Are you waiting for stem cells or something to improve hearing?

[deafdude1]

Are you waiting for stem cells or something to improve hearing?

No because it won't happen in my lifetime.

Besides, I have CIs so there is no need for me to seek any other kind of treatment for my deafness.

No one knows when it'll happen but don't be so sure it won't happen in the lifetimes of most people under 60. I remember people saying when I was a kid that computers will never achieve this or that and they were wrong. I am a big believer in technology

What if your CIs stop working in the future, would you rather live in complete silence than have some hearing restored and benefit again from HAs? It's your choice.

What if your hearing loss progresses to a point where it's unaidable?
I am happy with my implant and do not want a "cure"
Hearing Aids didnt work for me in my left ear, so how would a stem cell improved my chances?

I wouldn't call a 20db improvement of hearing a cure and nowhere in my thread did I mention cure. Going from 70db HL to 50db HL is called an improvement but not really a cure. However with only a 50db loss, I would benefit great from HAs. If my HL got much worse and stem cells to restore some of my hearing wasn't around the corner, id get a CI and when stem cells come, ill have my nonimplanted ear improved and if this ends up better than CI(which I believe so), im getting the CI ear treated as well and wear two HAs.

deafdude,

Why do you have the username "deafdude" if you are constantly trying to find a way to hear better? Aren't you happy being deaf? Just wondering.

Most of us want to hear better, be it HAs, CIs or stem cells. Life is just easier being able to hear more sounds and understand more speech. This is why people get the best HAs, get CIs or wait for stem cells.

I was raised orally but I totally accepted my deafness all these years ago. I guess some people are different

I accept mine too but I still would like to hear more. If I really didn't care to hear at all, I would have stopped wearing HAs long ago.

I want to see stem cells take care of those life-threatening diseases first. The repair of hearing can wait.

That's why alot more funds and research is done on cancers, diseases and serious disabilities first. But there's still 100s of millions of deaf/hoh people so there's a huge(and profitable) market for repairing hearing.

No....however, if a law gets passed that all deaf people must get stem cells then I guess I would have to. Never know what people will do in the future.

Unlikley to happen. You can even refuse treatment that will save your life and it's legal. Ive read of people that don't believe in modern medicine and if they die, they call it destiny and refuse to change that.

I would oppose forcing any medicine/surgery on anyone. It's a waste of money and will make people angry. If we force stem cells on the deaf, they will just make themselves deaf again from loud noise or ototoxic drugs. All I ask is deaf people to respect those who wish to improve their hearing. I respect deaf people's choice to stay deaf and will defend them if they will defend our choice to improve our hearing.

Never know with the views and attitude towards deafness by the medical field. I am just being bitchy cuz today, we had a team of specialists come to our school to observe and they commented saying that more of our students should have CIs. It is an individual choice!

Let them say what they want, no one can force CIs or stem cells(when it becomes available) on anyone. Consider what they say to be just their opinion, thank them and go about your way. Ive been told I should get CI and I am willing to discuss it. I have my reasons not to get a CI at this time but I am not offended discussing CI.

 

[Hear Again]

No one knows when it'll happen but don't be so sure it won't happen in the lifetimes of most people under 60...What if your CIs stop working in the future, would you rather live in complete silence than have some hearing restored and benefit again from HAs? It's your choice.

Researchers have claimed hearing loss will be cured through stem cells and hair regeneration for the past 25-30 years. Every 5-10 years they propose that the technology is "out there" yet another 5-10 years continue to pass with no evidence of such.

If my CIs stop working, I will be re-implanted. I see no reason to have my hearing restored (artificially) any other way.

 

[Hear Again]

Never know with the views and attitude towards deafness by the medical field. I am just being bitchy cuz today, we had a team of specialists come to our school to observe and they commented saying that more of our students should have CIs. It is an individual choice!

I'm sorry about that Shel. Now I understand why you feel the way you do about CI advertising. I don't work in a school for the deaf nor have I attended one, so I'm completely clueless as far as that is concerned. You've really opened up my eyes in that regard, so

 

[Bottesini]

Reincarnation. I am living a good and moral life.

