Tinnitus

[ernestcarl]

There is a preconscious filter in hearing that takes out noise and makes predictions what a sound is supposed to be. Tinnitus is a failure of this system, so that erroneous signals are not filtered out as noise but let through as conscious perception.

There are some cases where careful listening in silence or trying to recognize sounds among much noise teaches the filter to be more lenient, so people get a higher risk of tinnitus. I suppose some tinnitus therapies are based on teaching the filter to be stricter, by listening to noise shaped in a particular way, for example.

Some of the noise is what can be considered as "phantom tones/ringing" from long-dead hair cells in the ear. I think I have this as well as some of the very HF ringing I hear seems to be already outside my current hearing bandwidth which is probably between 15-16kHz now.

 

[DubbyMcDubs]

Interesting. What is the biopharmacologic mechanism behind the effect? Gotta look it up later... wanna know if there really is something to it -- although I don't really drink Coke Zero or softdrinks. I'm more of a tea person.

Yeh you will find a few things on it, but there needs to be more research done. I am not the only person online to discover the same cause.

There are lots of adverse side effects to artifical sweetners, however from a hearing perspective it excites your neurons so it can exagerate existing natural hearing loss. It is also a neurotoxin under the right conditions, temperature mainly, and can therefore kill neurons.

 

[Destination: Moon]

Was it j_j that said that most children are expected to have some HF loss as they grow up and go to school etc. anyway... since there's so much noise pollution in the modern world. There's almost no way to completely avoid over-exposure nowadays if you use public transportation and live in the city and so on.

If you educate people on what constitutes excessive noise.... Like when you can't hear yourself talk, or need to stand next to someone and yell in their ear, etc and carry those Etymotic plugs for those occasions, you can prevent a lot of damage. Also for extreme nose carry foam roll ups

 

[Sugarbubble]

I have had it for 57 years. Sometimes it’s incredibly annoying, but mostly my brain just filters it out and I don’t even notice it.

 

[Dogen]

My empathy for all who live with this. I do have a question: is tinnitus indistinguishable from an external sound? Or is it experienced differently and simply described as a sound? Can you match it to certain frequencies? I sometimes have high-frequency “sensations” like ringing but I wouldn’t mistake it for a sound. And it doesn’t seem to compete with external auditory events.

 

[JSmith]

This thread is interesting, urge all to read same;

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/forum/index.php?threads/bimodal-treatment-for-tinnitus.16637/



JSmith

 

[wemist01]

Never has there been a more powerful advertisement for buying good equipment now, not later. This thread is a horror.

 

[Destination: Moon]

Never has there been a more powerful advertisement for buying good equipment now, not later. This thread is a horror.

Understanding what is loud and then taking action is the key. SPLs at concerts and clubs can be disastrous. Hell, even some restaurants (remember them?) Were pretty damaging when busy

 

[StevenEleven]

Interesting. What is the biopharmacologic mechanism behind the effect? Gotta look it up later... wanna know if there really is something to it -- although I don't really drink Coke Zero or softdrinks. I'm more of a tea person.

Good job!! In one study an inverse relationship was found between long-term caffeine intake and tinnitus in women (no offense, that's what the study was about, a "female cohort"!). That's right, more caffeine, lower risk of tinnitus! Go figure!

For you persnickety show-me-the-study types:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4127368/

The takeaway--More coffee!! You don't have to tell me twice!! You correlation versus cause and effect freaks just get outa here!! Read the study, dudes!

This is so weird for an audio board--instead of everyone trying to insinuate how special their hearing is we all jump in and talk about our tinnitus. Well, here is my take: tinnitus is really weird. I don't know if I always have it, or only have it when I think about it, or only think about it when I have it. I do know if I get really stressed or clench my jaw for too long or get a cold my ears will ring such that I cannot help but notice it.

 

[Tks]

There's always the possibility of a brain tumor. Something like a vestibular schwannoma can press or envelope the auditory nerve and cause tinnitus and hearing loss. Happened to me on right ear.

Sounds scary, you still living okay?

Also, what's up with SO many people here suffering from this? I thought this was a rare condition that only certain professions are exposed to more regularly.

 

[musicman0060]

I have an appointment with Audiologist followed by an ENT this Friday. I'll post the findings here.

Definitely keep us posted, and I'll do same; I have the very similar situation/symptoms and timing to yours including setting up a new audio system. I also see the Audiologist + ENT in 2 weeks. Best of luck!

 

[BDWoody]

My empathy for all who live with this. I do have a question: is tinnitus indistinguishable from an external sound? Or is it experienced differently and simply described as a sound? Can you match it to certain frequencies? I sometimes have high-frequency “sensations” like ringing but I wouldn’t mistake it for a sound. And it doesn’t seem to compete with external auditory events.

In my case it could certainly be confused with an external sound source.

