Pamestique 

I did a search and nothing came up so I apologize if this has been discussed previously.

I suffer from tinnitus. It started about 5 years ago and each year gets worse. Lately it has been really bad; the noise so loud I could not hear people speaking to me. I try and limit salt intake, don't smoke or drink. Avoid loud noises; nothing is working.

If this is something that will at least limit the noise, I would like to know. Otherwise how do you cope with this constant ringing - it's driving me crazy!

jdon

Yes, but I don't really notice it unless I think about it (or read about it).

I find the answer for me is mild background noise. Music or TV on in the background etc.

DnvrFox

This guy, Tom Tancredo, is a former US House Representative, and state legislator and Department of Education administrator.

He makes very positive statement about this organization, who he claims cured (or controlled) his serious tinnitus. I know nothing personally, but wanted to share. He takes no $$ for his public support, or so he claims.

https://www.tinnitusandhearing.com/ti...-testimonials/

Good luck

10 Wheels

I have it...aspiren type meds make it worse.

There is No Cure.

I know on one sufferer that had his hearing surgically disabled.
When he came too from the surgery he still had the noise and is now totally deaf.

Sometimes the noise is so loud that others can hear it.

Good Luck.

Mine is loud, but I am able to block it out most of the time.

drmweaver2

I used to laugh at the Tony Randall PSA about tinnitus. Then the ***** goddess of Karma decided to saddle me with this affliction. My tinnitus is so bad that nothing overpowers it most of the time. It's a constant annoyance, interfering with conversation, enjoyment of music and television.

I haven't found anything that helps, but also nothing that makes it worse.

az_cyclist

I have had it for several years. My wife comments on how loud I have to have the volumn on the TV. I have heard some hearing aids will help. I confess I have not yet seen a doctor (partly because of stories that others have told; they see the doctor, are told nothing will help, and pay the fee).

NOS88

Given there are two basic types of tinnitus with an almost myriad number of causes, it would make sense to know what kind you have, and the possible causes before attempting to come up with a solution. Have you seen a specialist? It would be important to try and match possible solutions with any underlying cause.

CraigB

I have some form of it intermittently, and, fortunately, not often. I can't spot any particular set of circumstances that will trigger it - it seems to happen at random, and in either ear. When it does, the sudden presence of the ringing, and the attendant decrease in audible environmental sounds in the same ear, gives me the sensation of a change in pressure in the ear - very strange feeling. Thank goodness it doesn't last long.

I don't know if I have a full-fledged case of it in my future, but being an aging audiophile, I assiduously guard the hearing I have left and do everything I can to limit its further deterioration. Not that that will necessarily prevent the onset of any hearing ailment that's neurological in origin.

Beverly

I've had it for several years. In fact, I can't remember when I didn't have it. It seems to get worse when I'm stressed. There are some days when it seems to almost disappear but those are very few. I've just learned to ignore the noise. Mine isn't a ringing....it sounds more like I'm standing in a field of crickets

I went to a specialist and he indicated hearing aids sometimes help but it wasn't a guaranteed solution. I still have decent hearing so I've never thought anymore about getting them.

on the path

I've had tinnitus for over 25 years. I read everything I can on the subject and this is what I've learned.

There is no cure

Tinnitus can and will make you crazy...if you let it.

It is not the same as hearing loss, but it is caused by many of the things that cause hearing loss and can accompany hearing loss. Heredity can make one more susceptible.

Tinnitus is in the mind, not in the inner ear. See post #4.

Others can NOT "hear" what is in your mind (also post #4).

The best one can do is to "control" the tinnitus. And what I really mean is to control how one responds to the phenomenon. I hadn't "heard" my ringing for weeks until I read this thread. I just ignore it. It helps to have some ambient sound to mask the ringing. One of my favorite ambient sounds to mask the ringing is the whoosh of air past my head as I'm riding my bike.

I've been a working professional musician for most of my adult life. While many of the situations I've put myself in professionally have contributed to my tinnitus and partial hearing loss, I've been able to function quite well as a musician. I happen to be a very skilled "listener", and I often hear things that others with perfect "hearing" do not.

My advice:

Accept that you have it and that barring some medical breakthrough, you will always have it. Don't let it drive you crazy! Tinnitus is in the mind. You can control your mind. Relaxation and other concepts will help you to ignore the ringing, roaring, rushing, or whatever noun you use to describe what you "hear". You can learn to ignore it. I did.