 

[shel90]

I'm sorry about that Shel. Now I understand why you feel the way you do about CI advertising. I don't work in a school for the deaf nor have I attended one, so I'm completely clueless as far as that is concerned. You've really opened up my eyes in that regard, so

U are welcome.

In the past few years, the pressure to adopt their views has been increasing.

 

[deafdyke]

Not at all. Why should I when I can hear wonderfully well with CIs? I do not care about having normal or perfect hearing. What I'm able to hear now with my CIs is 100% acceptable to me.

Exactly...............and that's from someone who's postlingally deafened! I wish more posties and late deafies had your attitude!

Now I understand why you feel the way you do about CI advertising. I don't work in a school for the deaf nor have I attended one, so I'm completely clueless as far as that is concerned.

Yes...I do think that the pressure for implantation has ratchted up.
It's not obvious......but it is rather subtle....Now that many of the "right off the bat canidates" have been implanted they really need more implantees to make more money. Remember, here in the US healthcare is 100% profit driven.

Researchers have claimed hearing loss will be cured through stem cells and hair regeneration for the past 25-30 years. Every 5-10 years they propose that the technology is "out there" yet another 5-10 years continue to pass with no evidence of such.

Yes indeedy.......Heck go to a wheelchair users board. They'll tell you back in the 70's and 60's spinal cord regeneration was just around the corner. Guess what? It's now 2009, and still no cure. Besides, they should concentrate more on curing mental illnesses and stuff like that...stuff that really truely effects quality of life. I'm mildly bipolar and if I had the choice between being bipolar and profoundly deaf, I'd pick profoundly deaf! Besides, there's too much profit in hearing aids/CIs/ALDs for them to give up the market easily.

 

[deafdude1]

Researchers have claimed hearing loss will be cured through stem cells and hair regeneration for the past 25-30 years. Every 5-10 years they propose that the technology is "out there" yet another 5-10 years continue to pass with no evidence of such.

If my CIs stop working, I will be re-implanted. I see no reason to have my hearing restored (artificially) any other way.

I never heard about such claims till last year. All the articles ive read, the furthest back was from 2005. But I know progress has been made, it's the last couple years that they proved that HL restoration was possible in mice and in fact done on mice. So much progress has been made, I think there is a great chance that human clinical trials will occur by 2020. Stem cells have already been used in humans to treat/cure other ailments. One blind guy had partial vision restored by stem cells. So this makes me pretty sure at least partial hearing will be restored to the deaf in a matter of years. I am optimistic about technology and modern medicine

 

[AlleyCat]

I have mixed feelings about the idea of being able to restore my hearing to normal or near-normal levels, only because I've been deaf all my life. I love being able to sleep peacefully at night -- no storms to wake me up; I often don't put my hearing aids on the weekends until the evening so I've had an entirely quiet and peaceful day; and being in rooms or events where the noise level is distracting, etc. makes being deaf a nice advantage sometimes. I have always said I can't miss what I never had, but I admit the curiousity is there as to what it'd be like to have far more hearing than I have now.

 

[kokonut]

Researchers have claimed hearing loss will be cured through stem cells and hair regeneration for the past 25-30 years. Every 5-10 years they propose that the technology is "out there" yet another 5-10 years continue to pass with no evidence of such.

If my CIs stop working, I will be re-implanted. I see no reason to have my hearing restored (artificially) any other way.

Um, I have never heard it that way. Research on stem cells is a relatively new field in the area of regeneration over the last 10 to 15 years. Research began to pick up in the last several years.

As for me, yeah, the ability to restore nerve deafness via stem cells treatment will eventually come within our lifetime....much sooner than not with the way the medical field is advancing seeing opportunities in making money from these procedures.

 

[deafdude1]

Exactly...............and that's from someone who's postlingally deafened! I wish more posties and late deafies had your attitude!

Some of us are different. Id love to have some extent of unaided hearing and to get more benefits from HAs. This is why I posted the thread, some of us prefer CIs, others prefer to stick with HAs. Those sticking with HAs may look into stem cells so they hear better.

Yes...I do think that the pressure for implantation has ratchted up.
It's not obvious......but it is rather subtle....Now that many of the "right off the bat canidates" have been implanted they really need more implantees to make more money. Remember, here in the US healthcare is 100% profit driven.

