Serious question re: tiniitus

Mine has gotten worse lately, morning, all day, and night. In the evening my on the porch my wife says, "listen to all the crickets"... "what crickets"? This morning about dawn she said, "the birds are really loud this morning"... "what birds".  All I hear is a high pitched frequency. I cannot describe it because I've never heard anything else like it. I hear things at lower frequencies but I need some relief. Has anyone tried that stuff they advertise on TV and radio. I've read that valium helps but I don't need anything like that... but I am beginning to get ready to try anything.

If you know anything that will help... thanks.

J

Wow, thanks Jeff. That sounds easy enough. I'll let you know! 

J

I've had tinnitus pretty bad for at least 15 years. Mine is comprised of 2 or more extremely high pitched frequencies, rather like the sound of escaping gas. I think it was basically noise damage, from the early 90's rave scene and extended listening to music on headphones at high volume. 

I had a big crisis about it about 12 years ago, during which I was surprised to discover that most of my friends have it to some extent as well. I think we all screwed our ears a bit back then! It could also be related to drug and alcohol use - it's not just ear related but brain related as well. There are many different causes of tinnitus. For some people it's tension in the neck and jaw. For other's, it's the sound of blood wooshing around their head. Some people even have "objective tinnitus" which is actually a sound in the ears that other people can hear if they listen closely enough. 

I think the thing to remember is that tinnitus is very common, and that your brain can learn to live with it. Despite mine being quite loud it doesn't really bother me much at all, unless I'm in total silence. For that reason I always have a fan or something on when I sleep. 

There are preventative measures - alcohol and caffeine can make it worse. Smoking weed can make it seem worse although that might just be that it makes you more aware of it. Eating a healthy diet can help. As much natural food as you can. Make sure you're getting enough zinc and magnesium - most people are deficient and those minerals are important for ear health. Magnesium can protect your ears from noise damage and indeed the military has done research into using it on troops who have experienced loud noises in battles and in training. 

The list of musicians who have tinnitus is huge. Noted sufferers include Chris Martin, Pete Townsend, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Robert Plant, Barbara Streisand. You can get it from one noise related incident. For Townsend it was when Keith Moon blew his kit up on TV with him standing right next to it. For Andy Patridge of XTC it was when a careless studio engineer triggered a snare sample in one ear at full volume. For William Shatner it was a stage explosion when filming an episode of Star Trek. 

You might want to look into notched frequency therapy. It works best for tinnitus of lower frequency because you have to be able to identify the frequency of your tinnitus accurately. It involves listening to white noise or music with that frequency notched out. Apparently this has been shown to greatly reduce the volume of tinnitus, if you do it for a few months. 

Don't worry too much about it though. There's no reason why it should affect your life if you take the right frame of mind. And I'm pretty confident a cure is not far off. There have been some advances recently. 

Can somebody get that bell!

seriously though, check your trigger points around the neck and  head.

I will. I have tension headaches a lot, my neck cracks and pops when I roll my neck. I had a massage therapist tell me once that I had the most tension in my shoulders than anyone she had ever worked on... that could be a real problem. 
Thanks for the help. I could use a massage. "Love you long time"... J/K I've never been to an AMP... not going either.


J

jbow

seriously though, check your trigger points around the neck and  head.

I will. I have tension headaches a lot, my neck cracks and pops when I roll my neck. I had a massage therapist tell me once that I had the most tension in my shoulders than anyone she had ever worked on... that could be a real problem. 
Thanks for the help. I could use a massage. "Love you long time"... J/K I've never been to an AMP... not going either.


J

If you suffer from muscular tension then you definitely want to look into a magnesium supplement. Magnesium is involved in the relaxation of muscles, while calcium deals with the contraction. If your mag/cal balance is off and you're getting too much calcium compared to magnesium, then you're going to suffer from tension. The best form is magnesium citrate. The oxide isn't particularly well absorbed. I use this stuff, Natural Calm. It's a little pricey, but worth it. Just read the reviews:


http://www.amazon.com/Natural-Vitality-Raspberry-Lemon-Flavor/dp/B000WVY4PE 

Jeff Evans


I have read when you are hearing what sounds like a certain frequency the brain is in a sort of feedback mode and is locked onto that one frequency.

Try listening to either white or pink noise for about ten minutes. Not loud try 80 dB or less. Because noise contains all frequencies while you are listening to the noise, the brain looses track of the one frequency it was locked onto before. So when you turn the noise off you should find you are in silence now and not hearing anything or individual frequencies now. I suppose it depends on the type of tinnitus you have. It may only work for that very specific frequency type of tinnitus.

Ironically, my tinnitus tends to sound like white or pink noise... (not joking.)

craigb

Jeff Evans


I have read when you are hearing what sounds like a certain frequency the brain is in a sort of feedback mode and is locked onto that one frequency.

Try listening to either white or pink noise for about ten minutes. Not loud try 80 dB or less. Because noise contains all frequencies while you are listening to the noise, the brain looses track of the one frequency it was locked onto before. So when you turn the noise off you should find you are in silence now and not hearing anything or individual frequencies now. I suppose it depends on the type of tinnitus you have. It may only work for that very specific frequency type of tinnitus.

