Tinnitus

[chris719]

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 could try a low dose (10-25 mg) of amitriptyline and see how it goes. It takes a few days to adapt but I find up to 25 mg easily tolerable. I take it for nerve pain not tinnitus, though.

 

[Takanaka]

Suffering from tinnitus for more than 4 years now, in my experience a healthy diet and exercise helps, caffeine makes it a bit worse but not much, alcohol and weed certainly amplify it.

What really helped me is dosing psilocybin every now and then it has a very special effect on tinnitus (or rather the brain) and can even make it pretty much disappear for a few hours for me, although the effect really differs per individual. And has lasting effects even after the “journey”.

As for audio picking the right driver and tweeters as well as avoiding reflections really help avoiding triggering tinnitus, Dynamic drivers and soft domes for example are fine in speakers or open-backed form. But metallic dome tweeters, closed back headphones and orthodynamic drivers seem to aggravate it quite a bit.

 

[Andysu]

No tying I may as well do it in a video.

 

[Andysu]

Found another video did few years ago so no more typing,
I can hear the sound of the THX cinema compared to now where it is far better with no echo anymore.

So Fuck battlestar galactica sensurround as all this would be 120dB! for 2hs of 120dB is unsafe!

 

[Chrisr]

As for audio picking the right driver and tweeters as well as avoiding reflections really help avoiding triggering tinnitus, Dynamic drivers and soft domes for example are fine in speakers or open-backed form. But metallic dome tweeters, closed back headphones and orthodynamic drivers seem to aggravate it quite a bit.

This really interests me and I would like to know more. Especially closed back headphones - is it proven/accepted that they aggravate it? Where can I read more about this?

As someone who got bad ringing in both ears after Metallica -93 and then used a walkman on the bus to blast punk rock full volume for years, I had come to terms with my tinnitus and was more or less OK with it. But then a few weeks ago it started getting considerably worse. Around that time some of the things that changed in my life: Got a new job after 18 months of travelling (so more stress), working remotely so sitting with closed back headphones for videoconferencing several hours a day, bought a new sound system.

Now I also have more stress than usual, probably have migraine or perhaps some persistent low level infections going on. So there are plenty of possible root causes already listed in this thread. But the idea of my choice of headphones or speakers affecting it is something I really want to get to the bottom of.

 

[DeepFried]

I also have tinnitus, curiously for me its directly related to vitamin B12. I have a B12 absorption problem, so with out regular large supplements I get a deficiency. one of the (many many) signs I've learned to recognize is tinnitus.

 

[Soniclife]

I also have tinnitus, curiously for me its directly related to vitamin B12. I have a B12 absorption problem, so with out regular large supplements I get a deficiency. one of the (many many) signs I've learned to recognize is tinnitus.

How large are those supplements?

 

[DeepFried]

How large are those supplements?

I'm still trying to work out what i need, which Is why i slip into deficiency sometimes. When i'm correcting a deficiency I take 600mcg a day. I'm hoping to settle on a lower amount for maintenance.

 

[Foulchet]

Personnaly, my tinnitus started when I was 22 or 23 (I do not remember exactly), I am 30 now and it never left. It started after a weird period of torticollis followed by an otitis and problems with altitude. These problems disappeared but they (maybe ? in fact I will never know if it is related or not) left a "scar" in a form of a constant but hopefully not loud whistle. I do not know if I played music too loud but I do not think so (now I can measure it, it generally find 60 db loud so...maybe I am more sensitive now ?). I also did not even go to theaters, concert, etc. by the time so...
I read people who shared the same experience as me, so I guess that tinnitus are not always linked to loud sound/noise and can have a more complex origin.

 

[stalepie2]

I think ASMR videos and "pure frequency" videos like this might have improved my tinnitus a little, for what it's worth:

I think there are specific videos for tinnitus that are supposed to help with like rushing water sounds and stuff. They may provide temporarily relief.
I wondered if cleaning my ears with Q-Tips helped too, despite everyone saying not to do that, that it just compacts the earwax further and can lead to serious medical problems. (shrug). Seemed to help me.

I also thought this guy's technique of rubbing and pressing on the ears actually provided (temporary) relief too:

I tried telling a friend who suffers from more severe tinnitus problems than me, but he wouldn't even try it for 30 seconds because he thought it was stupid. I think he always likes to complain about how bad he feels though so he gets sympathy.

In general headphones are likely to cause you hearing problems in the long run, especially if you are stupid like me and used treble happy "neutral" and "flat" ones like Sony MDR-V6 and Grado SR-60i at high volumes when young.

If I get headaches, surprisingly scratching ASMR videos -- the mic scratching -- I often like that, even though it would seem that more sound would be the last thing I want. Using earphones, of course, not on-ears like HD 25 and DT 1350, which cause temple pressure. I don't know if this is related to tinnitus.

 

[MaxRockbin]

I also thought this guy's technique of rubbing and pressing on the ears actually provided (temporary) relief too:

I'm trying it. Nothing yet. But he says do it for 5 days. Nothing to lose! There are "silly" seeming treatments that actually do something. If you start to feel dizzy for no reason, for example, there is a sequence of head movements you can do that WILL cure it often. It turns out that there are crystals in your inner ear that help your sense of balance. They can get stuck or something and moving your head in a certain sequence can fix it. Whoever thought of it originally was probably considered a nut, but now it's standard medical advice.

 

[MaxRockbin]

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.

Did the notch filter help? My own ringing seems to be at the upper edge of my hearing - around 12,500 hz. I'm thinking of just adding a lowpass filter in MiniDSP to cut off everything over 12khz. It might actually improve the sound quality anyway, since my tweeter is supposed to be difficult to drive and already has it's own notch filter around 22khz (copper dome resonance).

