Unfortunately ONLY those who have TINNITUS have an understanding of it i.e. YES IT DOES EXIST! Those who have experienced temporary ringing in the ears, discount it when it disappears. When it becomes permanent you start asking questions, yet nobody seems to have the answer. Over the past ten years General Practitioners, Ear Specialists, Audiologists alike (and they are partially right) gravitate their thinking towards some sort of damage to the cochlear or cilia (tiny hairs). "YOU HAVE A HEARING PROBLEM". That is like telling a patient with a stomach ache that "YOU MIGHT HAVE A STOMACH PROBLEM". If you then ask, "What causes the ringing sounds?" they will repeat the above and then tell you it's a perceived sound, that it doesn't really exist! They don't know, how can they? They don't hear it, it doesn't exist, they have no understanding of it, so how can they help? Recently however, some Audiologists have come to realize tinnitus is real and have begun therapies to mask the tinnitus using white noise and even assisting their patients through councilling in methods of how to move the tinnitus into the background, reducing the stress tinnitus causes. Although this is absolutely necessary it does not address the tinnitus itself.
The Mayo Clinic states "If the hairs inside your
inner ear are bent or broken they can 'leak' random
electrical impulses to your brain, causing tinnitus." I
have to give them credit. They are actually looking at
the mechanism creating tinnitus, which is more than most
researchers do. The cilia (tiny hairs) and electrical
impulses.
But "leaking"? How do we plung the leak?
Auto Neurosensory Function (ANF)
The answer lays in the abyss between Audiology (the
mechanics of the auditory system) and Neuroscience
(neurotransmitters and the nervous system) one of the basic
functions of the human body.
One of the basic functions of the human body is to
make adjustments, both physically and mentally . . .
adapting to any given situation, voluntary and
involuntary . . . . . to evolve.
We sustain a physical injury that can affect our
mobility. Our body adjusts our posture or we may
favour one leg because the other is injured. We do this
so that we can maintain mobility. If the injury is
temporary and the healing process is successful, we
readjust. If there is anything in this universe that is
constant, this adjustment or the drive to adjust would be
it.
However there is a function that remains static. Auto Neurosensory Function
(ANF).
The senses, take touch for instance. You can feel your
skin, the tips of your fingers without even touching
anything. That's because the neurotransmitters are
sending electrical impulses to the nerve endings
in your hands. You register these sensations because you
are experiencing an electrical handshake (no pun
intended).
What happens if there's a break in the cycle? With
touch, when there are some nerve endings damaged, a
tingling or heat is felt. The neurotransmissions
increase to complete the cycle. This is due to the lack
of response of some of the nerve endings.
The same occurs with the auditory system except sound is
the response. As the cilia vibrate they send an
electrical impulse to the cochlear nerve which is
registered by the brain and then back again. This occurs
constantly.
If the cilia are damaged, temporarily
flattened or restricted by perhaps some abnormality in
the viscosity of the cochlear fliuds, neurotransmissions
increase creating sound, frequencies directly related to
the damaged cilia. It's not uncommom for tinnitus
sufferers to experience different types of sound
frequencies from one another. There is a solution being researched to alleviate tinnitus. For
more information regarding this and Auto Neurosensory Function
(ANF) See NEUROSCIENCE
and RESEARCH PAPER.