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Programmet
"Today" på NBC – 15/9-1997
(Denne
siden er fremdeles ikke ferdig oversatt)
På
forespørsel fra NBC ble jeg 15. september 1997 intervjuet
av Matt Lauer i en
direkte-sending av programmet "Today". Det sies
at programmet ble sett av et internationalt publikum på ca
40 millioner.
Stephen
M. Nagler, MD, FACS
MATT LAUER, co-host:
Al,
this morning on TODAY'S HEALTH, the captain of the Enterprise,
William Shatner, has boldly gone where many men have gone before,
to a place no one wants to be. He suffers from tinnitus, a
constant ringing in the ears, or head noise, that simply won't go
away. Our man in Hollywood, Jim Brown, sat down with the
star to talk about his mission to help other sufferers.
(Footage
shown from "Star Trek IV")
JIM BROWN
reporting:
It is a humorous moment in "Star Trek IV"
when the Enterprise crew travels back to the 20th century and
William Shatner's Captain Kirk reacts negatively to the deafening
noise of a punk rocker's boom box.
(Footage shown from
"Star Trek IV")
BROWN: That was 1986.
A few years later it was not so funny when Shatner began hearing
noises where there were none.
Mr. WILLIAM SHATNER: I
remember having a surge of panic. And that moment of panic,
when I realized that I was hearing something inside my head, I
wanted to run and escape the sound. And that only increased
the panic because there was no place to run.
BROWN:
Shatner, a man who spends more time on a horse than he ever did
on the bridge of the Enterprise, learned that he, like millions
of Americans, suffered from tinnitus, due to the permanent
destruction of the nerve cells of the inner ear.
BROWN:
What do you hear, then, if - if...
Mr. SHATNER: I'm
hearing 'shhhhhh' all the time.
BROWN: When Shatner
revealed his hearing problem to friends like Leonard Nimoy, he
found not only sympathetic ear, but another tinnitus sufferer as
well. They compared notes on what may have caused the
damage.
Mr. SHATNER: We are both standing around an
explosive device on a "Star Trek" film, and it -
it prepared and went off. And I guess I must have been
standing here, because I have it in my left, and he has it in his
right ear. The volume of sound is not so important as your
ability to accept it and - and not - not
panic.
BROWN: But you didn't accept it, did
you?
Mr. SHATNER: Not in the beginning. I -
I thought I would go crazy.
BROWN: To the point that
you actually were contemplating suicide?
Mr. SHATNER:
There was a time when I thought, 'I don't think I can deal with
this anymore.' And I began to actively think of what means
you could use that - that you could end your life.
BROWN:
What changed things? What - you said you can't cure
it. But you can help it in some way.
Mr. SHATNER:
I thought this has got to be positive. I have got to do
something about this. And so I went on a journey of trying
to do something about it, and met a lot of people along the way,
and ended up in Baltimore.
BROWN: And there, at the
University of Maryland Medical Center, under doctors such as
Pawel Jastreboff and Douglas Mattox, Shatner was treated using a
device resembling a hearing aid which feeds so-called white sound
into the ear.
Mr. SHATNER: And, eventually, what
happens is the brain says, 'Oh, I - I know this sound.
And I - I ignore that sound, and' - says the brain.
And that teaches your head to accept the sound of the tinnitus.
The real message here for me to you, and to your audience, is
that although most doctors will tell their patient who comes in
to them with this complaint that there's no help, there is help.
There is hope.
LAUER: Dr. Stephen
Nagler is a surgeon who is one of the 50 million people who
suffer from tinnitus. He now helps others as Director of
the Southeastern Comprehensive Tinnitus Clinic, which just opened
up in Atlanta. Dr. Nagler, good morning.
Dr. STEPHEN
NAGLER (Southeastern Comprehensive Tinnitus Clinic; Alliance
Tinnitus and Hyperacusis Center): Good morning.
LAUER:
First of all, it can be tinn-it-us or tin-nite-us, either is
correct, it really doesn't matter?
Dr. NAGLER: Both
pronunciations are acceptable. That's right.
LAUER:
What exactly is it? We hear about this ringing in the
ears. But what exactly is happening inside the head?
Dr.
NAGLER: Mm-hmm. Tinnitus is the experience of noise
or sound either coming from the ear or coming from the head, as
opposed to coming from an external source. It's a physical
phenomenon. It's not a psychological issue. It
affects about 40 to 50 million Americans, about 15 percent of the
population. And it can be - it can have various
degrees of severity, from mildly irritating to totally
incapacitating. About six million Americans have it to the
extent that they - that they are - they don't function
well at times.
LAUER: Can't sleep?
Dr.
NAGLER: Can't sleep. They're irritated. About
two million are actually disabled.
LAUER: William
Shatner tried to, within his microphone, tell us what sound he's
hearing. I'm sure the sound differs slightly for all
different people. Give us an example using this device what
a tinnitus sufferer might hear. And is that about the
volume they would hear it?
(NAGLER uses tinnitus
simulator.)
Dr. NAGLER: It varies from person -
it varies from person to person. But when YOU hear that
sound, what you want to do is either leave the room or put your
hands over your ears. When a tinnitus sufferer hears that
sound, if he leaves the room, the sound travels with him.
He puts his hands over his ears, and the sound gets louder.
There's no escape.
LAUER: So this can develop at any
time in one's life. Is it injury-related at all?
Dr.
NAGLER: It is somewhat related. There are several
possible causes. But the most common cause is noise-induced
tinnitus. What happens is a disorder or disarray develops
in the cochlea, which is right over here (points to model of
ear), the snail-like structure with hair cells in the - in
the inner ear. And then, at some point - and this is
one of Dr. Jastreboff's big contributions - many people
believe that at some point the tinnitus signal travels actually
into the brain to the limbic system which sits in here (points to
model of brain), near the medial temporal lobe of the brain.
And the limbic system is the seat of various emotions, love hate
and fear. The limbic system sees the tinnitus as an
unwelcome, threatening intruder. It grabs it and it won't
let go.
LAUER: William Shatner mentioned that there
is help available. You can't cure this. Without
getting into specific treatments, what should someone do if
they - if he or she feels that he does have tinnitus?
Dr.
NAGLER: Four things. It's simple.
LAUER:
Quickly.
Dr. NAGLER: The first thing -
quickly. The first thing is to find a board-certified ENT
doctor, or an otologist, an ear doctor, who is INTERESTED in
tinnitus, so you won't wind up with the story 'Go home and learn
to live with it.' We don't need that anymore. It's
inappropriate, unacceptable. The second thing is to join
the American Tinnitus Association in Portland, Oregon.
Very, very important. You get flooded with information and
data. The third thing is to protect your auditory system.
Tinnitus doesn't cause hearing loss. Hearing loss doesn't
cause tinnitus. But as your hearing becomes worse, tinnitus
becomes more apparent. So the two things to do in that
regard are to avoid silence. Sound is good for the auditory
system. And avoid loud noises; protect yourself from loud
noises. And the fourth thing to do is write to your
congressman; we need money. We need money so that I'm out
of a job. We need a cure. All we have is very good
treatment, but we don't have a cure.
LAUER: Dr.
Stephen Nagler, thanks very much.
Dr. NAGLER: Thank
you.
LAUER: Appreciate it. By the way, if
you'd like to know more about tinnitus, you can call the American
Tinnitus Association. The number is 800-634-8978.
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