 

[stalepie2]

I'm trying it. Nothing yet. But he says do it for 5 days. Nothing to lose! There are "silly" seeming treatments that actually do something. If you start to feel dizzy for no reason, for example, there is a sequence of head movements you can do that WILL cure it often. It turns out that there are crystals in your inner ear that help your sense of balance. They can get stuck or something and moving your head in a certain sequence can fix it. Whoever thought of it originally was probably considered a nut, but now it's standard medical advice.

https://news.sanfordhealth.org/ear-nose-throat/ear-crystals-dizziness/

Wow, I've never heard of such a thing. I wonder if this affects how some people react to VR (virtual reality), as some are more prone to motion sickness than others.

 

[amirm]

https://news.sanfordhealth.org/ear-nose-throat/ear-crystals-dizziness/

Wow, I've never heard of such a thing. I wonder if this affects how some people react to VR (virtual reality), as some are more prone to motion sickness than others.

I learned about this from my doctor six months ago when I developed a severe case of Vertigo. Tried the "half summersault" movement and it seemed to help fair bit but not all of it. Gradually it has worn off however.

 

[stalepie2]

I learned about this from my doctor six months ago when I developed a severe case of Vertigo. Tried the "half summersault" movement and it seemed to help fair bit but not all of it. Gradually it has worn off however.

Glad it went away!

 

[DtoA]

Did the notch filter help? My own ringing seems to be at the upper edge of my hearing - around 12,500 hz. I'm thinking of just adding a lowpass filter in MiniDSP to cut off everything over 12khz. It might actually improve the sound quality anyway, since my tweeter is supposed to be difficult to drive and already has it's own notch filter around 22khz (copper dome resonance).

The notch filter has not “reprogrammed “ my brain by dynamically stimulating a full audio range minus my 11khz frequency. But I am also not notching a full octave width around that frequency which is specified in the study. My plan is to widen the notch as the next step.

The immediate effect I noticed was my listening fatigue time range increased by multiple hours. I can now listen comfortably for 3 or 4 hours, and I like having the option to raise the volume on a favorite song without concern.

 

[Jazz]

I learned about this from my doctor six months ago when I developed a severe case of Vertigo. Tried the "half summersault" movement and it seemed to help fair bit but not all of it. Gradually it has worn off however.

If you have vertigo, it might also be migraine disease. See a “migraine specialist neurologist” not any old neurologist. I have migraine disease, which is not just a headache. Indeed, I have no headache! But plenty of vertigo, tinnitus, and hearing loss since my early 20s. The big triggers tend to be air pressure (notably low pressure troughs and big seasonal pressure changes), light (LEDs and florescent), just being tired/hungry/sick (and now, old) and unfortunately, noise. (A bunch of other stuff I will leave out.) Migraine is an inherited disease and runs in families.

There are new innovative drugs out that might help many with migraine disease.

The new kinds of small molecule, calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) receptor antagonist migraine medications are getting more interesting and abundant. They are kind of like all the stories about blocking receptors for a virus but block a different one that is connected to what causes migraine disease.

“CGRP is one of the greatest translational science stories in medicine,” says Dr. Lipton. “We have gone from laboratory findings that show CGRP is important in vasodilation and pain, to human studies that show its role in migraine, to the development of a robust set of novel treatments. Since 1 billion people globally have migraine, including 40 million in the United States, this is great news for a huge number of people. That includes those with migraine, their families, and employers — and for clinicians who treat them — with wonderful new tools for reducing the burden of the world’s second most disabling disorder.” (link below)

BTW: Migraine is not a headache. Headache is one of many potential symptoms from migraine disease (nausea, vertigo, hearing loss, tinnitus, stomach and enteric issues [AKA enteric migraine], neck pain, misdiagnosed sinus infections [actually, majority is migraine], the list is long and varies from person to person). CDC thinks many men with neck and other bothersome symptoms have undiagnosed migraine disease due to poor medical training (neurologists get one day in class on it!) and bias in mind of doctors thinking it is only a women’s disease and (bias in all who think it is) only a headache.
Migraine disease is the second most disabling disease on Earth, ruins lives and careers and one in six humans have it!

https://www.migraineagain.com/qulipta-atogepant-migraine-prevention/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_campaign=Weekly_Newsletter&utm_content=2021-10-03&vgo_ee=yLGHMHUOaXk5j1GWIJ4xUovy7T5YEJ8ohjC9vauJg30%3D

 

[Jazz]

There is another thing called recruitment too. This is where a sudden shift occurs from no low low sound to high. Classic example is plates being put away in kitchen. Recruitment is the sudden impact. Hyperacusius is the sensitivity to particular sounds. Common, dumb, with no purpose bass is what drives me nuts or, particular types of hums or repetitions from motors. There is one lawn mower in my neighborhood that must be set up wrong. The muffler just sounds horrifically loud and annoying. Jet engine like.
I actually bought glass plates (Ikea, dirt cheap, very durable, from France) that look like ceramic to stop the awful noises my ceramic plates made when being put away.

 

[antcollinet]

Motorhead (Loud)
Leicester Demontford Hall.
1982. (Possibly it was 1980, but I don't think so)

Right ear tinnitus ever since. Sometimes it "resonates" with music.

 

[Zoomer]

I also thought this guy's technique of rubbing and pressing on the ears actually provided (temporary) relief too:

This technique is probably aiming to inmprove blood circulation in and around the hearing area. Insufficient blood circulation can be a cause/trigger for tinnitis. This is also the rationale behind prescribing diazepam/valium.