Yea, it's crazy how lax CI standards have gotten. There's this lady with the following HL: 30db at 250Hz, 55db at 500Hz, 95db at 750Hz who somehow qualified for CI! She hears lots of sounds unaided! I used to hear aided at 30db, same as she hears unaided! I don't understand how she got approved by insurance! Don't they require a severe-profound loss at minimum? I wish I could trade my hearing for hers and id pay for her CI if I had the money. Id just have the transposition programmed on my HAs and shift the highs down to the lows where my hearing is near normal so id get great results. Unaided id still hear alot!

Yes indeedy.......Heck go to a wheelchair users board. They'll tell you back in the 70's and 60's spinal cord regeneration was just around the corner. Guess what? It's now 2009, and still no cure. Besides, they should concentrate more on curing mental illnesses and stuff like that...stuff that really truely effects quality of life. I'm mildly bipolar and if I had the choice between being bipolar and profoundly deaf, I'd pick profoundly deaf! Besides, there's too much profit in hearing aids/CIs/ALDs for them to give up the market easily.

Haven't heard that one. As for mental illnesses, I don't want my OCD, ADD or anything else to be cured, it's part of me and im afraid I won't be "myself" if my brain is altered completely. Id feel like a different person stuck in my body.

 

[deafdude1]

I have mixed feelings about the idea of being able to restore my hearing to normal or near-normal levels, only because I've been deaf all my life. I love being able to sleep peacefully at night -- no storms to wake me up; I often don't put my hearing aids on the weekends until the evening so I've had an entirely quiet and peaceful day; and being in rooms or events where the noise level is distracting, etc. makes being deaf a nice advantage sometimes. I have always said I can't miss what I never had, but I admit the curiousity is there as to what it'd be like to have far more hearing than I have now.

That's the beauty of it, you don't have to ask for near normal hearing, you can have fewer hair cells regenerated and go from say 90db HL down to perhaps 60db HL. Youd still experience silence since a quiet room is 30db and a noisy room is usually less than 60db. But aided, youd hear excellent with only a 60db moderate loss.

Besides, ive said in my first post that stem cells won't restore normal hearing for a long while, it will first start out with people experiencing around 20db improvement in their hearing then as the technology matures, the improvements will gradually increase. I would take normal hearing but that's the icing on the cake. I only need the first 20db improvement in my hearing to hear 100% with HAs. Any further improvement will simply let me hear more unaided and be less dependant on HAs which is still a good thing, it's the icing on the cake.

Um, I have never heard it that way. Research on stem cells is a relatively new field in the area of regeneration over the last 10 to 15 years. Research began to pick up in the last several years.

As for me, yeah, the ability to restore nerve deafness via stem cells treatment will eventually come within our lifetime....much sooner than not with the way the medical field is advancing seeing opportunities in making money from these procedures.

Exactly. 20 years ago, it was all talk. Now it's starting to get serious. I bet in 5 years, we will see it being done on apes, cats, dogs and in 10 years, on humans.

 

[Hear Again]

Exactly...............and that's from someone who's postlingally deafened! I wish more posties and late deafies had your attitude!

Yes...I do think that the pressure for implantation has ratchted up.
It's not obvious......but it is rather subtle....Now that many of the "right off the bat canidates" have been implanted they really need more implantees to make more money. Remember, here in the US healthcare is 100% profit driven.

Yes indeedy.......Heck go to a wheelchair users board. They'll tell you back in the 70's and 60's spinal cord regeneration was just around the corner. Guess what? It's now 2009, and still no cure. Besides, they should concentrate more on curing mental illnesses and stuff like that...stuff that really truely effects quality of life. I'm mildly bipolar and if I had the choice between being bipolar and profoundly deaf, I'd pick profoundly deaf! Besides, there's too much profit in hearing aids/CIs/ALDs for them to give up the market easily.

 

[Hear Again]

deafdude,

No offense, but if you've only heard about stem cell research last year, you've been living under a rock. Stem cell research has been around since 1960.

 

[Hear Again]

Um, I have never heard it that way.

Stem cell research has been in existence for almost 50 years. Researchers began using stem cells for bone marrow in 1960.

 

[Jiro]

deafdude,

No offense, but if you've only heard about stem cell research last year, you've been living under a rock. Stem cell research has been around since 1960.

