] [-] dt3ft|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ehsankia|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] viburnum|5 years ago|reply
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNjDBOJfMfY
[+] [-] hn_saver|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jsarlo|5 years ago|reply
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/lenire-—-user-experienc...
[+] [-] zdw|5 years ago|reply
Did someone lick the terminals of a 9V battery and realize their tinnitus changed for the better?
[+] [-] beambot|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] adultSwim|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] abfan1127|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] joewrong|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ozten|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] monoideism|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] loceng|5 years ago|reply
I definitely want to dive deeper into Lenire to see how or if it differs.
[+] [-] ecommerceguy|5 years ago|reply
1 Hearing tests have always indicated I have excellent hearing. 2. The ringing doesn't bother me, even in extremely quiet environments. Speaking of, the most peaceful quiet I've encountered was in a bamboo forest somewhere in middle China. I'll never forget the utter silence.
[+] [-] dstick|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jhallenworld|5 years ago|reply
(pretty sure my Tinnitus was from a certain Metallica concert..)
[+] [-] dstick|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] afita|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] loceng|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] anonymousab|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bearjaws|5 years ago|reply
My Oncologist said it would get better over time, and it has, but its still far off from where I was when I started.
[+] [-] monkpit|5 years ago|reply
Also, I really hate reading about tinnitus because it just reminds my brain to stop ignoring that ringing sound...
[+] [-] sinoue|5 years ago|reply