A constant clamor surrounds
Adam Edwards at his family-owned tire repair shop in Dallas.
But it's the noise inside his own head that bothers him
most.
"One weekend I was out target shooting, shot my pistol,
wasn't wearing the protection, and my ears started ringing,"
he said. "That was about four years ago, and it's
been ringing ever since."
An estimated 50 million Americans who have fired guns
without ear protection or listened to blasting music now
live with the damaging effects: Constant ringing in the
ears.
Most have been told there is no treatment for the condition
called tinnitus.
For some people it sounds like a constant buzzing, music,
or low hum.
Adam Edwards explains it this way: "It's like a real
high-pitched keyboard."
After years of suffering, he found treatment at the Callier
Center in Dallas, where audiologists are getting good
results with a device that looks like an iPod or MP3 player.
It's called Neuromonics.
Rather than drown out the ringing, Neuromonics uses specially
processed and layered music to retrain the brain.
"It gets your brain to turn down the loudness of
the tinnitus," said audiologist Anne Howell. "For
most people, they say their tinnitus is much less loud
to them than when they first started. It desensitizes
the system."
Other treatment devices for tinnitus use white noise to
mask tinnitus, which many patients say can be as annoying
as the condition itself.
Neuromonics uses relaxing music, similar to what might
be played during a massage.
"The music is chosen because it has 60-to-80 beats
per minute to help promote relaxation," Howell said.
"Tinnitus can produce anxiety and sleep problems
for many patients."
Edwards wore the device and listened to the same four
songs several hours a day for nine months. That's the
standard treatment time.
"It's a lot better than the crazy I was getting from
the ringing," he reports.
Neuromonics isn't a cure, but Edwards said the difference
has been remarkable. He continues to wear the device at
night for maintenance treatment.
He also wears ear muffs during the day to protect his
hearing from the continued racket outside his head.
MORE
INFORMATION
This story first appeared
on WFAA-TV in August, 2009. Their website can be found
at www.wfaa.com.
Music without words means leaving behind the mind. And leaving behind the mind is meditation.
Meditation returns you to the source. And the source of all is sound. — Kabir
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