Stem cell research has been in existence for almost 50 years. Researchers began using stem cells for bone marrow in 1960.

yea but this thread is about stem cell research on ear. This didn't exist in 1960's until recently

 

[Hear Again]

I wouldn't want to have normal hearing even if I were given the chance. I've only had "normal" hearing for the first 2 years of my life and don't even remember what the experience was like. I hear quite well with my CIs. It may not be perfect, but it certainly beats being profoundly deaf. (Note that I am only making a comparison between hearing the way I do now vs. hearing at 90-95 dB and less pre-CI.)

 

[LuciaDisturbed]

Stem cells to restore hearing is NOT going to happen in the next 100 years simply because this shit is just too complicated right now, and technology is NOT that good yet...technology may be very good right now but it's not 100% perfect...in fact it is far from ever being perfect right now.

I also get the feeling that DeafDude is not proud to be a Deaf person even though he is anti-CI (which he claims not to be). DeafDude...if you truly don't like being Deaf then please seek counseling. You may be having a problem accepting your Deafness.

I have a CI but I am proud to be Deaf!

Besides, I don't think I would ever want the stem cells to restore my hearing simply because I like to be able to have 100% silence whenever I want, anytime, all I gotta do is pop off my CI coil and I hear nothing...feels good when I am feeling overwhelmed sometimes or when I want to take a nap or go to bed at night. I like to control whenever I have noise or not. I don't think I would like having to hear everything 24/7 with no breaks. I would feel overstimulated. I like to sleep in 100% silence so that my awesome dreams are not disturbed by some stupid noise like someone walking around upstairs. I'd be very annoyed if I was dreaming about having mind-blowing sex with my fiance and the dream was interrupted and goes poof thanks to a neighbor walking around upstairs, especially if I was about to...um...nevermind. I think I've said too much!

 

[LuciaDisturbed]

That's the beauty of it, you don't have to ask for near normal hearing, you can have fewer hair cells regenerated and go from say 90db HL down to perhaps 60db HL. Youd still experience silence since a quiet room is 30db and a noisy room is usually less than 60db. But aided, youd hear excellent with only a 60db moderate loss.

Besides, ive said in my first post that stem cells won't restore normal hearing for a long while, it will first start out with people experiencing around 20db improvement in their hearing then as the technology matures, the improvements will gradually increase. I would take normal hearing but that's the icing on the cake. I only need the first 20db improvement in my hearing to hear 100% with HAs. Any further improvement will simply let me hear more unaided and be less dependant on HAs which is still a good thing, it's the icing on the cake.

I can control my hearing already with my CI. How I control how much I hear are called MAPpings in addition to volume and sensitivity controls on my CI. I even have 4 maps on EACH of my 2 CIs, that's EIGHT mappings altogether so I have a lot to easily control.

And I am already hearing at 20 dB at least one frequency with my CI. That's extremely awesome to me already! I definitely don't need stem cell treatments to restore my hearing. My CI has done what I wanted it to do and it has exceeded my expectations so I am happy.

Exactly. 20 years ago, it was all talk. Now it's starting to get serious. I bet in 5 years, we will see it being done on apes, cats, dogs and in 10 years, on humans.

Ain't gonna happen. You're expecting too much too fast. Sorry to pop your bubble, but it ain't gonna happen for a very long time because this is a extremely complicated thing.

 

[kokonut]

yea but this thread is about stem cell research on ear. This didn't exist in 1960's until recently

Yes, but overall stem cell research (adult, embryonic and cord blood stem cells) didn't take off until the last several years. This field has the potential to treat a mind-boggling number of conditions and ailments, not to mention a lucrative medicine field. We would literally have the ability (with biotechnology help) to heal thyself.

See history timeline in Stem cell - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

And the potential and existing treatments using stem cells
Do No Harm: The Coalition of Americans for Research Ethics

 

[kokonut]

Oh, and to answer the question, yes, I expect stem cells will have the ability to help restore some/all of my nerve deafness in my better ear someday within 10 to 15 years (or daresay earlier than that?) with the way biotechnology is moving. I use a hearing aid to help listen, speak and understand words. But to hear without the use of a hardware would be great news for me and millions of people with hearing loss.