If you've never experienced the frustrating effects of tinnitus, then you should definitely consider yourself lucky. This condition creates noises without any outside source within your ears, making you hear things when everything else is quiet.
This could be sounds of ringing, buzzing, humming, or even the sensation of throbbing inside your ear canals. Definitely not pleasant. Imagine if you heard something really annoying in your ear, but it just never went away. That's tinnitus.
It's not exactly a disease itself, but can be a symptom of other underlying health conditions, like depression, anxiety, Meniere's disease, diabetes, and multiple sclerosis. It can also cause major sleep loss, as the constant noise really prevents getting a good night's sleep.
However, according to Metro, researchers out of the University of Arizona may have uncovered a potential new treatment target, and it's not inside the ears. In fact, they're looking a bit deeper inside the head and are pointing to the brain for a cure.
Tinnitus is a symptom of hearing loss which can induced by loud noises, like standing too close to a booming speaker or working next to loud machinery your entire life without working the proper ear protection. This causes permanent damage to your hearing, but rather than just reducing what it is you can hear, the damage can trigger tinnitus in the form of an increase of inner ear noises.
So, it should follow then that any damage caused to the ears would result in inflammation in the auditory pathway, triggering tinnitus.
They induced tinnitus in the mice by exposing them to loud noise for two hours. What they found was they were able to stop the condition in the rodents by blocking a protein that fuels brain inflammation.
"These results implicate neuro-inflammation as a therapeutic target for treating tinnitus and other hearing loss related disorders," study co-author Professor Shaowen Bao said.
Drugs that could block one specific molecule known as TNF-a would potentially lessen or even eliminate brain inflammation entirely. Thus, the symptoms of tinnitus would be eliminated as well, and a lot of people would get a much better night's sleep.
As Bao explained, the therapy proved successful in animals, but they'll need to thoroughly investigate any and all potentially adverse effects the treatment could have in people but we ever see human trials take place.
However, it's still comforting to know that this big of a breakthrough has been made, and that we're that much closer to finally having a cure for tinnitus.
h/t: Metro
