Many conditions and diseases can be passed down from generation to generation. Is tinnitus one of them?

I hope you’ve had a chance to read my tinnitus report.  In it you’ll find some of the most in-depth information on the various treatments options available to help you quell the clamor that is tinnitus.

I bring up tinnitus today because there’s new research out that should come as good news for tinnitus sufferers, particularly those people with tinnitus that don’t want to pass it on to their kids.

In the majority of cases, tinnitus results when someone is exposed to ear-piercing sounds for any extended period of time.  But there has been growing speculation that tinnitus may be similar to other debilitating conditions, in that it can be passed down through genetic lines.  In other words, someone whose life was spent in places where you could hear a pin drop (if that were even possible) might “inherit” tinnitus.

But according to research published in the Archives of Otalaryngology Head & Neck Surgery, tinnitus is not an inherited condition.

Researchers came to this conclusion after reviewing the case files of over 13,000 married men and women, about 26,600 parents and their offspring, and another 11,500 brothers and sisters.  All of the participants filled out questionnaires relating to their hearing and whether they were hard of hearing.  All of them also underwent a thorough hearing examination.

Given the familial nature of the study, it comes as no surprise that researchers wanted to see if there was any correlation between siblings and tinnitus prevalence, or parents passing on tinnitus to their kids.

Overall, they found that tinnitus was unusually common, far more common among this particular group of subjects compared to the country (More than 20 percent of the subjects studied had “definite” or “probable” tinnitus.  About one in every six people have had symptoms of tinnitus at least once in their lives).

But the high incidence rate was not seen among tinnitus sufferers’ siblings or their kids.

For example, the incidence rate of tinnitus among parents to kids was .01 to .07.  For siblings, the incidence rate was slightly higher, but not by much (from .06 to .14).

In short, while there are lots of diseases and conditions that are inherited (e.g. obesity, diabetes, hypertension, etc.), tinnitus is not one of them.

The research was funded by the National Institute on Deafness and conducted by Norwegian researchers from Akershus University Hospital in Akershus, Norway.

Source:
sciencedaily.com

Ringing is reduced in tinnitus sufferers after listening to music stripped of certain tones.

One of the greatest benefits of subscribing to my weekly newsletter is that it provides you with the most up to date information available in health news.  So if there was something I reported last week about what you can do to improve your health, you can guarantee I’ll add or change those recommendations should it be warranted.   Perhaps an example would better explain what I mean.

Last week I released my tinnitus report.  It had the most up-to-date information on what can be done to reduce that ringing in your ears.  But there’s since been a study that shows how people can reduce the ringing even more.

The findings come on the heels of a warning issued by the European Union Scientific Committee on Emerging and Newly Identified Health Risks on what people can do to better protect their hearing.  Hearing loss has never been higher than it is today, particularly in industrialized countries, with people everywhere blaring their music at excessive levels.

But researchers from Germany are using the very thing that caused so much damage—music—for relief.

Researchers did so through the use of specialized technology that “stripped” music of the tones that the participants heard in their ears.  The participants would do their best to mimic the tone that they heard in their heads, and then the researchers could take that similar sound out of the music being played.

For a year, the participants listened to their songs, each tailored to their tinnitus tone.  And according to the findings published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the music did the trick.  Compared to those who listened to a placebo kind of music (the placebo being a song that wasn’t manipulated in any way), there was a “distinct” decrease in the loudness of the ringing.

The study included 39 men and women who had chronic tinnitus for at least five years.  Each group listened to their specialized music for about 12 hours per week.

The study’s lead researcher, Christo Pantev from Westfalian Wilhelms University, says that the music treatment is low cost and effective, which suggests that this kind of technology is available here in the states.  Talk to your ear, nose and throat doctor about what resources are available in your area.  And please consult my tinnitus report if you haven’t already.  I’m confident it can help resolve your tinnitus symptoms.

Sources:
newsdaily.com
news.bbc.co.uk

Let the bells ring out in gladness: Tinnitus can be treated and can be won!

When our twentysomething sons and daughters head off to war, we all want them to return safely and without incident.  And while thousands have returned from fighting with little to no damage done to them, physically or mentally, there’s one condition that an overwhelming number have reported experiencing.  It’s called tinnitus, or a ringing in the ears.  And for 75 percent of the men and women back from the Middle East, the ringing is constant and unrelenting.

The stubborn ringing can develop in any number of ways, often by people who are around high noise zones like rock concerts, music halls, construction zones, or in the soldiers’ cases, war zones.  But tinnitus is not the sole proprietorship of noisome neighborhoods.  It can also develop in noiseless neighborhoods, like libraries, abandoned parking lots or secluded hideaways.

In other words, tinnitus can develop any time, any where.  But for a shockingly high number of people, tinnitus is a condition that they’re told to simply “deal with.”

According to a recent study published in the Journal of Clinical Nursing, a whopping 94 percent of people with tinnitus are not given any recourse whatsoever.  Doctors simply tell them that there’s nothing they can do, essentially abandoning them like they’re a ship without a port, a seaman without a paddle.

Researchers and doctors discovered this disturbing trend after reviewing over 150 papers on tinnitus and its victims since 1983.  Besides the fact that there’s been an increase in the number of people getting tinnitus since 1983, what was particularly galling was that so many were left without any recourse.  In short, they were told to simply “deal with it.”

Real nice.

Where there has been advancement in tinnitus research is its possible causes.  For instance, it was once believed that tinnitus resulted from nerve damage in the ear itself, but recent studies suggest that the problem may originate in the brain.

This is all well and good for bookworms and lovers of all things science, but it does absolutely nothing for the 20 percent of Americans that have it, a pittance of whom seek treatment (With 94 percent of people being told that nothing can be done for them, it’s hard to blame them).

Well, I’m here to tell you that tinnitus is absolutely treatable!  The fact that so many people with tinnitus have been told that nothing can be done for them is discouraging for me and I don’t even have tinnitus.  You can imagine how it must feel for those that have tinnitus.  Discouragement breeds stress, and stress is one of the many things that exacerbate tinnitus conditions.

To discover more about tinnitus and how you can overcome it, please read my latest report on tinnitus.  It’s an all-natural approach to treating one of the world’s most common conditions, and I’m confident that it can work for you.

Sources:
sciencedaily.com