New research indicates that magnetic blasts to the brain may help with a condition known as tinnitus, a common ailment that a vast portion of the United States has.

About 45 million people suffer from tinnitus, which is defined as a persistent ringing or hissing in the ear when there is no external source to blame. The impact on a person can be virtually nonexistent to a complete inability to concentrate, according to a HealthDay News report.

While there haven’t been any methods that have been demonstrated to deal with tinnitus, researchers may have found a weapon against it: magnetic pulses.

There hasn’t been a whole lot of effort to solve the problem of tinnitus, perhaps because it is usually nothing more than an annoyance. But for some people, it causes severe disabilities, and can result in anxiety and depression.

The new study found that patients who had suffered from tinnitus for at least a year and who were subjected to 2,000 magnetic pulses over 10 consecutive workdays — a process called “transcranial magnetic stimulation” — found that their symptoms decrease much of the time. About half of the respondents had their tinnitus eased for at least six months versus a “sham” treatment, according to the report.

Those few months represented the first time in years that these patients had experienced some relief from their symptoms, and it could give scientists new leads into what is causing this condition.

Members of the military are particularly affected by this problem. They often get it from trauma while in the field, and is one of the most common disabilities in the armed forces.

The findings were published in JAMA Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery.

Tinnitus is typically defined as a ringing but sometimes a clicking or roaring sensation int he ear. Rarely, voices or music are heard. It can be in one ear or both.