Tinnitus is NOT incurable!

[Joe Nerve]

Tinnitus caused by exposure to loud noises can be tested with a simple hearing test. And I wasn't putting words in your mouth: you referred to it as "my cure" above in post #1...

Realized that immediately after responding to your last post, and changed it accordingly .

The only way I know of to test your hearing is by your response. I've had it done many times. While I guess one could consider that a medical test, it's not terribly scientific. I've never heard of a test specifically for tinnitus. Not saying it doesn't exist, but with all the doctors and audiologists I've been too none was ever offered.

 

[guy n. cognito]

Realized that immediately after responding to your last post, and changed it accordingly .

The only way I know of to test your hearing is by your response. I've had it done many times. While I guess one could consider that a medical test, it's not terribly scientific. I've never heard of a test specifically for tinnitus. Not saying it doesn't exist, but with all the doctors and audiologists I've been too none was ever offered.

But you've had countless hearing tests, I'm guessing? That was the test to determine the cause of the tinnitus.....

 

[MTN.bass72]

At least 10 years for me... Left is worse than right due to my drummer smacking his cymbal right next to me before I could get my plug in.
Ringing is always there no matter what I do. Falling asleep is a chore some nights, I kind of have to fade , mentally, into the ringing to make it fade away... crazy sounding, I know, but I'm not sure how else to describe it..
@Joe Nerve .. thanks for posting, I'm gonna give some of these techniques a go... can't hurt, right?

 

[Joe Nerve]

But you've had countless hearing tests, I'm guessing? That was the test to determine the cause of the tinnitus.....

I'm not understanding. I know what caused my tinnitus. Loud music for many years and failure to protect my hearing. They never tested my tinnitus other than by talking to me about it, and by trying to hone in on the frequencies with a hearing aid, which they were totally unsuccessful with. I'll note that I've lost a lot of my high frequencies, but I'm going to guess that without the ringing I'd do much better on a hearing test right now.

 

[Ghastly]

Ever hear (sorry) of tinnitus being hereditary? My dad has it and his brothers and supposedly their dad (my grandfather) had it. I don't think they had particularly loud vocations.

 

[Joe Nerve]

Ever hear (sorry) of tinnitus being hereditary? My dad has it and his brothers and supposedly their dad (my grandfather) had it.

I don't doubt that it could be. I know though that with most diseases that are hereditary it's been discovered/proven that we can turn those gene expression on or off, depending on our lifestyle choices.

 

[Gravedigger Dav]

I can't remember what it's like to not have the ringing. I don't know where 11 is, so I don't know where I fit on that scale.
It is my own fault. I was flight crew in noisy old recip Navy aircraft, I worked on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier, I have been involved in shooting sports, and I play rock and roll. I don't hear it when there is a lot of other noise going on.
In addition to the tinnitus, I have hearing issues. I have to have hearing aids to hear normal conversation and keep from driving my wife out of the house because of the TV volume. And, I have and apparently always have had a problem with confusing consonates. I know that is well documented and studied in older people, but I've had the problem since I was a kid.
But, I digress.
I have learned to live with it, but it would be great to get over it. I'm saving the text of you post to edit into a list so I can review it. One thing I would like to know is how much cinnamon do you put in the honey? I will be trying some of the things you are doing.
There is one problem at gigs. If I remove my hearing aids and use earplugs, I won't be able to hear any communication on stage and I'm concerned I wouldn't be able to hear the vocals. I need that to be sure I'm on key and singing the same thing as the other guys.

 

[Groove Doctor]

Magnesium and Vitamins A, C & E supplements showed an 80% reduction in serious hearing damage in recent studies on military personnel. Israeli Army world-leaders in this research. These supplements were effective both when given before noise exposure or within 5 days after noise exposure.

Great to hear your news @Joe Nerve

 

[guy n. cognito]

I'm not understanding. I know what caused my tinnitus. Loud music for many years and failure to protect my hearing. They never tested my tinnitus other than by talking to me about it, and by trying to hone in on the frequencies with a hearing aid, which they were totally unsuccessful with. I'll note that I've lost a lot of my high frequencies, but I'm going to guess that without the ringing I'd do much better on a hearing test right now.

Tinnitus is a symptom, not a disease. When you go to the doctor with abdominal pain, do they give you the "abdominal pain test", or do they give you a series of tests meant to discover the cause of the pain?

 

[J-Bassomatic]

Ask anybody with asthma and they will say that finding a cure that that is higher on the list than tinnitus.

Death is not incurable...

...modern medicine has just not yet determined how to cure it. Science is making progress because Keith Richards has outlived many.

I have both. I've never seen anyone with tinnitus rushed to the head of the line in the ER.
I read somewhere that it is a 'mental' thing. Something the brain does and not physical damage. As some have stated, my actual hearing doesn't seem to be affected. It's a weird thing, thanks for your post Joe.

 

[pcake]

i've had tinnitus due to loud music since i was 15, and since i was 30, i've slept with a fan on in the room, which helps mask the tinnitus pretty well. some fans have better sounds for it than others, so there's some experimentation there. but my tinnitus got suddenly worse twice - once when i went to see a friend's band and forgot my earplugs. the singer and guitar player were vying for top spot, so they were both loud and shrill. my friend (guitar player #2) was already considering quitting even though he liked the band and the music because he said the guitar player and singer did the same thing at rehearsal and even earplugs were not enough.

the other time was when i got a ride cymbal on my edrums, and the tones my roland module supplied for the ride caused not only much worse tinnitius, but pain and swelling that required a trip to a specialist and steroids. and this was turned way down, so quiet you could have a normal conversation, so i guess some damage i had already done in those frequencies made me more sensitive - i didn't have that problem with the crash or the hi hat.

what i've discovered is for myself is that making SURE not to be around any loud sound of any type without hearing protection gradually improved my tinnitus substantially. i went to the specialist in 2011, and by 2013 things were improved - by now, my tinnitus is no worse than it was before my friend's band and my cymbal problems. and what a relief that is!

