Music Quiets Ringing

This health video focus' on using certain music to help quiet the ringing of tinnitus.

Jennifer Matthews: Growing up on a farm left Bill Landers with a lifetime of memories. Bill Landers: I drove my first tractor at 7. I had my first major wreck at 13. Jennifer Matthews: The loud farm equipment may also be what left him with a lifetime of tinnitus. Bill Landers: There is a continual 24 hours a day, seven days a week, buzzing going on in my, really I notice it more in my right ear than my left ear. Jennifer Matthews: This is what Bill hears. Now, he hopes another sound will quiet the noise. University of Iowa Audiologist Rich Tyler is studying whether music can help tinnitus. The idea is to give patients control over the sound by shifting their focus away from the tinnitus. Dr. Rich Tyler: What we are trying to do is to move the people from the group that are seriously disabled by tinnitus into a group where they are not bothered by it. Jennifer Matthews: One theory is that the condition is caused by abnormal brain activity. Tyler says music may impact that. Dr. Rich Tyler: There is a chance that, through extended period of listening strategies, that the pattern that's responsible for the tinnitus in the brain might actually be broken up. Jennifer Matthews: However it works, Bill says it's helped him. Bill Landers: It distracts yourself and refocuses away from that continual buzzing. Jennifer Matthews: And that leaves him more time to concentrate on what his wife has to say. This is Jennifer Matthews reporting.