# HT, Pet Scan, IBS, Tinnitus all in the same bag!



## bernard (Jan 4, 2000)

Hi allTHANKS to *Pet Scan* there is now confirmation that lot of troubles have ONE part of the mystery laying in the brain.Now, i understand My IBS and MY Tinnitus (some others have the problem due to TMJ problem. I don't think it's my case since i can move my jaw in many direction without earring any crack, pop and no limitation, while there is a lot of teeth missing on the left side ).I have a loss of earring in both ears, but while the earring loss in the left ears is gradual from 6.5 kHz to 20khz in first approximation, the right ear exhibit a different behavior. There is a sudden drop between 6 and 8 kHz, the bottom being about 7Khz. Then a rise from 8 to 9 then back down gradually to 20k. The difference ### 7 k between left and right is about 26 db that is pretty big AND the Tinnitus IS MANLY situated between 6 and 9 kHz (note that i did my own experiment on my PC with my sound card. Note also i have general Tinnitus but more like a general "i'm use to white noise").What does it means in my view and against new discoveries.My brain experiences a loss of earring and compensate in that range by generating it's own noise. 2nd, Doc are no help at all, they always told me that everything is normal for my age???? they don't know anything about new discovery.What to do?1st- HT for sure! It looks like this Tinnitus create some kind of emotional behavior as the IBS.2nd- Instead of earring general sound out of that frequency spectrum, ... emphasize on erring that crazy sound! Now the brain experiences EXTERNAL sound IN that frequency range and my guess is .... that with time the internal noise will reduce since there is no need of generated it. Also by earring that noise, then it create less emotions since you know where it's coming from.*THANKS ERIC to have shown to us all those Pet Scan.*---------------I just finished to create those crazy sound (thanks to freeware!)---------------*Researchers Find Sites In Brain Responsible For Tinnitus; Work Raises Possibility Of Treatments, Cure *BUFFALO, N.Y. -- Researchers at the University at Buffalo and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Buffalo, using positron emission tomography (PET), have pinpointed for the first time the specific brain regions responsible for Tinnitus, a constant and debilitating ringing in the ears experienced by millions of Americans. The findings are a major breakthrough in the study of these "phantom sounds," for which there is no known cause or effective treatment. Results of the study appear in the January issue of Neurology. Based on the results of the study, the lead researchers have received a $1.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to conduct a major investigation of tinnitus and hearing loss using PET scanning. "People with severe tinnitus, which is about 10 percent of elderly Americans, often suffer depression, anxiety, sleep disruption and other symptoms that have a major impact on their quality of life," said Alan H. Lockwood, M.D., lead author of the study. "Without objective information on how and where the condition originates, developing effective treatments has been difficult. By identifying the sites in the brain that mediate tinnitus, we have taken a critical step down the road toward a cure for this disabling condition." Lockwood, a neurologist, directs the Center for Positron Emission Tomography at the Buffalo VA Medical Center, a joint venture with UB, where the research was conducted. He holds appointments as a professor of neurology, nuclear medicine and communicative disorders and sciences at UB. Lockwood and Richard Salvi, Ph.D., co-director of the UB Center for Hearing and Deafness, studied tinnitus patients who have the unusual ability to control the loudness of the ringing by clenching their jaws. The researchers were able to track fluctuations in cerebral blood flow through PET scans taken while these patients manipulated their symptoms, creating a map of the brain site responsible for tinnitus activity. In addition, they reported these significant findings never before observed: An abnormal link exists in tinnitus patients between the auditory system and the limbic system, the brain wiring responsible for emotions, a finding that may explain why tinnitus can be emotionally crippling. Altered response to auditory stimuli in tinnitus patients, many of whom have hearing loss, results in changes in the auditory circuitry in the brain. The extent of change may dictate the exact nature and severity of the resulting tinnitus. PET scanning can be used as an objective tool to measure tinnitus and to determine the effectiveness of new treatments. The study involved four tinnitus patients and six persons with normal hearing and no tinnitus, who served as controls. All participants took standard hearing tests before PET scanning. The tinnitus patients had mild-to-severe high-frequency hearing loss. The researchers were able to pinpoint the origin of tinnitus activity to sites in the temporal lobe opposite the affected ear by comparing PET scans of tinnitus patients while they manipulated their loudness with their scans at rest and with scans of normal controls as they performed the same jaw movements. "Identifying sites in the brain that mediate tinnitus is a critical first step in the difficult task of defining the factors that create these phantom sensations and developing rational treatments for this chronic and disabling condition," Lockwood said. The researchers also found, unexpectedly, that the hippocampus, part of the brain responsible for emotions, was activated in tinnitus patients, but not in normal controls, indicating one possible pathway for the adverse psychological effects often experienced with the condition. In addition, they observed that external sounds activated a more extensive network of nerves in tinnitus patients with hearing loss (nearly all tinnitus patients have impaired hearing) than in normal subjects. Lockwood said this finding indicated that the auditory system in tinnitus patients reorganizes as a result of the reduction in auditory stimuli. "Changes in the brain occur following many forms of neural injury or changes in the sensory input to the brain," Lockwood said. "These changes may be responsible for symptoms such as phantom limb pain, a syndrome in which amputees feel excruciating pain that seems to originate in the missing limb. We believe that tinnitus may be the auditory counterpart to phantom limb pain. "We still have a lot of work to do," Lockwood said, "as we define the factors that cause the changes we report, and learn how to use this information to develop scientifically based treatments." The study was made possible by grants from UB, the American Tinnitus Association, the James H. Cummings Foundation of Buffalo and the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders, part of the NIH.


