Reverse Deafness in Humans Possible

I think it would be wonderful for those who have hair cells damage. As for me, It probably wouldn't work because my deafness is genetic. Besides that, *IF* it miraculously works for those who are genetically deaf - I don't think I would take the chance of having this drug because I am immersed in the Deaf community. I use ASL 24/7. Being Deaf is the only way I know. Just imagine if I had to process the sounds in my head? It would be beyond my comprehension to distort these sounds. Yep, talk about how my head would be spinning stars or whatnot, lol.
 
Jane B. said:
If the disease is no longer there but damage was done to the hair cells a way to regrow those hair cells would be beneficial.
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Yes, hypotheticly, but how many diseases that affect hair cells/hearing can be cured?
 
VacationGuy234 said:
If you could re-grow hairs that worked, all of them.
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Vacation Guy, not quite. Yes, for diseases that exclusively affect the ear or are caused by some sort of malfunction in the ear, but it wouldn't treat genetic mutations,(the gene would just tell the hair cells to die) and it wouldn't treat diseases for which hearing loss is a secondary thing....like sometimes you can see hearing loss as a secondary thing with MS and other diseases.
 
Jane B. said:
If the disease is no longer there but damage was done to the hair cells a way to regrow those hair cells would be beneficial.
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VacationGuy234 said:
If you could re-grow hairs that worked, all of them.
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deafdyke said:
Vacation Guy, not quite. Yes, for diseases that exclusively affect the ear or are caused by some sort of malfunction in the ear, but it wouldn't treat genetic mutations,(the gene would just tell the hair cells to die) and it wouldn't treat diseases for which hearing loss is a secondary thing....like sometimes you can see hearing loss as a secondary thing with MS and other diseases.
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I know I was thinking in terms of an acute rather chronic (MS is a chronic condition) condition and damage remaining after the disease.

The key to what Vacation Guy wrote is "that worked".
 
VacationGuy234 said:
If you could re-grow hairs that worked, all of them.
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I don't mean to throw a monkey wrench into the optimism of the hearing drug, but auditory hairs are not everything that allows you to hear. I'm just trying to be realistic.

The hairs are supposed to work in conjunction with your brain nerves (I believe the nerve responsible for processing sound is the vestibulocochlear nerve). But if your nerves aren't working properly, then there's no point to growing hair, the 'processing center' still isn't working.

What Is the Vestibulocochlear Nerve? - Wisegeek.org
 
Yup, try replacing/rectifying nerve loss which is the cause of loss for most of us.
 
I want no part of this. I against animals being used in labs no matter what kind of animal it is.
 
I am not saying anything one way or the other (in favor of or not) of this, but I have wondered one question:

I am a CMV-deafened child. Meaning my mother contracted CMV while pregnant with me, which caused my deafness. So .. my question, and something my husband disagrees with .. if I was already born deaf, is it already in my DNA that this could not be fixed? My husband's disagreement is that I already had functioning ears at conception (if you will - I understand that not everything is all developed at conception, far from it, actually). But, for however developed my ears were at 3 months, that got changed when my mom contracted CMV at 3 months along.

Just a curious question. One I'm sure others wonder.
 
naisho said:
I don't mean to throw a monkey wrench into the optimism of the hearing drug, but auditory hairs are not everything that allows you to hear. I'm just trying to be realistic.

The hairs are supposed to work in conjunction with your brain nerves (I believe the nerve responsible for processing sound is the vestibulocochlear nerve). But if your nerves aren't working properly, then there's no point to growing hair, the 'processing center' still isn't working.

What Is the Vestibulocochlear Nerve? - Wisegeek.org
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Yes exactly what I was trying to say! I think in the case of simple "hair cell burnout", that this will work.....but what percentage of deafness is due to simple hair cell burnout? That's the million dollar question. I'd assume that a lot of late deafened folks would fall under that percentage....But I do think that pediatric loss is going to be a LOT more complex to cure. Like the late deafened folks have heard normally. Their brains and nerves heard normally at one time. In that case, it's just a simple matter of regrowing the hair cells. I think the reason there's so much excitement is b/c the overwhelming majority of dhh people are late deafened.....
 
Just a thought.... Perhaps Drs search for remedies more suited for the late deafened because the late deafened are more open to remedies. :dunno:

As for me I welcome a remedy if one should come along but if one doesn't I will be fine. I also don't judge others who wouldn't want that. I just enjoyed eating about 5 lbs of guacamole....I am sure some people wouldn't want to do that either. :lol:
 
Good point. For me, I have no feelings about it one way or the other. Everyone will do what they want for themselves.
 
Weird stuff..hairs, eyes, and feet wrong on the wrong locations on the body. :eek3:
 
TXgolfer said:
Just a thought.... Perhaps Drs search for remedies more suited for the late deafened because the late deafened are more open to remedies. :dunno:

As for me I welcome a remedy if one should come along but if one doesn't I will be fine. I also don't judge others who wouldn't want that. I just enjoyed eating about 5 lbs of guacamole....I am sure some people wouldn't want to do that either. :lol:
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Overall, most dhh people are late deafened. Dhh as kids folks exist, but the population is much smaller. It's exactly like the way most blind/low vision people are that way due to age/disease...there are still blind/low vision kids/adults but the population is also much smaller (and in that case actually the number of "just blind/lV kids/teens is quite small since most kids with blindness have it as a result of multiple severe handicaps)
 
Research into congenital/early deafness exists but it tends to be very not well funded.
 
Foxrac said:
That's interesting, I want cure for annoying IBS and usher syndrome. :ugh3:
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those are rough things to have..my ibs so bad i had extended colectomy i bad now as was before..usher not good..i knew a few in london with ushers they had it tough in my view
 
If it requires there be still some hair cells, I would wonder if really would do anything for those deaf due to like ototoxic drugs which destroy the hair cells..

Also from when I considered a CI, my understanding is if the cochlear has calcified it like with a CI not be do able, I had cat scans etc to see if my cochlea had bone growth in it filling the space or not.

What interests me is that if they CAN get it to work...then
down the road the may also work out how to get like lost retinas to re grow and cut spinal nerves to regrow.

The reason hair cells and like retinas and the spinal nerves don't re-grow is their actually extensions of the brains nerves and the nerves of the brain are different.. you can cut a nerve in a finger and it will regrow.. but not the nerves that are part of brain.

They did grow once then shut off growth.. this is kind of like turning back on the growth switch so they re-grow...

However will they stop growing?
 
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