Do any of you guys have tinnitus?

General Discussion
41

Interesting thread. This seems to be a very common symptom among the folks who post here. I have a touch of it too. Like the poster above, mine is most noticeable when first waking up in the morning. After I’ve showered & had breakfast and out the door if I have it, I don’t notice it. Sometimes I’ll start to notice it again later in the evening, just before bedtime.

Not sure what caused it. Maybe just aging is all. Symptoms didn’t start after some event happened. But over the years I’ve attended plenty of overly loud rock concerts, shot guns of all sorts for target shooting without ear protection, indoor cycling groups with loud music, and had some fairly serious inner ear infections* from colds and flu over the years. But I can’t really point to one or another as the cause.

One thing I’ve noticed is the the symptoms seem to get a little worse if I eat foods containing a lot of salt or sugar. And they get better if I drink a lot of water. The more hydrated I am, the fewer symptoms. I haven’t noticed any thing else that seems to modulate the symptoms. My doctor advises to wear earplugs around loud noises, which I do now, for example when attending indoor cycling classes, which in fact seems to help.

You’d think since the problem is so widespread modern medicine would have a fix in place. Maybe modern medicine isn’t as modern as we’d like to think.

  • fyi, by trial and error discovered that sucking on a little piece of raw garlic when cold and flu head congestion starts seems to help quite a bit to prevent inner ear infections from starting.
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I think that a great many of us have been somewhat irresponsible in taking care of ourselves as we rushed to take care of business and life. There was a time when I thought I was 10 feet tall and bullet proof but by the time I was 45 it was obvious I was mistaken. I will give the garlic a try if a cold begins creeping up on me @GeorgeSanJose. Thanks for the tip.

43

Now that’s an idea. I’m on my second one this winter. I’ve been working a lot in the garage and guess its been too cold out there or something.

44

Blood pressure directly affects the intensity of it from my perspective. It gets noticeably louder if my blood pressure goes up.

Had it for many years at a low level. Not too long ago, I had a balloon pop near my head and it’s been much worse since then.

I once developed an ear infection while on vacation. Flying back caused it to flare up considerably. The ringing was so intense at night in bed I actually thought I would go insane. Forget water torture, make someone’s ear ring incessantly so they cannot sleep…

My brother developed very bad ringing when he was kicked in the ear during a karate match. The ear doctor said he had lost some of the hairs that are connected to the nerves. So they are like a radio without the proper antenna, spewing nothing but white noise into your brain.

Fortunately, the brain becomes somewhat immune to it over time although if you pay attention, it’s still there. Great, now I can hear it again! :wink:

45

Yep I have it too and I know it’s all my fault. In my case what I hear is not unlike the temporary high pitched whine that you would hear if you had like a gunshot too close to you. In my case it’s constant and never changes pitch. It’s not debilitating and doesn’t interfere with my enjoyment of life but what I wouldn’t give to hear some absolute silence once again! The causes? Too much loud rock, air tools in close proximity, using loud machinery without hearing protection. I also have to endure mild high pitched hearing loss, the kind that makes it difficult to decipher conversation in noisy environments.

46

Had it for almost 9 years now as a result from barotrauma from an airplane flight. Wouldn’t be able to function if I didn’t take my daily dose of Klonopin. The anti-anxiety drug has the effect of desensitizing your nerves and quieting it down. Downside are the side effects that comes with it and possible addiction and so few doctors are willing to prescribe it. I suffer from chronic dry eye and my eyesight has been getting worse for the last 3 years among other problems. Seems more drug related than age related. Looking to try out tinnitus retraining therapy as an alternative to help get me off the drug if possible.

47

Sometimes hearing aids help, even if you don’t have much hearing loss.

48

A little off topic but mentioning barotrauma thought I’d add my additional comment. I have for whatever reason, a real problem with air flight especially when landing. The pressure changes really cause pain in my ears and don’t try to talk about chewing gum or popping your ears etc. it doesn’t work for me. At any rate once I discovered “Earplanes” life if much better. They are ear plugs that you pop in just before taking off until altitude and then about 15 minutes before the decent starts. Totally eliminates the pressure in the ear due to altitude changes. They aren’t cheap at about $10 each at drug stores or Walmart but sure do the trick for me. I don’t think I have any stock in them but they work for folks that have ear problems.

Back when it seemed like Southern Airlines had the worst conditions for decent and used to just drive me nuts. Even worse if you had a little congestion. So just my two cents for folks that suffer from ear issues, and it can prevent permanent damage to the ear drums on particularly bad flights. By the by, whatever happened to Piedmont? We used to call them “Tree Top Airline”.

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49

After driving my car to the airport, I usually do alka seltzer plus about a half hour before a flight as my cure, been through the intense pain and it works well for me. Daughter has the skinny eustachian tube syndrome also, and she is a believer now. Luckily altitude changes in a car, or elevator going up 100 stories or so are not an issue. My ears will pop with sometimes needed jaw type exercises probably due to a slower change in pressure giving my bod time to adapt.

