Tinnitus Support Group

I read in a previous post by pandabear, that they thought something would be around in the next 10 years.

Interestingly if you check out the health section of Yahoo News right now there's an article that expresses the belief by many in the bioengineering fields that within the next 30 years the ability to prolong life indefinitely will be within science's reach. If you want some rough guidelines as to what to expect and from what areas of research here are my thoughts.

Since in most cases, the cause of Tinnitus seems to be a defect within the auditory circuits of the brain it would make sense that a cure would need to directly address this. I think one obvious route would be through compounds that modulate neurotransmitters and signalling pathways in the brain. This would possibly come from research into psychiatric compounds and perhaps even compounds used to treat neuropathologies such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and related afflictions. I would say that less than 15 years would be a safe estimate for effective meds from this area of research and possibly much sooner.
The second area of research which holds promise is modification of the gene expression process. There are many ongoing compounds and techniques being used to target and modify gene expression. One example is exon skipping, which although directly applicable to Tinnitus, has shown clinical benefit in restoring functional dystrophin by alteration of the gene transcription process. I think a likely window for effective therapies for this would be less than 15 years as well.

Another possible avenue would be direct interface of artificial and biological structures. I think this has a longer time horizon in terms of producing beneficial clinical outcomes and would range from 15-20 years from now.

I think the most likely near term solution would be some pharmacological compound acting on specific neuroreceptors in the brain and I don't think this is too far off.

I think the takeaway from my understanding of current bioengineering and pharmaceutical development is that knowledge and discoveries are happening much more rapidly now than they have in the past. There has probably been more increase in the sheer volume of medical knowledge in the past 20 years than in the entire history of medicine. There is much to be optimistic about so stay positive and find ways to cope until the good news comes; and, it will.

Let me qualify my statement about interfacing of biological and artificial structures in that I mean, fully integrated and functional structures which mimic or alter normal physiological processes directly and precisely. We do have crude interfaces such as electrode implantation to the brain, which have shown to be effective at alleviating tinnitus, but is still in its infancy and quite crude. However, this is an option for current sufferers I think if one were to be aggressive enough about pursuing it now.

Well this is a nice positive post. :)

30 YEARS I WILL NOT BE HERE,HOPE IT IS SOONER THIS IS NO WAY TO LIVE,THANKS FOR SHARING, HUGS ,SQUARLEY

What is your thoughts on micro-transponder


They claim to be ready in Europe by the end of the year

Do you feel there technology will give us substantial relief

Thank you so very much for your imput

I won't be here in 30 years either Squarley. I am happy to think that generations to come will not have to cope with what we are now...and we will finally be at peace as well.