Cures for Deaf

Smithtr

Smithtr

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It's an exciting day for deaf, blind mice. Scientists are reporting success with treatments that seem to restore sight and hearing in mice born without those senses.

The treatments have a long way to go before the researchers will know if they can help humans, but the early results are encouraging.

Scientists from the University of California, Berkeley studied mice with blindness similar to the inherited and age-related blindness that affects humans. When a person or mouse goes blind, the cells in the retina of the eye that respond to light, known as rods and cones, die off, leaving the eye without the ability to detect light. The team used a chemical, called AAQ, to target the remaining living cells, which normally aren't activated by light.

When AAQ is struck with light, it turns those non-sensitive cells into light-sensing signal senders for the brain's vision circuitry.

"The first drug candidate or prototype that directly restores photosensitivity," said Richard Kramer, one of the study's authors. "With a drug, you can adjust its dose, discontinue it, or use in combination with other therapies. And this being a simple chemical, you can use chemistry to make it even better."

But the mice weren't permanently cured. The chemical lasts for a few weeks before the mice need another injection. Dr. Marco Zarbin, chair of ophthalmology and visual science at the New Jersey School of Medicine, who was not affiliated with the study, said if the treatment proved to work in humans, the need for repeated injections isn't a major flaw.

"Injecting something into the eye is something that surgeons do all the time," Zarbin said. "The idea that one would have to periodically repeat the injection is not a deal breaker."

Scientists have been testing many avenues to correct blindness in both mice and men – everything from gene therapy to retina transplants to electronic chips implanted in the retina that stimulate defunct cells. But those methods are invasive and permanent, and none have been proved to restore perfectly normal vision. Kramer said the AAQ chemical he used on his blind mice is a valuable alternative simply because the solution can be stopped at any time if, for example, better treatments came along.

Zarbin agreed, and said the approach also appears to target a majority of the retina's million cells, rather than a few thousand that could be stimulated by an electrical chip.

"That's got to improve a patient's light sensitivity," he said. "I'm as encouraged as I could reasonably hope to be by these findings. But you never really know until you've tried it in a person."

Another team of scientists from the University of California, San Francisco, set out to help hearing-impaired mice.

The scientists used gene therapy to correct defects in tiny hair cells in the inner ear in mice that were born deaf. By injecting a gene, called VGLUT3, into the inner ears of the mice, the scientists were able to prompt the hair cells to send signals to the brain, restoring the mice's hearing. The effects lasted about nine weeks in newborn mice and at least seven weeks in adult mice. Two mice still had their hearing after one and a half years.

"This is the first time that an inherited, genetic hearing loss has been successfully treated in laboratory mice, and as such represents an important milestone for treating genetic deafness in humans," said study author Lawrence Lustig in a press release.
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Deaf, Blind Mice Cured of Vision, Hearing Loss - ABC News
 
On the other hand... why should we pursue a cure? Hearing and sight issues can be adapted to and lived with. we need to pursue things like brain issues and mental handicaps
 
deafdyke said:
On the other hand... why should we pursue a cure? Hearing and sight issues can be adapted to and lived with. we need to pursue things like brain issues and mental handicaps
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So much medical research starts out looking for one thing and finds something that helps something almost completely unrelated.

Besides, why should we have to put up with problems if a way is found that they can be corrected?
 
Cure for deaf/normal hearing is possible with a Totally Implantable cochlear implant.

Swimming, skydiving, playing tennis..all of that is possible with the Totally Implantable cochlear implant.
 
I don't exactly know why everytime I read headlines on such as cure for deafness. It always make me so mad. Some people blogs about how their children are "cured" of deafness by simple hearing aids or Cochlear implant. these kind of people don't get it. There are such no cure for deafness! These things are just things that kind like "boost" to human abilities. Such tools cannot cure one loss of abilities. These tools does not last forever. You'd have to remove before going in swim, shower, rain, and such like that can cause damage to tools. That is part of many reasons why we, Deaf people have to Education everyone.
 
JoeyDeafNinja said:
I don't exactly know why everytime I read headlines on such as cure for deafness. It always make me so mad. Some people blogs about how their children are "cured" of deafness by simple hearing aids or Cochlear implant. these kind of people don't get it. There are such no cure for deafness! These things are just things that kind like "boost" to human abilities. Such tools cannot cure one loss of abilities.
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I would like to add a survivalist slant to this. Please read the history of Hungary's hyperinflation and that of Zimbabwe, which is much more recent. Oh, how about when Gorbachev signed the document in December 1991 that closed the chapter on the Soviet Union? See where it is today, still? What if a future President has to sign the same document dissolving the USSA? Then what? How will you replace faulty parts in your head if the surgeons are not around nor accessible because the healthcare net is gone? Where will you get replacement hearing aids and batteries? What if China or a hostile country drops an EMP over us? ALL of our electronics will be destroyed, unless you walk around wearing a faraday cage over your head. How about a giant solar flare strong enough to destroy electronics? Remember, we've only had electricity for, I don't know, 170 years. How often do these flares occur?

