Tinnitus is an interesting one to me. I've read so many of people's theories and anecdotes and have suffered myself for the last 11ish years.
The hearing system is complicated, we still don't know why tinnitus happens. The cochlear cannot be observed medically without destroying it (perilymph).
My running theory is our hearing synapses severe for numerous reasons. Concussion, viral infection, loud noises, jaw compression. But the most interesting to me is.... People that have ear wax build up and no obvious middle ear or inner ear trauma can develop tinnitus. I think there's a much bigger connection between the body, mind and cochlear than we think.
We've been focused on inner hair cell regeneration but a paper I read recently suggested hair cells have the ability to recover. The connection between these and the auditory nerve are disconnected potentially as a protection, why these aren't reestablished is a bit of an unknown.
The good news is there is research being done to regrow these synapses, some results in nice of course. The brain may need to relearn the connections. I have quite a firm believe it's these synapses that need therapeutics.
I do wish we threw more money into hearing, it's an essential sense to the world and loosing it has an detrimental impact on society. It's not fair people wake up with sudden deafness without explanation, or following a flu or vaccine etc.
If I had a few billion this is one area I would fund and have a good idea who would receive said funds.
The hearing system is complicated, we still don't know why tinnitus happens. The cochlear cannot be observed medically without destroying it (perilymph).
My running theory is our hearing synapses severe for numerous reasons. Concussion, viral infection, loud noises, jaw compression. But the most interesting to me is.... People that have ear wax build up and no obvious middle ear or inner ear trauma can develop tinnitus. I think there's a much bigger connection between the body, mind and cochlear than we think.
We've been focused on inner hair cell regeneration but a paper I read recently suggested hair cells have the ability to recover. The connection between these and the auditory nerve are disconnected potentially as a protection, why these aren't reestablished is a bit of an unknown.
The good news is there is research being done to regrow these synapses, some results in nice of course. The brain may need to relearn the connections. I have quite a firm believe it's these synapses that need therapeutics.
I do wish we threw more money into hearing, it's an essential sense to the world and loosing it has an detrimental impact on society. It's not fair people wake up with sudden deafness without explanation, or following a flu or vaccine etc.
If I had a few billion this is one area I would fund and have a good idea who would receive said funds.