Velo Dog

I take meds for another condition that make my ears ring, but the tinnitus is so vastly preferable to the other symptoms that I'm happy to have it. Mine is moderate--I hear it whenever I think about it, but most of the time I don't.
For everybody's general fund of pseudo-medical knowledge, "tinnitus" is often mispronounced, even by doctors. It's TIN-uh-tuss, not tin-EYE-tuss.

John_V 

Thirty years of driving emergency vehicles with a siren above your head is a definite cause of tinnitus. I started in public safety in 1975 and began noticing the tinnitus around three years into the job. Although at that point it was mild. We also didn't have any OSHA regulations at that time to protect us and we couldn't wear hearing protectors because of Florida law which prohibits driving with ear buds, headsets or hearing protectors. By the time OSHA mandated hearing protectors for emergency vehicle operators, it was too late and the damage had been done. In the last five years that I was with the Fire Department, OSHA made it mandatory that all sirens for emergency vehicles be placed behind the grill and removed from above the operator's head. Again, a little too late.

I have major problems hearing just about anything when there is a lot of background noise, especially loud noise, because that is when it really becomes apparent. My wife and I went out for New Years eve and the restaurant we went to had a live band playing. I might as well have been totally deaf because I didn't hear anything my wife, or anyone else, said to me while we were there. Maybe learning lip reading will help in these situations.

As far as controlling it, I don't normally pay attention to it as it seldom bothers me. It sometimes gets pretty loud when I am in bed and happen to notice it, but it has never kept me from falling asleep. There used to be a commercial for some OTC stuff that was suppose to be a cure for tinnitus. I tried it and, like everything else, it didn't work. I have been to specialists when it first started getting loud and they all pretty much told me that I'm stuck with it. I would love to give you better news, but I think that you just have to find a way to control it that works for you.

stonefree

I've got it too. It's intermittent and there are more than several causes. Previous poster nailed one of the main causes and another big one is "stress". I have a continuous low hissing sound most of the time, with occasional loud high pitched attacks. Yup, it's supposedly incurable. I've just begun taking a larger dose of vitamin B supplements lately for another reason and am hoping it helps. There's a heckuva lot of microwave radiation out there especially now with all the wifi transmitters in everyones houses and the 4g phones, etc.

Terex

I had a wonderful uncle who had it, and it about drove him crazy. Check on sound masking devices. As with noise suppression headphones, there may be an electronic solution (well, maybe relief) to your particular type of tinnitus. Good luck!

gracehowler

I got mine from military service in Nam, lived with it a long time, hearing aids almost make it go away
R

CraigB

In my best upper-class English accent:"It's 'levee-OH-sa,' not 'levee-oh-SAH."

BluesDawg

Yes, and I usually don't really notice it. But it has been deafening since I began reading this thread.

Pretty sure mine is related to decades of standing too close to loudspeakers at rock concerts and later standing in front of my own harmonica amps. It became notably louder after my chemotherapy 3 years ago.

NOS88

I'm sorry, but some of what your post just isn't so. First, tinnitus is not a disease. Rather it is a symptom from a large list of possible causes. Objective tinnitus can be caused by by structural movement in the middle ear and can, at times, be heard by others. Finally, depending on the "cause" there can be remedies in some cases. Yes, there are cases that can't be "cured". But it is simply not responsible to suggest that all those suffering from tinnitus are fated to have the condition forever.

doctor j

Count me in. My ears ring 24 x 7.

As others have said, I can't remember when they didn't ring, and they ring so loud, I'm surprised you can't hear them all the way out on the west coast

I have become accustomed to the ringing, and it really doesn't bother me much.

Don't stress over it. Go out and ride your bike.

zjrog

I spent 20 years around military jets, helicopters, ship's engineering plants... With proper ear protection. And some loud music. I've also got a lot of scar tissue on my left eardrum from multiple surgeries and infections. Mine is bad enough at times, it wakes me up at night. I can't ignore it. I've tried many things over the years, but I find that a little noise around masks it. Just living with it.

jackb

Theere are two clinics I've heard of, one in Atlanta and one in Vancouver, BC that claim to train sufferers not to hear the noise. I have not looked into either of them except to read their websites, which I no longer remember the names of. I've had tinnitus for about eight years with an increase in volume over the last year. I have learned not to hear it, though I hear it every day at some point or other. I have found no physical remedy. No foods, vitamins, supplements, beverages, drops etc. have any effect. What does have the greatest beneficial effect is my telling myself not to listen. It works. I've thought of hypnotism, but have not looked any deeper than that. Mine varies in volume continually. Sometimes I've actaully thought iit disppeared, but as soon as I started to listen for it, there it was.

on the path

I'm sorry, let me make myself really clear.

