Anyone who has experienced tinnitus -- an uncontrolled ringing or roaring noise in the ears -- knows how maddening it can be. All the more so because there really is no treatment to stop it. Doctors typically offer patients an array of remedies that may or may not help, including tranquilizers, antidepressants and mechanical devices that attempt to mask the plaguing noises. But thus far there is nothing that has worked well and consistently. I was thrilled, then, to learn that a recent study reported in the January 12, 2011, online journal Nature offers something completely different -- a new way to train the brain to ignore the nerve signals that simulate ringing.
The research, conducted by scientists at the University of Texas at Dallas, examined a way to reprogram the brain so that it no longer "hears" the tones that have become so intensely disturbing. Using a form of treatment called vagus nerve stimulation (VNS), already in use to help patients with treatment-resistant epilepsy or depression, the scientists first induced tinnitus in rats (how they did this is way too complicated to go into here, but believe me, they did it -- and confirmed it by the rats’ failure to respond to a gap in the background noise) and then set out to see if they could correct it. They delivered painless electrical pulses to the vagus nerve, which leads to the auditory cortex in the brain. The rats were exposed to tones with frequencies just above and below the range of the tinnitus sounds. Results: The rats now responded appropriately to the gap in the background noise (they recognized the silence) -- and scans of their brains three weeks after the therapy showed what the researchers expected to see, that tinnitus had been stopped in all of them.
To get an expert perspective on this research, I called Steven Lamm, MD, a member of the clinical faculty at NYU School of Medicine, who told me that tinnitus is "probably one of the most annoying, irritating and exasperating complaints that a patient can have. It’s like an alarm clock that can’t be turned off." According to Dr. Lamm this research demonstrates that the nerve activity of the brain is capable of modification. "Tinnitus involves an abnormality of the brain circuitry," he said. "If you reshuffle the circuitry, you may be able to eliminate the unwanted noise."
VNS treatment could be an improvement over current tinnitus therapies because it may offer a possible end to the condition without any significant side effects -- unlike antidepressants and tranquilizers -- say the study’s authors.
Research on this therapy in humans is due to begin this year. People with tinnitus will participate in clinical trials much like those that worked with the rats. They will have electrodes attached to their vagus nerves in an outpatient procedure and then, every day over a period of three weeks, they will visit the clinic to listen to a range of tones and receive electrical impulses to the vagus nerve. The hope is that researchers will for the first time be able to "reset" the brain’s circuitry to actually eliminate tinnitus for these people. We don’t know whether the treatment will result in any collateral problems -- such as, perhaps, the inability to hear certain actual tones. But given the fact that about 10% of adults are plagued by tinnitus, this treatment could be nothing less than a godsend... an end to the ringing alarm clock in your head that refuses to turn off. I’ll keep a very close eye on this research!
Joseph couldn't walk a step without limping when Mark Stengler, ND, first saw him. For years, his osteoarthritis had been steadily getting worse. Now his painkillers were giving him ulcers, the agony was unbearable, and he envisioned a knee replacement in the near future.
But Dr. Stengler did not give him steroids or even an aspirin tablet! Instead, he told Joe about a natural compound so harmless, even pregnant women can take it safely.
Just two days later, his pain had already faded dramatically...
Read on...
Walnuts: The New Stress Buster
Are you getting palpitations about an upcoming presentation at work or a looming visit from your least favorite relatives? To help your body cope with the stress you know is headed your way, start popping a daily handful of walnuts a few weeks in advance of the fray. Better yet, have a handful every day regardless, as new research demonstrates that walnuts and walnut oil reduce blood pressure when you are under stress... and even during those all-too-rare, happy moments of calm.
YOUR COPING MECHANISM
Earlier studies had already shown that nuts reduce resting blood pressure -- in other words, when people are not under stress. So at The Pennsylvania State University, researchers undertook the study of walnuts’ impact on people when they deliberately exposed study subjects to psychological and physical stress. "People who show an exaggerated biological response to stress are at higher risk for heart disease," explains study author Sheila G. West, PhD, an associate professor of biobehavioral health.
The researchers provided 22 adults who had elevated levels of LDL cholesterol (the so-called "bad" type of cholesterol) with all their meals and snacks during three separate six-week periods. The diets included...
- A control diet. An "average" American diet, which was defined as 50% carbohydrates, 16% protein and more than 30% fat, but with no nuts.
- A walnut diet. The same control diet as above, but with a handful of walnut halves (totaling 1.3 ounces -- 18 halves) and a tablespoon of walnut oil daily in place of some of the saturated fat and protein in the control diet.
- A walnut/flaxseed diet. The walnut/walnut oil diet plus 1.5 tablespoons of flaxseed oil daily.
Participants ate walnuts as a snack, while the walnut oil and flaxseed oil were mixed into food items such as salad dressing and muffins. Researchers matched the three diets for calories and designed them to generate neither weight loss nor weight gain. After participants ate the diets for six weeks, researchers raised participants’ stress levels in two ways...
- Psychological stress. In the first situation, participants were given just two minutes to prepare and three minutes to deliver a speech while being videotaped.
- Physical stress. In the second situation, participants put one of their feet into ice cold water for two and a half minutes.
The result: During each stress test, investigators measured individuals’ blood pressure. And good news -- they found that stress-induced blood pressure was two to three points lower in those who ate the two walnut diets.
The walnut/flaxseed diet did not lower blood pressure any further than the walnut diet. However, it reduced inflammation and LDL cholesterol and increased vascular dilation responses -- small changes that together confer a cardiovascular health benefit, according to Dr. West.
These findings were published in the December 2010 issue of the Journal of the American College of Nutrition.
While a two- or three-point improvement in your blood pressure may not seem like a lot, the walnut diets also lowered LDL cholesterol and reduced constriction of blood vessels throughout the body as measured by blood tests (lipid profiles) and vascular ultrasound. And while this particular study looked at individuals with elevated cholesterol, many other trials demonstrate that walnuts offer valuable health dividends for us all.
Walnuts are rich in antioxidants, fiber and polyunsaturated fatty acids such as alpha-linolenic acid (ALA, an omega-3 fatty acid), and researchers believe that these components may be responsible for the positive impact in blood pressure.
What You Can Do
Enjoy one serving of walnuts daily instead of a handful of chips or a couple of cookies. Keep in mind, of course, that you can’t rely on any one magic food or supplement or exercise to control blood pressure or put a lid on stress. That said, walnuts can be one tasty and healthful daily addition to your diet.
Source(s):
Sheila G. West, PhD, an associate professor of biobehavioral health, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania.
Be well,
Carole Jackson
Bottom Line's Daily Health News
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I think my ears whistle more if I eat walnuts. Might I have some deficiency in the PST area, making it harder for me to metabolise phenols?
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