Ironically, my tinnitus tends to sound like white or pink noise... (not joking.)

Most tinnitus is either white noise or a lower tone like a sine wave. Although I once heard an audio file containing synthesized sounds which were meant to represent the full range of tinnitus noises as reported by sufferers. Some of them were weird indeed. Some were like airplanes taking off and some like jackhammers. 


There is a kind of tinnitus which has been attributed (how correctly I'm not sure) to things like cellphone waves. It's a sound not unlike the engine of a truck ticking over a couple of blocks away. I hear it sometimes, especially in the ear that's against the pillow. 

here is the pink noise for relaxation:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPk9HpXZLj8

I have it too but it coles akd goes. I really hear it wuen my allergies kick in and my ears fill with fluid. Just went to the doc for it and my ears have been ringing bad. I keep all volumes as low as possible on music and tv because Im trying to keep thE.damage to a minimum.

One odd thing .... i had to stop taking the antihystamines he gave me. I was hearing voices and it was driving me crazy. When i woupd go to sleep, i wouod dream, and i NEVER  dreal. The voices in my dreams were so loud they would wake le up. I read a bit of The Bible every nigjt before i sleep, I stopped taking it when I actually ueard Moses voice in my head. I onow how wierd this sounds guys, just being honest. I was watching cnn that night and i dreamed about one of the ladies who was ontv that night and her voice.was.so loud it scared me when i woke up. :(

I think poor circulation effects tinitus. Mine greatly subsides when i workout or im doing a lot of syrenuous work.

Bub


I have it too but it coles akd goes. I really hear it wuen my allergies kick in and my ears fill with fluid. Just went to the doc for it and my ears have been ringing bad. I keep all volumes as low as possible on music and tv because Im trying to keep thE.damage to a minimum.

One odd thing .... i had to stop taking the antihystamines he gave me. I was hearing voices and it was driving me crazy. When i woupd go to sleep, i wouod dream, and i NEVER  dreal. The voices in my dreams were so loud they would wake le up. I read a bit of The Bible every nigjt before i sleep, I stopped taking it when I actually ueard Moses voice in my head. I onow how wierd this sounds guys, just being honest. I was watching cnn that night and i dreamed about one of the ladies who was ontv that night and her voice.was.so loud it scared me when i woke up. :(

I think poor circulation effects tinitus. Mine greatly subsides when i workout or im doing a lot of syrenuous work.

It's funny how many drugs and "natural" supplements cause crazy dreams. I take melatonin to help me sleep and that gives me the most bizarre dreams. I've had vivid dreams with epic action movie plots, like having to escape from a skyscraper from an evil James Bond style villain. If I add the relaxation aid GABA to the mix they just get weirder and more vivid. And if I've had a whey protein shake that day, I usually fart myself awake 

I have it in one ear only.  It was brought on by a severe infection in my "eye" tooth on the left side that took too long to treat.  I also had to have a root canal on that tooth eventually, but the tinnitus has never gone away.  some days it's worse than others.

I've found that white noise at low levels tends to help, but high levels of white noise tends to aggrevate it and make it worse.  I work in a lab with a lot of test equipment.  when there are several testers running (lots of fans) the white noise level is pretty high.  that's when my tinnitus gets worse.

I have tried several "over the counter" remedies.  nothing seems to help.

Mental note to self:  Pick up some melatonic & GABA...

I've been taking 5mg melatonin for years, it helps but I'll have to try some GABA too. Sleep is elusive for me due to the pain meds. My Dr has been insisting on 2x12 hr extended release meds. I cannot stand it and have only been taking one, in the AM. Still I have a real time getting off to sleep but it is getting a little better and since I don't have to take as much stuff to get and stay asleep I can now get up in the AM and not be groggy for 4 hours.... it has been hard lately. Now I have more pain but life is better. He has me on Nucynta ER 150now and I hate it. Going to be some changes made. 


Thanks for all the advice. I am pretty sure that my Tinnitus has been caused by pain meds but I have not found an alternative. Injections make me break out in a horrible rash for weeks and surgery just well, scares me. Ringing strong right now. I've been on one thing or another for about 15 years, some of them strong. I prefer a med that I can take when and if I need it rather than something that keeps a serum level all the time, besides not liking it... it has never worked well for me. Oh well... Getting older isn't for sissies. If you are under 50... enjoy it, do stuff because you likely still feel 30. There are a lot of changes between 50 and 60.... just saying.


J

Have you tried a turmeric supplement for the pain? It's been found to help immensely in lots of cases. 

jbow

I've been taking 5mg melatonin for years, it helps but I'll have to try some GABA too. Sleep is elusive for me due to the pain meds. My Dr has been insisting on 2x12 hr extended release meds. I cannot stand it and have only been taking one, in the AM. Still I have a real time getting off to sleep but it is getting a little better and since I don't have to take as much stuff to get and stay asleep I can now get up in the AM and not be groggy for 4 hours.... it has been hard lately. Now I have more pain but life is better. He has me on Nucynta ER 150now and I hate it. Going to be some changes made.  

 J

What kinda pain are you talking about? Remember that trigger points can cause a great deal of pain as well. Pain medications are nothing good...