For people with tinnitus everywhere, AudioCardio is the best news we’ve had in a long time. Designed to stimulate your hearing, the app is a subscription-based service with personal or corporate options.
Where does AudioCardio come from?
Chris Ellis started AudioCardio in response to his grandfather’s hearing loss. AudioCardio was also inspired by Sam Kwak, a musician who co-founded the app with Ellis.
Kwak developed sound conditioning technology to help combat his own declining hearing. The new AudioCardio app uses threshold sound conditioning (TSC) to help replace some of the hearing lost to hair cell damage in the cochlea.
Part of the inspiration for the app comes from Ellis’s grandfather. He had dementia, and Ellis found himself researching the link between hearing loss and mental health. "I read up on some of the causes of cognitive decline and dementia and found studies relating unaddressed hearing loss with an increased risk of cognitive issues, depression and many other physical and mental health problems." Ellis’s research helped provide the inspiration he needed to create AudioCardio.
What's the science behind AudioCardio?
As Ellis puts it, "we condition the cells at the threshold level (just inaudible) to help stimulate, activate and promote neural activity necessary for sound to travel from our ears to our brains so that they can be processed as sound. By consistently stimulating these cells, we hope to help them form stronger connections to each other so that they can more easily and efficiently transfer sound signals to the brain. This type of connectivity and reorganization of how sound reaches the brain is known as the concept of neuroplasticity or brain plasticity.”
It seems that utilizing brain plasticity is the key to improving hearing loss and decreasing tinnitus. I tried the app myself, and it does indeed help to offset tinnitus; however, it’s difficult to tell if it improved my hearing without a formal audiogram.
How to use AudioCardio
The sound conditioning app is available as a free trial, but you’ll have to pay for it after this. Once you’ve installed it on your smartphone, you’ll need to take a hearing assessment, but this is super quick. You’ll then need to do an hour per day of sound therapy, but you can simply turn it on and carry on with your normal daily activities.
Going forward, you’ll retake the initial assessment once a week so that the app can adjust your sound therapy for you. The app also lets you track your progress so you can see if the sound therapy sessions are making a difference.
The AudioCardio app is available for Android and iPhone devices and has just been awarded an honoree title in Fast Company’s Annual World-Changing Ideas Award in the Wellness category. It’s a useful little tool for managing tinnitus, but it does take some commitment to see results. However, if you utilize the reminders, it can work wonders for you. It’s effortless to use alongside your other activities, and it could make all the difference.
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