First, I did not use the word disease. But, by every definition I just accessed, tinnitus is a disease. It's probably fair to say that it is a symptom and a disease.

If one's tinnitus, or whatever we are talking about here (it's my understanding that individuals have a wide range of perceived sounds that are referred to as tinnitus), can be heard by others, it could also be "heard", or picked up and recorded using audio equipment. I know of no case where this has been done. Actually, I'd be very interested to hear what others are experiencing, so if you could point me to any audio recordings of other's tinnitus I'd appreciated it.

I have had the phenomenon of "tinnitus" for over 25 years. I have read everything I can get my hands on regarding the subject. To date, I have read or heard nothing credible that indicates that there is a practical cure for tinnitus. There has been experimentation using very powerful drugs to virtually or even completely eliminate tinnitus in test subjects. The powerful nature of the drugs used and the associated side effects make that particular treatment impractical.

With all this in mind, it's irresponsible to suggest that medical technology currently has a cure for tinnitus. I said there was no cure, but I also included the caveat that this is the present status and that there is the possibility of a medical breakthrough. In fact, there probably will be a breakthrough at some point, but so far, no.

If you can point to credible documentation of a single person person who has completely been cured of tinnitus, I would love to read it. There are anecdotes involving people who "manage" or "control" their tinnitus to where they don't notice it and it is not a factor in their lives. And that's pretty much what I do myself. But I've not been cured. It's always there.

Like I said, I read everything on the subject I can get my hands on. If there really is a cure, I'd love to know about it. In fact, I'd love to be cured. But I really don't think it will happen any time soon.

con

For me, what triggers mine is loud noises. I must use the best ear plugs on my motorcycles and high quality ear protection when I use any power tool, even to vacuum. On windy days I wear ear plugs on my bicycle. Hours of the whoosh of the wind going past my very weak hearing right ear will cause it to start ringing.



At night I sleep with a fan on, it masks the ringing.



Good luck.

NOS88

Clearly there is no consensus even in the medical/research field:

1. Phantom auditory perception (tinnitus): mechanisms of generation and perceptionPawel J. Jastreboff Department of Surgery, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, CT U.S.A. Received 10 January 1990; Accepted 25 March 1990.


Abstract
Phantom auditory perception — tinnitus — is a symptom of many pathologies. Although there are a number of theories postulating certain mechanisms of its generation, none have been proven yet. This paper analyses the phenomenon of tinnitus from the point of view of general neurophysiology. Existing theories and their extrapolation are presented together with some new potential mechanisms of tinnitus generation, encompassing the involvement of calcium and calcium channels in cochlear function, with implications for malfunction and aging of the auditory and vestibular systems.

It is hypothesized that most tinnitus results from the perception of abnormal activity, defined as activity which cannot be induced by any combination of external sounds. Moreover, it is hypothesized that signal recognition and classification circuits, working on holographic or neuronal network-like representation, are involved in the perception of tinnitus and are subject to plastic modification. Furthermore, it is proposed that all levels of the nervous system, to varying degrees, are involved in tinnitus manifestation. These concepts are used to unravel the inexplicable, unique features of tinnitus and its masking. Some clinical implications of these theories are suggested.

2. Reorganization of auditory cortex in tinnitus Werner Mühlnickel*, Thomas Elbert†, Edward Taub‡, and Herta Flor*§ + Author Affiliations - *Department of Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Behavioral Neuroscience, Humboldt University, Hausvogteiplatz 5-7, D-10117 Berlin, Germany; †Department of Psychology, University of Konstanz, Postfach 5560-D23, D-78434 Konstanz, Germany; and ‡Department of Psychology, University of Alabama, 415 Campbell Hall, 1300 University Boulevard, Birmingham, AL 35294

