Tinnitus

[DubbyMcDubs]

Classic red flag for migraine: phenylalanine. You probably have migraine. Eat healthier for sure.
BTW: MRIs in this instance for this diagnosis and condition is a sign your ENT is too inexperienced (or lazy). Time to find a better one.

No migraines

 

[Jazz]

No migraines

No such thing as a migraine headache. Headaches (from migraine) are a product of migraine (no s) but do not confirm a migraine.
Advertising, endless misleading stock photos of women with heads in hands, soap operas, and bad medical practice use of the term have got us all brain washed to assume a migraine and a headache are the same. Nope. We now can separate the two. Migraine is a complex neurological disorder affecting one in six humans on Earth. The nausea, vertigo, hearing loss, tinnitus, various visual auras, stomach and intestinal problems, UTI infection, sore neck, other sore body parts, the list goes on and on… and, a headache, can all be part of the migraine. Some have all. Some have just one or two. But the headache may or may not happen with migraine.

 

[threni]

You know the term “woke”? It applies to disabled people too.
One day, you will wake up.

I'm not "woke". I don't even have a beard.

 

[Jazz]

I'm not "woke". I don't even have a beard.

Maybe sleep in today?

 

[RayDunzl]

shoving toilet paper in your ears is virtually doing nothing.

A wad of soggy wet tissue paper works very well.

Don't try to push it in much, a big glob over the ear canal is effective, I'd estimate -30dB.

From that, I use my foam plugs wet, more effective, and more comfortable.

 

[DtoA]

When I was flying a lot for business my standard rig was ear buds for music and then just drop over ear passive protection designed for gun ranges on top. They could be purchased for around $15 on Amazon and provided 40db of cut.

 

[mkarikom]

I hope this post belongs here if not I apologize in advance.

I recently developed Tinnitus with constant high frequency ringing in both ears. Cause unknown and definitely not because of listening at high volumes. I always listened music <70 dB SPL measured with iPhone app.
As fate would have it this happened just when I purchased my new KEF R11s and setup my full system. (R11, X4700H, Parasound A31)
I only got to enjoy it for a week or so and then started hearing the hum/ringing. Initially I thought it was my speakers humming but then i disconnected power
supply to the house and still heard it. Now i can hear it everywhere and all the time.

I'm curious if I got it because I started listening to different music critically as I was trying to evaluate the speakers and different electronics like AVR and Amplifiers.

If anyone has similar experiences please let me know and any possible cures. I'm clearly very depressed about this so any advice or positive thoughts will help.

I probably developed tinnitus due to a punctured ear drum a few years back.

Hearing loss, whether from trauma, age, etc is the primary risk factor for tinnitus.

An interesting line of therapy is selective gain in a hearing aid, here is the 2019 paper:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1672293018301272

 

[mkarikom]

I probably developed tinnitus due to a punctured ear drum a few years back.

Hearing loss, whether from trauma, age, etc is the primary risk factor for tinnitus.

An interesting line of therapy is selective gain in a hearing aid, here is the 2019 paper:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1672293018301272

Here is a paper in PNAS, which talks about training using notched recordings, with attenuation at the percieved tinnitus frequency.
The proposed mechanism seems to be based on a [maybe theoretical] phenomenon called lateral-inhibition:

https://www.pnas.org/content/107/3/1207.long

 

[JoachimStrobel]

Here is a paper in PNAS, which talks about training using notched recordings, with attenuation at the percieved tinnitus frequency.
The proposed mechanism seems to be based on a [maybe theoretical] phenomenon called lateral-inhibition:

https://www.pnas.org/content/107/3/1207.long

If that works, then one could try the same with REW and a microphone and Roon (or any other combo). First checking the Tinnitus by adjusting the threshold volume for a range of frequencies while checking the level with a microphone. And then designing a filter that would further reduce the Tinnitus frequency. I did it the other way around trying to compensate for the Tinnitus (https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/hearing-eq.9632/#post-256552). That works too as it returns a bit of the sensation of a good hearing and may help the brain to retrain its compensation mechanism. But it puts strain on my hearing with the Tinnitus being stronger afterwards, which speaks for the cited paper.

 

[DtoA]

This seems very doable by adding a second calibrated preset with the tinnitus frequency notched.

From the PNAS paper
“By means of the target notch modification, the frequency band of one octave width centered at the individual tinnitus frequency was removed from the music energy spectrum.”

 

[Deleted member 30699]

I hope this post belongs here if not I apologize in advance.

