92 of 96 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Most practical tinnitus book, May 18, 2003
I've read a lot of tinnitus books. This is one of the handful that actually doesn't beat around the bush with audiological theory or bogus natural remedies.
Hogan has put together a remarkable book that anyone can use to reduce the volume of their tinnitus. (He is careful to note that the profoundly deaf are often not as easy to achieve good results with.)
I found the information about medications to be an eye opener. I never dreamed there were so many medications that can help someone who suffers with this maddening sound.
I also believe what Hogan calls "SPADES" (stress, panic, anxiety, depression, emotional difficulty) play a role in tinnitus generation and resolution.
Maybe most compelling was the authors personal story about how he suffered with tinnitus. His very real pain that he experienced. His daily decision about suicide and the final victory which he was told could never happen.
Highly recommended.
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66 of 68 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Revised edition is excellent, May 3, 2003
This revised edition of Tinnitus: Turning the Volume Down is excellent.
I was one of Kevin's clients five years ago. I found him by his first book. It helped me enormously. After all those years of suffering I don't anymore!
Kevin doesn't have hearing aids to sell or a practice he's looking to fill. Instead he puts everything into this book that can be done in a book...and there is a lot.
He explains what medications can help the vast majority of people with tinnitus. (Yes, they do work as I can attest to.)
He also exposes in a gentle way the frauds and shams of the tinnitus "cures" without quite labeling them as frauds. (Save your money and buy this book.)
The relationship between stress and emotional problems with tinnitus seems to be quite high. Most of the books I read about tinnitus seem to focus on the ear. Hogan points out that half of all cases of tinnitus are not improved when the 8th nerve is severed. Hogan brings tinnitus relief by showing how to utilize the brain. His strategies including reducing stress, changing lifestyle, hypnosis, medication, psychotherapy, behavioral techniques and surprisingly osteopathy.
Hogan's doctorate's is in psychology not otolaryngology and I suspect he means it when he doesn't understand everything there is to know about the human ear. But clearly he understands tinnitus and it's reduction. He helped me and the original edition of this book which was also good was where it all started.
Thank you!
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64 of 66 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Please read this book!!, June 6, 2005
If you have tinnitus, or you're a health professional, please read this book!!
It is extremely comprehensive. Yet it's very easy to get through - it's written in an easy-to-read style, and is very concise and well organised.
Best of all, it describes a range of scientifically proven methods to reduce tinnitus. It is extremely well referenced (and contains over 40 pages of research abstracts at the back, which is useful if you're a health professional).
The vast majority of people who have tinnitus and read this book will see that the odds are greatly in their favor!!
The book's author had extreme tinnitus, which he reduced to zero. (After doing a massive amount of research!) Very inspiring!
Hogan has made a great leap forward because knowledge of tinnitus was really backwards, by being so fragmented. Tinnitus isn't looked after by any one type of health care profession. So no health profession has responsiblity to keep tabs on all tinnitus research, and no one was exposed to all the research - most of which was published in journals for other health professions...
Kevin Hogan took on the task of reading all the research that was available, from everywhere! (So as you'd expect, he recommends a multi-modal approach to treating tinnitus - using a range of strategies which just one type of health professional can't give you.)
The result of Hogan's research is that people no longer need to accept the following sort of hackneyed, awful advice: "Tinnitus is an incurable condition, that one can, with patience, learn to live with." (Which is well-intended, but whoever says this simply isn't up-to-date with scientific research.)
The book lists the different causes of tinnitus, the different ways in which it presents itself, and the different effects that experiencing tinnitus has on individuals. It points to the most likely strategies for success depending on individual characteristics.
However, it emphasises that all tinnitus is just a perception of sound (not originating from the environment). It tells you how to reduce that sound perception, pretty much regardless of cause. Many people do that to the point where the perception doesn't exist at all - i.e. no tinnitus!
This is a landmark book.
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