German start-up is acclaimed for tinnitus ‘breakthrough’
mainTinnitracks, a new device from Hamburg company Sonormed, uses filtered audio therapy to treat ringing in the ears. It helps tinnitus sufferers retrain their brains by listening to music that filters out case-specific frequencies.
Sonormed’s MD, Jörg Land (centre), won a major prize this week at the Austin, Texas, South by Southwest technology festival.
I have tried so many “cures” in the last twenty years of listening to music through constant hiss that I am now rather sceptical. Apparently one uses this device without any medical counselling and one has to estimate the frequency of one’s own tinnitus. This is not easy to do, all the more as it tends to vary. And how is one to know if progress is being made or not? I tried one “electromagnetic” device a few years ago and this resulted in my focussing unduly on my tinnitus, making matters worse. Still, I shall keep an eye on the Tinnitracks website.
I haven’t slept for 2 years now due to this CONSTANT LOUD HISSING ! I have tried EVERYTHING–searching for some relief !
At Austin there is the SXSW pop festival at the moment. Austinnitus?
A lot on this retraining thing a lot lately. Why can’t any of the treatments get a positive testimonial from anyone??
Thanks for the article.
@Stephen
Tinnitracks is a classified medical device that is currently only available in Germany. We work very closely together with local ENT-doctors and audiologists. Those are choosed based upon the required technological equipment for an acurate tinnitus matching.
Our approach is well grounded in and demonstrated by brain research and clinical studies that have been published in internationally peer-reviewed journals. All of this research has been conducted by by independent scientists all having declared non-competing (including financial) interests. We would like to refer you to the following selection of publications that provide details of the most crucial neurophysiological processes underlying our approach:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10526109
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2824261/
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19842347
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25441152
All sources are also mentioned on our website (http://www.tinnitracks.com/en/therapeuticeffect)
Our technology is not only filtering the music, but also for instance checks the treatment potential of your music (based on your frequency) or is optimized to selected Sennheiser headphones.
It is likely that you do not focus on the treatment itself since you are listing to your own music, which is different to any device.
This method certainly intrigues me and sounds very promising. Also it is much cheaper than the CR neuromonics method proposed by the British Tinnitus Clinic, which involves a number of visits – a 10-hour journey in my case – to have the sound on their device adjusted as the tinnitus sound evolves.
I discover lots of people suffering tinnitus like me. I used to suffer it and I have been got a lot of ways to remove it. Finally, I got. check out: http://www.tangngan.net/ I got a lot of good suggestions from this website, really inspire me.
I am never going to give up in my goal to cure my tinnitus. I have my own blog called tinnitus states. I have tried and am trying many ways to address my tinnitus. Some may not work but I learn from each failure. I think this product may be a good one. I have been reading similar materials concerning the manifestation of the ringing sound and this product seems consistent with what I understand. In any case, at least they are moving us forward and possibly getting other people thinking about what is possible. The answer I do not value is I don’t know. Not very helpful…what I know is…or I think that…what I need to think about is…. As as sufferer of tinnitus, I know what it is like first hand. This in some ways gives me an advantage of understanding and exploring what is going on. I think I will check out this app and maybe even blog about it on my blog tinnitusstates.com. Best of luck tinnitracks.
Worse than “I don’t know”, in my experience, is the implied “I don’t care” of ENTs who say, “You’ll just have to learn to live with it.” without suggesting how.
This is not new at all, I have been doing this for a few years with little relief. It’s called Neuromonics, and was developed in Australia several years ago. Newer research indicates that adding vibrations may help….waiting to hear more on that.