50

Actually, it’s the flight back from Seattle to Boston wearing those “Earplanes” that may or may not have contributed to the tinnitus. I got barotrauma flying out the Seattle where there was inner ear bleeding and my eardrum was caved in at the time. Stupid ENT I saw in Seattle stated it was okay to fly back if I used the Earplanes in combination with a steroid medication a week later on my flight back. My weakened state along with the added stress (instead of ear pain, the pain radiated through my jaw) caused me to get tinnitus descending into LaGuardia airport. Had it ever since. Should have gone with my instinct and taken the train. Since then I’ve never flown again and it isn’t recommended by my doctor to prevent it from getting worse.

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I could post a million tunes, but missing the connection. I mean substitute ears for legs in this tune?
Love to play battle of the tunes.

53

There’s no cure-all out there for anything sadly (boy aren’t those Star Trek Hyposprays an amazing concept that can hopefully become factual some day!), but they are trying some medications to see if they can help manage Tinnitus. They are trying Acamproate (brand name Campral, used to treat alcohol dependence) and antidepressants, but there isn’t much evidence to support their use. Benzodiazepines (Lorazepam, Alprazolam, Diazepam, etc) have shown a tentative link to possibly helping, but, again, data isn’t sufficient to show that they’ll be effective.

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54

I’ve had tinnitus for 17 years. I used a tone generator program on my computer to find that it’s about 4000 Hz ±500 , around B 3 octaves above middle C. I searched by the 100; when I reached that range I thought it wasn’t working, because I heard nothing. I had to ask a friend. That I began to hear again in the low 4K+ suggested it was working.

I read a study of some scientists who tested a hypothesis that removing the target sound would mitigate the symptom, so I used a notch filter to remove 3500-4500 from the kind of music I listen to (classical), put it on my mp3 player, listened for a few hours daily. I didn’t notice a difference.

‘Listening to tailor-made notched music reduces tinnitus loudness and tinnitus-related auditory cortex activity’

55

My tinnitus is usually not a big deal, except . . .

First thing in the morning, right after I wake up

when I’m under stress

when somebody mentions it . . . makes you take notice

Yesterday evening I went to a meeting, in another part of town. No parking lot, so I have to find a spot on the street, as usual. I found a spot and went to my meeting. When I came out, I discovered somebody had sideswiped my car, and left an almost illegible note on my windshield. I immediately contacted my insurance and got my claim started. Since it was after hours, I didn’t yet have an adjuster assigned to my case. I was told to scan the note and email it to the adjuster, when I found out who it was in the morning, and they would attempt contact with the person that left the note. I was actually worried the person had left a note with a fake name and/or phone number. You know the deal . . . you hit somebody, there are witnesses. So you make a big show of leaving a note, which everybody sees you leave. But it’s got useless and/or wrong information. I would never do such a thing, but I know people who’ve had it happen to them.

I had to drive home, on the freeway, pissed off, worried, and with no left exterior mirror. That was left behind, on the street

When I got home, I ate dinner, but it wasn’t very tasty, not when you’re upset

And I didn’t get much sleep, either. That stress made the tinnitus REALLY bad. Kind of hard to catch any sleep, under those circumstances :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

This morning, I had an adjuster assigned to my case. I sent them the note, they contacted the guy, he fessed up and things are under way. It’ll be several days before I can bring my car to the body shop, because they’re quite busy, but that is the nature of the business. In the meantime, I parked the damaged car, and won’t touch it until it’s time for the body shop. I’m driving the old backup car until my car is fixed.

Boy, I can hear that ringing in my ears as I type this. Seems to be more on the left side. I like to read. And when I start reading, it takes a few minutes before I can get into it. When I’m into the book, I can pretty much ignore the ringing. But if I don’t like the book, or can’t concentrate, the ringing is front and center

Of interest . . . my mom, who’s 30 years older than me, doesn’t have half the physical problems I do. But then, she was never blue collar

Carolyn, if you’re reading this, please consider I DID mention my car getting sideswiped, and also the insurance claims process, both of which are certainly car-related

To be honest, I’m not really that interested in a cure. If one is developed, great. Sign me up. If not,well, I’ll just continue to cope, as we all do :slight_smile:

56

They’ve helped quite a few people I’ve met at ATA meetings. Problem is so few doctors are willing to prescribe them due to their addictive nature and potential side effects. One of which I’m currently suffering from at the moment. I’ve had to reduce my medication amount to help compensate.

TRT is supposedly effective for 50% of tinnitus sufferers according to my ENT who’s up to speed on all the latest papers published. The audiologists who provide the service like to advertise at 80%. What’s really bizarre is the fact that the service is $6000 (last time I checked) here in New England vs. $2500 if you live in the Northwest area.

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57

Mine flared up right after looking at this thread again! :stuck_out_tongue:

58

Did you ever notice how often you blink?
Enjoy!
:smile:

59

I’m hoping more clinical trials will show them to be effective. If tinnitus can be listed as an indicator (and not just as an off-label usage), that will hopefully help to encourage more prescriptions. If they are effective at low doses, that should help to assuage some of dependency and side effect worries.

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Mine is not normally intrusive unless I am trying to listen to classical music.

It was caused by infrasonic sound in a PA. Yes, sound you cannot hear can damage your ears.