Treatment for Tinnitus

I ran across this news item and wanted to share it with the greater PTM family. Some of us “more experienced” musicians may suffer from tinnitus, or a constant ringing in the ears. If this is you (or someone you know) there may be a fairly inexpensive way to combat it.

Researchers have determined that playing several hours a day of music that has been specially-adapted to remove the frequency of the ringing eventually leads to the tinnitus sufferer being better able to “tune out” that distracting and frustrating noise. This BBC news article gives more details, but here are a couple of particularly exciting tidbits:

Participants listened to the music for an average of 12 hours a week and by the end of the study, those who had been given the tailored music reported a significant drop in the level of the ringing they heard compared with those listening to the dummy version.

“The notched music approach can be considered as enjoyable, low cost, and presumably causal treatment that is capable of specifically reducing tinnitus loudness. It could significantly complement widely-used and rather indirect psychological treatment strategies.”

This treatment isn’t a silver bullet, but it’s a relatively inexpensive helper treatment that has already achieved significant results. If you or someone you love has tinnitus, don’t let it stop the music; use the music to fight back. Keep that music coming!

All the best,
Mark

For more information, please also see this Daily Mail article.

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