Possible tinnitus cure 'brings hope to many'RSS Feed

Brain injury tinnitus can be cured by retuning a part of the brain, scientists claim.

Research published in journal Nature found that by electrically stimulating the vagus nerve in rats while playing sounds at specific frequencies, they could rid the rats of the ringing in their ears.

These findings have led to a clinical trial on human patients starting in the next few months, which will bring hope to sufferers of the brain injury everywhere.

Study leader Dr Michael Kilgard said that unlike other treatments for the condition, this remedy does not merely mask the ringing sound.

"We are returning the brain from a state where it generates tinnitus to a state that does not generate tinnitus. We are eliminating the source of the tinnitus," he explained.

This comes after researchers at McMaster University in Ontario found that the phantom ringing in the ears sufferers of tinnitus experience is not from a fault in the ears themselves but from neurons in the brain "talking" to each other.

News brought to you by Serious Law specialists in traumatic brain injury

Posted by Paul Breen

Gabrielle Giffords may not return to Congress following brain injury

12 January 2011

The chances of US politician Gabrielle Giffords returning to Congress following her brain injury are not good. Speaking after the Democrat congresswoman was shot in the head at a supermarket in Arizona,...

Read More...

Congresswoman sustains brain injury in shooting

10 January 2011

Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords has been left with severe brain injury after a shooting at a Safeway store in Arizona.Jared Loughner, 22, has been arrested as a suspect in the shooting, which took place...

Read More...

Umbilical cord stem cells to treat brain injury?

07 January 2011

Researchers at the University of Texas are to examine the use of umbilical cord blood stem cells in the treatment of traumatic brain injury in children. The study, which has been approved by the Food and...

Read More...