I have done more than enough underground financial research to come to the conclusion that we are in for hard times, financially. We could potentially lose access to these technologies for a while.
 
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when they say cure it assumes you been ill ,should understand differece...as you say what if society changes you become use to something like c/i then go about daily affairs jobs etc and things change you surplus to needs or society thinks you are. totally agree with drummer.these sort of things kick off chain reaction..you only have to think of nazi europe where deaf were castrated sterlized and mental handicapped killed..
 
The article that the OP posted talked about making deaf or blind mice able to hear or see respectfully for a while after getting an injection of some kind of a chemical. DO YOU BELIEVE THAT? I don't. Their talk is cheap because they don't have evidence like a video to back it up.
 
CrazyPaul said:
The article that the OP posted talked about making deaf or blind mice able to hear or see respectfully for a while after getting an injection of some kind of a chemical. DO YOU BELIEVE THAT? I don't. Their talk is cheap because they don't have evidence like a video to back it up.
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There is nothing wrong with that article. It's from ABC News... Not some blogger web site who could be making up everything as he goes along.

It IS cautioning that this is very early in the stages of understanding how to make things work, and is not a cure. Plain and simple to me.
 
deafdrummer said:
There is nothing wrong with that article. It's from ABC News... Not some blogger web site who could be making up everything as he goes along.

It IS cautioning that this is very early in the stages of understanding how to make things work, and is not a cure. Plain and simple to me.
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The scientists said the blind mice could see for a while after an injection. OH, PLEASE!!!
 
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The Totally Implantable bionic eyes is coming in the future.

The Totally Implantable bionic ear (CI) is already in clinical trials.



.
 
Young people are going deaf because of Ipods. The Totally Implantable Envoy/Totally Implantable CI is the answer.
 
Cyborg said:
Young people are going deaf because of Ipods. The Totally Implantable Envoy/Totally Implantable CI is the answer.
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Nope. Most young people are going HOH.....and the gross majority of health insurance plans are NOT going to cover Envoys ...heck not all insurances cover hearing aids.
 
deafdyke said:
Nope. Most young people are going HOH.....and the gross majority of health insurance plans are NOT going to cover Envoys ...heck not all insurances cover hearing aids.
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People can afford the Envoy Implant. Also, the Envoy implant will get cheaper in the future. So, is there a problem?


I'm paying for the Totally Implantable CI out of my wallet. (with my credit cards)
 
Cyborg said:
People can afford the Envoy Implant. Also, the Envoy implant will get cheaper in the future. So, is there a problem?


I'm paying for the Totally Implantable CI out of my wallet. (with my credit cards)
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Out of pocket? Do you honestly think that there are a lot of people who can afford the envoy out of pocket? We are going through horrible economic times, and most health insurances are NOT going to pick up the tab. They refuse to cover regular hearing aids, and are also extremely resistant to covering CIs, even if they claim they cover them.
And WHY spend so much money on something cosmetic? Why not spend the money on something like a house or a car or something like that?
 
Jane B. said:
So much medical research starts out looking for one thing and finds something that helps something almost completely unrelated.

Besides, why should we have to put up with problems if a way is found that they can be corrected?
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But what if you don't even SEE it as a problem? You have been trained to think of hearing and sight issues as limitations, but how come science doesn't also take the view that a limitation in one area could ALSO confer advantages in other areas? I definitly think we need to find cures for mental and degenerative conditions, as well as aquired late in life condtions.......but finding a cure for deafness or blindness would be like finding a cure for being gay or having blue eyes.
 
deafdyke said:
Out of pocket? Do you honestly think that there are a lot of people who can afford the envoy out of pocket? We are going through horrible economic times, and most health insurances are NOT going to pick up the tab. They refuse to cover regular hearing aids, and are also extremely resistant to covering CIs, even if they claim they cover them.
And WHY spend so much money on something cosmetic? Why not spend the money on something like a house or a car or something like that?
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May I suggest that you leave him alone? In other words, if that's what he wants, let him be. I know that you were trying to help him but that's his dream so we shouldn't criticize him. :2c:
 
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