I recently developed Tinnitus with constant high frequency ringing in both ears. Cause unknown and definitely not because of listening at high volumes. I always listened music <70 dB SPL measured with iPhone app.
As fate would have it this happened just when I purchased my new KEF R11s and setup my full system. (R11, X4700H, Parasound A31)
I only got to enjoy it for a week or so and then started hearing the hum/ringing. Initially I thought it was my speakers humming but then i disconnected power
supply to the house and still heard it. Now i can hear it everywhere and all the time.

I'm curious if I got it because I started listening to different music critically as I was trying to evaluate the speakers and different electronics like AVR and Amplifiers.

If anyone has similar experiences please let me know and any possible cures. I'm clearly very depressed about this so any advice or positive thoughts will help.

I am not a doctor but I hope the following information is useful to someone.
First, tinnitus is rather common and many people have it without realizing it. I first recognized tinnitus with noise-cancelling headphones.
Seeking more than one specialist, I gathered the following picture:
- Tinitus is can be related to hearing loss but can also have different origins including stress, cardiovascular health, ...
- An unbalanced tinnitus that is significantly stronger in one ear often points to a problem in that ear; a balanced tinnitus may point to a problem in both ears or any other source
- Tinnitus can rarely be fully resolved (as in take that medicine and it goes away). Often the best case is that thre is a 'condition' that triggers/excites it and can be minimized.
- For heavy tinnitus cases (as in tinnitus lowers your quality of life and/or affects your job/life), there are now hearing aids that attempt to do a 'tinnitus cancelling' (similar to noise cancelling) and/or apply a background noise to mask it. These can be useful even if you don't need a hearing aid (as in boost spl).

I hear periodically a high pitch that can be annoying. Medical hearing tests attested -doctors words- excellent hearing (can hear <= 10dB - I believe doctors use A weighting - and up to about 18Khz). Also lacking a clear medical issue, the doctor(s) were not sure if they could do anything for me.
What eventually helped was quite a long (subconscious) investigation. I had it more when under pressure at work - an occupational hazard. It was actually my partner that recognized that I tended to complain about hearing a pitch when she noticed teeth grinding at night. Sure enough this can stress the ears. Now it can still pop up but is under control.
Separately, I'm still evaluating if coffee, cigarettes, and sport (all affect stress levels) play a role as well.

I'd not generally recommend accepting listening to loud music in your youth as only possible root cause. There can be other factors that worsen or improve the status quo. Of course, a specialized doctor should always be consulted (but you may need to play an active role in the diagnosis if the most common causes don't apply).

Best of luck to all!

 

[MattHooper]

Tinnitus can be a real bummer. I've had it pretty bad since the 90's. But then you go on to get hyperacusis and you only wish it was Tinnitus instead! So I juggle between both on and off.

The Tinnitus can be astonishingly loud. When it's really bad and I'm lying in bed it feels like I'm at a Van Halen sound check and Eddie has simply turned up static to "11." Which means it's just as strange how unobtrusive it can be when it's not bad. For the most part I don't notice it these days and easily tune it out when I do. It does not affect my hearing acuity at all, as far as I can tell - it's mostly invisible when I'm listening to anything else. (Though sometimes I get "reactive" tinnitus in which the ringing in my ears is loud, and if I play music the ringing "rides" above the music so as I turn up the music the ringing just gets louder too, so it still distracts. That's rare, but when it happens I just forego music for that day).

For the OP, or anyone else who can be bothered by Tinnitus, one thing I've found helpful when the ringing seems loud enough to distract, is using a phone app for white noise. The main one I use is just called "White Noise" and it allows you to select from tailored versions of white noise -e.g. White noise, brown noise, pink noise. The "violet noise" a very narrow band of white noise, seems to mimick the frequency of my ringing perfectly.
It's really cool because if I turn it on and dial it just to the point of audibility, it so perfectly covers my ringing, but leaves the rest of the audible spectrum untouched, that it seems like I don't have tinnitus anymore. The room sounds "silent." Anyway, I find that if I just throw that violet noise on I can't hear the ringing so my brain stops focusing on it. After only a few minutes I can turn off the noise and the ringing no longer seems to be distracting as my brain has moved on. FWIW.

I had a horrendous re-occurrence of hyperacusis a couple years ago when I inadvertently was strolling in what turned out to be the path fighter jets were taking to a nearby air show! In other words, out of nowhere I was being strafed by squadrons of low-flying astonishingly loud fighter jets.
I ran as fast as I could to my car, but it was probably 1/4 mile away and even plugging my ears I could feel the damage being done. Even once inside my car, the whole things was shaking from the sound. My ears were utterly destroyed starting later that night. All sounds were super loud and harsh, sound was distorted like someone added white noise and a crazy "smile" eq to my hearing. Turning the pages of a book, putting a glass on the counter hurt. It only got worse, to the point my family even speaking to me hurt and then my OWN VOICE hurt my ears, so I couldn't even speak very loudly or for long. It was a very dark place to be and I understand why some people stricken with this, who don't get better, contemplate a way out.