It is at right about 10kHz, and is constant and even in both ears. When my hearing was tested a few years ago, MY tone masked other test tones above that leaving a blank, until I picked up the 14kHz tone which was apparently beyond the masking, then nothing beyond about 16kHz.

I believe our host spent some time looking around to find the source of the tone he was hearing, before he realized it was tinnitus.

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ring-loss-a-hobby-fades-away.7316/post-170628

 

[Phorize]

Sounds scary, you still living okay?

Also, what's up with SO many people here suffering from this? I thought this was a rare condition that only certain professions are exposed to more regularly.

I spent 6 years walking to school with my Walkman blasting the beastie boys at full volume, then placed my head in a bass bin only to remove it 10 years later. I had it coming and my light tinnitus should be far worse.

 

[sailor2005]

Sounds scary, you still living okay?

Also, what's up with SO many people here suffering from this? I thought this was a rare condition that only certain professions are exposed to more regularly.

At first it was kind of scary and I STILL have the tumor, only it was stopped from growing by the gamma knife radiosurgery. That was in 2008. The hearing loss is certainly inconvenient but I have learned to ignore the tinnitus, maybe because it's only on one ear.

 

[Tks]

I spent 6 years walking to school with my Walkman blasting the beastie boys at full volume, then placed my head in a bass bin only to remove it 10 years later. I had it coming and my light tinnitus should be far worse.

Kinda makes me glad I got into music consumption a bit later in life. Actually nevermind, I used to rock Apple Earbuds while listening on the way to school on the streets of busy NYC and trainstations that are so loud, I tried drowning out the ambient noise with volume from the music... There should be cops ripping these things off peoples ears if they catch you doing that.

At first it was kind of scary and I STILL have the tumor, only it was stopped from growing by the gamma knife radiosurgery. That was in 2008. The hearing loss is certainly inconvenient but I have learned to ignore the tinnitus, maybe because it's only on one ear.

Anytime someone mentions brain and tumor, I think oh look, someone who survived a death sentence. Scary just thinking about it.

 

[Veri]

In my case it could certainly be confused with an external sound source.

It is at right about 10kHz, and is constant and even in both ears. When my hearing was tested a few years ago, MY tone masked other test tones above that leaving a blank, until I picked up the 14kHz tone which was apparently beyond the masking, then nothing beyond about 16kHz.

I believe our host spent some time looking around to find the source of the tone he was hearing, before he realized it was tinnitus.

https://www.audiosciencereview.com/...ring-loss-a-hobby-fades-away.7316/post-170628

For me it's high frequency noise. Next month marks probably ~11 years of having it no cause, just genetics probably.
In any case there's no real 'fix' for it, you need to handle it as background noise and live with it. Fans etc can mask.

 

[hotdogsandwich]

FWIW, mine has nearly gone away after 25 years… which I didn’t think was a possibility. I used to stand underneath jet engines at military power when I was in the Air Force, so its pretty clear where the damn ringing came from. I still have hearing loss though, which I suspect isn’t going away. I’ve recently discovered ASR and after making a few purchases I’m enjoying music in a way I haven’t since I was a teenager with good ears. If you love music, and you have hearing issues, a system with the right equipment and setup has utility.

 

[111db]

From Music Engineering second edition by Richard Brice:
We can hear, without damage, a ratio of sound intensities of about 1:1000 000 000 000. The quietest whisper we can hear is a billionth of the intensity of the sound of a jet aircraft taking off heard at close range. In engineering terms you could say human audition is equivalent to a true 20-bit system – 16 times better than the signal processing inside a compact disc player! Interestingly, the tiniest sound we can hear occurs when our eardrums move less than the diameter of a single atom of hydrogen. Any more sensitive and we would be kept awake at night by the ‘sound’ of the random movement of the nitrogen molecules within the air around us. In other words, the dynamic range of hearing is so wide as to be up against fundamental physical limitations. (emphasis mine)

 

[Hon]

There's always the possibility of a brain tumor. Something like a vestibular schwannoma can press or envelope the auditory nerve and cause tinnitus and hearing loss. Happened to me on right ear.

You got teated for it? I hope it's better--or getting better!

 

[sailor2005]

You got teated for it? I hope it's better--or getting better!

Yes. It is a benign tumor, but it could get dangerous if allowed to grow, so it was treated with gamma rays. It took a whole morning and was quite expensive but the Navy paid for that and it is not an invasive procedure. Traditional surgery is way riskier and it only had about a 50% chance of success, whereas the gamma ray procedure had a 97% chance of success. As long as the tumor doesn't grow anymore it's ok. In any case the damage was already done so no big deal leaving it inside my big head. Also with traditional surgery there was a risk that the whole auditory nerve would go with the tumor when it was removed causing a complete loss of hearing. That was 13 years ago and it's no longer being monitored and I'm still in the Navy.