 

[Honch]

I used to use my tinnitus as a tuning pitch fork. If I knew the tone, I could relate to this. So people got very impressed that I could tune up wihtout a reference point. Drove them mad. Never told them about my ailment.

 

[DirtDog]

Just had a doctors appointment today because I have noticed my tinnitus has been getting worse. The guy was both informative and a crack up which made the news that, to date, tinnitus is incurable somewhat tolerable. He started by welcoming me to the club since he suffers from tinnitus as well. He had me checked out by an audiologist who found that my hearing was actually quite good for my 51 years of age but there is a slight dip in the 8k range, common as toast. Since the pitch I hear is quite high the theory goes that my brain is just trying to replace the perceived loss in range of hearing by generating the constant tone--at times a real joy. The doctor went on to say that alcohol, caffeine, and salt are the worst offenders for tinnitus. He did not recommend that I cut them out of my diet he just said if I indulged I could expect to pay the price. Then he reluctantly told me about a limited study that found in men especially melatonin slightly edged out a placebo in helping reduce the effects of tinnitus. Finally he kicked me out of his office and said he wouldn't be seeing me for 10 years since my hearing test results were so good. I consider myself fortunate.

And as a quick aside I did try your ear cupping technique and darn if it does not seem to have value if for nothing else as method for redirection.

Thanks for your post. Cheers.

That's my situation almost word-for-word. Excellent hearing, slight degradation at the higher end (15K+). After considering what I've put my hearing through over the years, I'm surprised I have such minimal hearing loss. My tinnitus rings at about 10-11K, seems to be biased a bit towards the left ear. Probably a 3-4 on the intensity scale. I've always had temporary tinnitus after loud gigs that usually disappeared after a few days. One day about two years ago, I was playing with a loud keys player through a crappy PA and the tinnitus came and never left. I won't play with that guy anymore and I've invested in the best PA I can afford and overzealously control the band's stage volume. Also using IEMs.

Anyways, about a month ago, my doc diagnosed me with high blood pressure. Figures... I just turned 50. On the meds immediately, cut alcohol and reduced salt intake. Although a couple of blood tests came back with my Na levels in the normal range. Read some research about links between tinnitus and HBP so had some hope. A month later, my blood pressure is back to normal, my alcohol intake is zero and my salt intake is as low as I can get it (around 2500mg/day). No change with my tinnitus at this stage. I'll be continuing the course of meds and diet/lifestyle changes and see if my tinnitus changes for the better...

@Joe Nerve - glad to hear your affliction is gone!

 

[BigDrew]

For whatever reason, I've found that wearing Bose noise cancelling headphones without any audio seems to help me.

 

[DirtDog]

Tinnitus caused by exposure to loud noises can be tested with a simple hearing test. And I wasn't putting words in your mouth: you referred to it as "my cure" above in post #1...

What I understand is that objective tinnitus can be tested. That is, ringing in the ears that can be heard/observed/measured/sensed by someone else. Objective tinnitus seems to be allied with other biological functions like turbulent blood flow, muscle spasms and the like. Subjective tinnitus, which is what seems to be most of us are experiencing, doesn't appear to be "observable" - in the strictest sense - using simple hearing test.

 

[Salicete]

I've had Tinnitus since my late teens; nobody thought about hearing protection back then, and it was all about how big and how loud could one go.


The first hearing protection I ever used were Norton Sonic II earplugs. They were cool for their time. They had a baffle that vibrated when loud sound was incoming, blocking dangerous sound levels, but permitted one to hear easily at conversational levels, but I digress, it was too late by then; the damage was done.


I live with it, and quite frankly, the ringing in my ears mostly blocks-out the voices in my head, so on the whole, it is a good deal.


Maybe I’ll give your tips a shot though, thanks.

 

[guy n. cognito]

What I understand is that objective tinnitus can be tested. That is, ringing in the ears that can be heard/observed/measured/sensed by someone else. Objective tinnitus seems to be allied with other biological functions like turbulent blood flow, muscle spasms and the like. Subjective tinnitus, which is what seems to be most of us are experiencing, doesn't appear to be "observable" - in the strictest sense - using simple hearing test.

The cause of Tinnitus....hearing loss in about 90% of people who experience tinnitus.....can be diagnosed with a simple hearing test.

 

[Felken]

It may be all of them, it may be only a single thing you've done, but whatever you're doing, keep doing it! I dont have tinnitus yet, and I'm hoping I won't ever.

 

[baileyboy]

That's some story you have there... congratulations on what has taken place here. The reasons could be from one or a combination of things you have tried. When something like this occurs and there appears to be no concrete reason, it is not far-fetched to think some divine intervention has taken place. The power of God is great!

I've been wearing specially made ear filters/plugs ever since I started rehearsing/gigging seriously. Best $180 investment I've made because I get to keep my hearing with no signs of hearing loss or disruption. I've played with many others who do experience tinnitus and they have regrets. I've also played with others who mock me for my decision to always have them in when playing. I feel awful for those who have to suffer tinnitus, and hope others are able to find solace as you have.

 

[Gully Foyle]

Glad to hear of your relief Joe

I suffered with it for many years, from mid 20s through late 30s. Now, it's gone. I'm 46. Not sure when it stopped, just slowly faded away. I didn't do anything but live my changing life. Marriage, kids, house, work, all took away bands and endless shows, and somehow my awful friend between my ears crept away. Since I drank and smoked all through that period, and never did anything but grit my teeth, I have to ascribe it to time, it healed this wound for me at least