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Reversing hearing loss with regenerative therapy

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Re: Reversing hearing loss with regenerative therapy

#171

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Quite right! I’m quite “deaf” in the sense that I can’t understand what people are saying - they sound muffled (and I can’t separate two people talking at once anymore). But, I’m actually quite sensitive to loud noises! What I need is equalization and compression, so I can hear the soft noises. I don’t need much, if any, overall gain. Why can’t Apple provide that, they have all the necessary technology at hand?

Do hearing aids offer this sort of multiband compression? I've heard about hearing aids that act as Bluetooth headphones, so presumably your Apple device could send its unaltered audio over Bluetooth and then the hearing aid's custom programming could handle things from there?

Yes, they do (in fact, they have custom hardware to do it), but the power budget is very, very small, so there have to be tradeoffs made, both in terms of the processing and in terms of the actual transducer.

Re: Reversing hearing loss with regenerative therapy

#172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do hearing aids offer this sort of multiband compression? I've heard about hearing aids that act as Bluetooth headphones, so presumably your Apple device could send its unaltered audio over Bluetooth and then the hearing aid's custom programming could handle things from there?

Yes, they do (in fact, they have custom hardware to do it), but the power budget is very, very small, so there have to be tradeoffs made, both in terms of the processing and in terms of the actual transducer.

People are used to recharging AirPods frequently, and their hardware exceeds what is in a hearing aid. So, I wish Apple would enter this underserved market and stop just making "works with iPhone" deals with the hearing aid companies.

Re: Reversing hearing loss with regenerative therapy

#173
post #74

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I have increasing;y bad tinnitus. Will this help with that? I hear a permanent and constant low-volume very high pitch "squeal" in my ears at all times, I was never a big loud music listener, and I have always brought ear-plugs to loud events - and have had no big ear-rupturing moments (such as a gun firing close to my head without protection etc...

There can be other causes besides noise exposure, like TMJ/teeth grinding which can affect the nerves.

I feel much better about getting a custom mouthguard for my bruxism now. Also, in case anyone is wondering, it was well worth the insane price for a piece of molded plastic.

Re: Reversing hearing loss with regenerative therapy

#174

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It helps some but only for tens of seconds to a minute. Just enough for a tech preview or nostalgia trip (depending on your level of optimism or acceptance), not a solution.

I have tinnitus - give yourself a wet willie. Seriously, suck your pinky, stick it in your ear, wiggle it around. Def helps for a while!

Sounds like you might just have ear wax problems?

Re: Reversing hearing loss with regenerative therapy

#175
post #7

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Looks like FREQ stock got really beat down over the last few months- any idea what happened was it the negative outcome of the study you mentioned?

There was suspected fraud on the part of the C(E?)O that he was soliciting investor money (and sold stock himself) with advance knowledge of the disappointing results of the trial I was mentioning and did not disclose it. Class action suits were filed. The trials preceding the Phase IIa results were all extremely promising, and even the Phase IIa one showed statistically significant effect on a sound discrimination ,…

The study also found an improvement in the placebo group: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210323005208/en/Fre...

Interesting approach, I'd love to see it work. But given the mixed results plus the class action lawsuits that still seem unsettled (at least I didn't find any news), this doesn't really seem investable to me. Biotech startups are risky enough even without such problems.

Re: Reversing hearing loss with regenerative therapy

#177
post #87

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> Although exciting, we also need to remember that translatability rates from animal models to humans is notoriously low, usually in the single digits for most therapeutic areas. This is true of humans as well -- there are plenty of programs that get interesting and clear results in Phase 2 (the dose ranging phase: essentially "what dosage is most efficacious") that die in Phase 3 (roughly: "OK, how does that dose re…

It's also hard to figure out just how the animal's hearing is improving (you can't simply ask) This seems relatively easy, right? Play a sound at a given frequency, associate it with a food reward. Like Pavlov's dog, but vary the frequency of the bell. Oversimplification obviously, and "easy" is extreme relative to all the other hard parts involved but that part seems very doable

Experimental design in medical trials on animals is extremely complex.

Re: Reversing hearing loss with regenerative therapy

#178

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I had tinnitus in my left ear, but it turned out to be related to TMJ, and it resolved after I wore an advanced lightwire functional (ALF) appliance for maybe 3-6 months to move my jaw back into a forward position. I had braces and wore headgear as a kid at the height of some 1980s hysteria about overbites that left millions of people like me with class II malocclusion (baby face) and sleep apnea. I'm having trouble…

I’m doing something similar (for sleep apnea originally, but the crossover due to jaw needing to be forward is a thing). Highly recommend.

I've read there are mouth shapers that full your jaw forward that significantly helps with sleep apnea. but at the same time it kills your bite, and reforms your jaw.

any recommendations?

tangentially I also have tinnitus so now I'm wondering if it's related.

Re: Reversing hearing loss with regenerative therapy

#179

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I developed it as a kid, and even though I feel a lot of anxiety in life, I don’t feel anxious about it. Maybe it’s easier for us to accept certain things when we are younger. if it happened today I probably would be more anxious about it. It also helps that mine hasn’t gotten worse - I noticed it, took corrective action, and continue to be mindful about it thru today

What kind of corrective action did you take if you don’t mind sharing ?

I'm not them. But in my case, meditation and being mindful made it worse. Browsing a ton of social media and being perpetually distracted in the attention economy's exploitation has helped me.

Re: Reversing hearing loss with regenerative therapy

#180
post #4

Disclosure: I own FREQ stock. The failure of the prior trial was suspected, and I believe it, due to a refractory response by overdosing the inner ear with too frequent administrations of the drug, and then testing for effect too soon. I bet even those candidates of the phase IIa trial though would, if checked on now, show some improvement. Animal research has shown that natural cochlear hair cell regeneration and re…

I have increasing;y bad tinnitus. Will this help with that? I hear a permanent and constant low-volume very high pitch "squeal" in my ears at all times, I was never a big loud music listener, and I have always brought ear-plugs to loud events - and have had no big ear-rupturing moments (such as a gun firing close to my head without protection etc...

Try masking sounds. Your brain has an amazingly capable AGC and absent other sound it can create sound out of just about nothing including sounds that aren't there. Playing very (-30 dB) soft white noise may be just enough to stop your brain from doing its thing and after a short while the white noise itself will fade into the background. This helped me tremendously when I had a nasty case of tinnitus myself (which lasted for years).
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