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## Redclaw (Sep 22, 2001)

Bernard, As a long term sufferer of tinnitus and hearing loss, your talk about tinnitus being a brain generated sound to substitute for the missing hearing range sounds is something I have often pondered, but never discussed with anyone . It is a brilliant concept and I hope the research goes on. I will have a good chance to test the concept soon as I am having surgery to reconstruct my left middle ear with ceramic implants.If my hearing range improves with a corresponding reduction in similar frequency tinnitus, I will know there is something to this concept.Thanks for your postings.


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## norbert46 (Feb 20, 2001)

Bernard let me toss something out there that I've been pondering for several years and my friend Redclaw will probably confirm my craziness! I have told others on the MP BB that my moderate tinnitus stopped along with my IBS/D upon using Mike's tapes. I can't with any facts or medical documentation tell you why that happens but here is my thoughts. Our brains control the perception of our senses, sight,hearing,smell,taste,feel. I know that our senses do stange things according to our brain control and also our senses of smell, and hearing are much more acute than our brain is allowing, these senses are being "dumbed"down by the brain to allow us to function! We can actually smell and hear better than we perceive(unless we actually have organ damage) Here's how I know, I once was on Xanax tranquillizers. The tranquillizers work by "dumbing" down the brain's perception of the sensory input to allow your brain to relax and do less interpretive work. I felt like I would lose my marbles when I quit the Xanax "cold turkey" to get off the "Benzo" addiction. My sense of smell became so sensitive that everything was overwhelming to my mind, I could smell roses in the yard when I walked on the porch and the smell was annoying even though I love roses, it was like "loud" perfume. I went walking at the citypark and could smell the Honeysuckles on the back of the track nearly 1/4 mile away and it was annoying, I also love Honeysuckle. The house stunk when I walked in the door and my wife keeps a very clean house! My hearing became so acute that the hourly trains on the tracks 4miles away made so much noise that I couldn't sleep and it felt like having a trumpet player blowin his horn loud from 4feet away. This condition lasted nearly a week until the Xanax was outta my system and my brain readjusted the perceptions and "dumbed" the senses back down to a tolerable level. I think that possibly explains why the tinnitus disappeared with the IBS/D by taking Mike's tapeprogram. The subconcious messages in the tapes corrected the faulty perceptions and stopped the gut spasms and also maybe stopped the concious awareness of the blood pulsing through the veins in the ear region? When "kicking" the Xanax I hated to hear a train coming many miles away and suffered until is was long gone, now I don't even notice one unless a cold front with a North wind but it is not annoying but kinda secure feeling?? Okay Redclaw go ahead and unload on me I deserve it?







Norb


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## eric (Jul 8, 1999)

Glad it helped Bernard.







I really don't know a lot about it personally, but glad it helped an the pet Imagery is a great tool in medicine. There is still a real lot to learn with it and what it is showing.On Norbert comments and it would be interesting to ivestigate, but HT increases or decreases blood flow to certain areas of the brain and I would imagine this may have something to do with all this in someway.redclaw, good luck on your surgery.


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## Redclaw (Sep 22, 2001)

Norb, I'm presuming you have no physical damage to your middle or inner ears (maybe frypan over the head damage?) which probably is a different problem altogether from mine.I had infections from early childhood that I learned later were due to mastoid bone defects. I had surgery on one ear at age 17, and the other at age 31, to remove some of the bone and reconstruct the drum.One has been quite successful but the other has never been good and got regular infections. This is the one I am having the middle ear job done to replace the 'moving parts'ENT said my tinnitus is due to destruction of the original parts by repeated infections, so we're hoping restoration of the connection between drum and cochlea will restore hearing and with a bit of luck also get rid of a lot of the tinnitusI also took Xanax some years ago for panic related to loss of balance but never liked it due to the zombie effect. Never had any strange withdrawal problems like you. I was switched to diazapam (Valium) and I like it much better. Only take it as required, average around two 5mg a week, sometimes none depending on how I feel.


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## norbert46 (Feb 20, 2001)

No frypan damage because she just uses her fist!







I had forget to mention that the fact that our senses, especially smell and hearing, could be much keener than our brains allow under normal circumstances was not just a false perception on my part while I was "kicking" a powerful Xanax addiction "cold turkey". We have to drive 5miles to get to the walking track in the wooded citypark I previously mentioned and park in their parking lot. The honeysuckles I mentioned were on the back side of the track in the woods and I didn't know they were there and couldn't see them. As soon as I got outta the truck I mentioned the honeysuckles being in bloom and strong smelling and my wife said she didn't smell anything and couldn't see any. By the time we rounded the bend within 100yards of the honeysuckles you still couldn't see any but the smell was driving me wild and she was just beginning to even smell that they were in bloom? If our brain allowed we could be human bloodhounds but our minds couldn't take the stress/pain because it is not a pleasurable experience even though I love the smell of honeysuckles and roses. Like I said the experience was the same with sounds and the old saying about "Indians" having such acute hearing may have something to do with their brains turning up their perception on the sounds? It was an unbelievable sensory event but I would not wish for me or anyone else to go thru that experience, that's why(besides getting IBS and anxiety relief) that I recommend Mike's tapes and nonmedicating and noninvassive treatments. Good luck, Norb


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