Abstract
Magnetic source imaging was used to determine whether tonotopy in auditory cortex of individuals with tinnitus diverges from normative functional organization. Ten tinnitus subjects and 15 healthy controls were exposed to four sets of tones while magnetoencephalographic recordings were obtained from the two cortical hemispheres in sequence. A marked shift of the cortical representation of the tinnitus frequency into an area adjacent to the expected tonotopic location was observed. The Euclidean distance of the tinnitus frequency from the trajectory of the tonotopic map was 5.3 mm (SD = 3.1) compared with a distance of 2.5 mm (SD = 1.3) of a corresponding frequency in the healthy controls (t = 3.13, P < 0.01). In addition, a strong positive correlation was found between the subjective strength of the tinnitus and the amount of cortical reorganization (r = 0.82, P < 0.01). These results demonstrate that tinnitus is related to plastic alterations in auditory cortex. Similarities between these data and the previous demonstrations that phantom limb pain is highly correlated with cortical reorganization suggest that tinnitus may be an auditory phantom phenomenon.

3. Case #3 from: Otologic Manifestations of Petrous Carotid Aneurysms - Gul Moonisa, Catherine J. Hwanga, Tabassum Ahmedb, John B. Weigelea and Robert W. Hursta - American Journal of Neuroradiology

A 77-year-old woman was evaluated at our institution for left-sided pulsatile tinnitus. Imaging studies were performed as part of the patient’s workup. MR angiogram (MRA) showed a 1-cm left petrous ICA aneurysm and a CT of the temporal bone indicated erosion of the wall of the carotid canal with extension of soft tissue into the middle ear cavity. Cerebral angiography confirmed a wide-necked fusiform aneurysm 1.2 cm in maximal diameter arising from the anterior curve of the petrous segment of the carotid artery, projecting posteromedially with posterior extension into the middle ear cavity. A Neuroform stent was placed across the entire aneurysm, which resulted in some slowing of flow within the lesion. A microcatheter was placed across the interstices of the stent into the aneurysm lumen and multiple detachable coils placed within the aneurysm. Following the procedure, the patient noted a significant decrease in her symptoms.

4. Heller AJ Department of Otolaryngology/Head and Neck Surgery, Virginia Commonwealth University, Medical College of Virginia Hospitals, PO Box 980146, Richmond, VA 23298, USA.

Abstract Highlight Terms
No biological terms identified
One third of all adults report experiencing tinnitus at some time in their lives. Ten percent to 15% have prolonged tinnitus requiring medical evaluation. Classification of tinnitus requires a thorough history and physical examination, supplemented by appropriate diagnostic tests. Tinnitus can be categorized according to its qualities (as described by the patient and matched on the audiometer) and its clinical type (as suggested by probable etiology). Audiologic testing, tinnitus analysis, and occasional radiologic studies assist with classification and direction of treatment planning. The THI is another method of classification that can facilitate the precise monitoring of a patient's progress. By using these tools and standardizing the language, tinnitus studies around the world can become more comparable and patients can be better monitored for treatment response.


My point was that what many diagnose, label and/or perceive to be tinnitus can be something else... that perhaps should be investigated. I don't challenge your experience. I'm simply saying it doesn't make sense to throw in the towel until a complete investigation has occured. It is possible that some folks can find solutions that don't exist in your situation. Take Case #3 cited above. If this woman had not received the medical attention she did, more than just her hearing was at stake. The OP did not state in her original post the level of diagnosis or investigation she received. My response, however, adequately or poorly stated was an attempt to suggest additional investigation.

on the path

Thanks for providing that information. I don't recall reading those specific studies, but I may have read them at some point. I've read numerous articles that provided similar information.

Nothing in the articles refutes anything I said. The information in them, if anything, supports what I said. Clearly, the woman sited was suffering due to a specific and identifiable cause of her ailment. In most tinnitus sufferers, the cause is not easily determined, if it is able to be indentified at all. I'm guessing that most or all of those that responded to this thread are in the latter category, as that is the case for the vast majority of those with tinnitus.

About 18 years ago I suffered a trauma to one of my ear drums. That was long after the onset of my tinnitus. I ended up consulting a hearing specialist. While I eventually recovered fully from the trauma that brought me to the doctor, he informed me after testing that I had hearing loss in both my ears, most pronounced at 4k cycles, and that it was permanent. I think he called it "nerve deafness". He also told me there was nothing that could be done about my tinnitus. That was something I already knew, but the doctor confirmed it for me.