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Conversations that ring in my head every day!
(Posted by Robert J Fraser)

Well they are not exactly conversations but rather a range of ringing sounds that constantly drive away any semblance of silence. Never ending, never ceasing, well maybe not never. I love it when it rains as the white noise masks this 24/7 high pitch hissing. And now my heart goes out to the thousands of soldiers who are coming home with this infliction called Tinnitus.






Ten years ago while living in South Florida, I was hit by a truck crossing the Everglades causing whiplash. This terrible whistling sound in my head appeared and I stopped taking medication for my neck pain hoping the sound would go away but it didn?t. It drove me crazy to the point that I was ready to throw myself into Biscayne Bay if it weren?t for the thought of the further pain I would cause my family.

I Googled ?ringing ears? and the website ATA.org came up. Thank goodness for the American Tinnitus Association. If William Shatner, spokesperson for ATA, could overcome this horrible affliction so could I. There was hope and more than hope. The American Tinnitus Association provided me resources to cope with this affliction. I promised myself that one day I would do more than send in my annual membership check for $35 which contributes to research for an eventual cure, today?s mission of ATA.

This affliction has never been a high priority among the medical community. The
typical response from doctors in the past has been a shrug of the shoulders and the pronouncement of, ?Just have to live with it?. I come from a generation whose motto has been ?Make your dreams a reality.? We flew to the moon we can certainly stop this ringing of the ears.

Last year I moved to Portland, the city of ?can dos?, where the national headquarters of ATA is most appropriately based. I volunteered to assist them in any way I could. Last week I read the Associated Press front page column in the Saturday, March 8 edition of the Oregonian, ?Troop?s hearing takes hit in battle zone?. The American Tinnitus Association played a big role in making that story happen. The war has given this affliction and disability finally a voice. And it is not just victims of accidents, medications and the battle zone explosions that are suffers, it is now our children whose hearing is threatened by IPODS, boom boxes and all the loud environmental noise about us. An invitation to ATA to participate on your program would give an important voice to this affliction which is often preventable and which has ?slipped through the cracks? for so many years?.

What?s important about featuring the ATA now is that they have recently changed their mission to focus on curing tinnitus. They exist exclusively to cure tinnitus through the development of resources that advance tinnitus research. Researchers now believe that a cure for tinnitus is possible because of the advances in imaging technologies like functional MRI?s that have allowed investigators to see tinnitus on a screen in real-time when its present in a patient. Because of these breakthroughs researchers have been able to isolate the problem within the auditory pathways of the brain and believe a cure is possible.






The ATA is focused on increasing research funds through their own research program which was issued over $4 million in research grants since 1980. They have provided the seed grants allowing tinnitus investigators to gather pilot data that have enabled them to go on and receive much larger grants from public agencies like the National Institutes of Health (NIH). They are also focused on increasing the government?s capability to fund research through the Department of Defense, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the NIH. Last year, through their advocacy efforts, they successfully persuaded Congress to list tinnitus as a researchable condition through their Peer Reviewed Medical Research Program.

posted 5 years, 2 months ago
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