It finally got me to try treatment, an off-shoot of TRT (Tinnitus Retraining Therapy), which involved hearing-aid-type devices that gently pump sculpted white noise in to my ears. Over time the idea is it re-programs the system to not respond to sound, especially in the hurtful frequency range, with alarm. Did it work? Hard to say for sure because I've been doing it for a couple of years. I can say that when I was in my acute early phase the gentle white noise offered real relief. My whole hearing system seemed to "calm down." Also, in that first month there seemed to be some pretty rapid progress. But it leveled off to a verrry slow journey back. At this point I'm about where I was before the air show incident.
I seem to have been still left with some hearing sensitivity at certain frequencies that can suddenly jump out painfully when cued. But overall everything sounds normal again and I can listen to music at least as loud as I have been for years.

 

[Andysu]

My tinnitus noise level has been rather low the past week guess it is the Tropicana orange juice I drink lots of it and seems. Yeah, yeah, yeah i know the sugar. I go though 7 to 8 cartons in 10 days.

 

[red_kk]

Thanks all for so many useful suggestions. I went to the ENT and got hearing test and found out I have hearing loss in the freq of 6Khz and slightly lower loss at 8Khz. I played 6Khz test tones and see that it is the frequency matching my tinnitus. The ENT wasn't much helpful and said there is nothing they can do about it and suggested an MRI just to rule out any tumors. My tinnitus was balanced when I started but now it is 70% on the left year and 30% on the right ear.

So far I'm getting habituated to it and also trying to get back on to a healthy lifestyle i.e. very light alcohol may be a drink or two a month and avoid sugars etc. I've reached a point where 90% of the times the sound doesn't bother me. I do have ear plugs now and plug my ears whenever my child is crying or throwing tantrums. I'm trying all the voodoo supplements i read about on the internet so will see how it goes from here.

 

[DonH56]

An article in the paper recently said an anti-depressant drug reduced tinnitus in some cases. Of course, then you have to deal wit the potential side effects of the drug...

 

[Andysu]

An article in the paper recently said an anti-depressant drug reduced tinnitus in some cases. Of course, then you have to deal wit the potential side effects of the drug...

You don't want be on them. I have and I rather not take them anymore. I suffer with depression and manic depression. I lost everything in 2020. I rather now wallow in self pity, than take these lousy "happy pills" again that is what they are called. If you suddenly come off them you will feel dizzy for few days unable to walk straight and no they won't make the inner ear noise any better.

 

[Andysu]

Mine has triggered off again. Not that anyone here cares. Maybe I shouldn't have done that headphone test last night with the sine wave at 16.000KHz it seem to have triggered off tinnitus which was laying low for a good 4 days or more so. All I hwar is a 8 9KHz hissing and the pressure is taxing me so much I like to punch universal pictures in the face cos of there fucking Sensurround in 1979 with that rubbish movie battlstar crap-lica!

 

[PaulD]

Mine has triggered off again. Not that anyone here cares.

That's a bit unfair bro! People here DO care. I have no wish to see any other human suffer with this malaise.

I am sorry that you have been knocked into this unpleasantness, and I am sure many others are too. I cannot comment on movies, except that I do watch the levels I am exposed to and I also carry some musicians earplugs with me on my keyring just in case I am caught out (for example at a cinema). Rest and the usual things, and I trust you will be better soon.

 

[Andysu]

That's a bit unfair bro! People here DO care. I have no wish to see any other human suffer with this malaise.

I am sorry that you have been knocked into this unpleasantness, and I am sure many others are too. I cannot comment on movies, except that I do watch the levels I am exposed to and I also carry some musicians earplugs with me on my keyring just in case I am caught out (for example at a cinema). Rest and the usual things, and I trust you will be better soon.

I humbly appreciate your candour on this. Thank you.

 

[DtoA]

Updating the thread. Following the study published in 2009 I have applied a pair of very narrow peq filters to reduce volume by 24db at 11khz (my tinnitus freq). No one else has noticed this very tight notch so I am leaving it in place full time. The only effect so far is a new oscillation at a lower frequency that comes and goes. I am going to continue long term because any change at all is positive for me since my tinnitus has never changed since 2007.