I posted last year about having tinnitus,it's now in the H&F archive. Just wondering if anyone else suffered from it and if any of you have found any kind of relief? I have tried quite a few different things,including diet changes,and I can't shift it.It's a lot worse again right now and sometimes it drives me to complete distraction,especially at night at the moment.
My understanding of tinnitis (sp?) is that it is irreversible & permanent. Sorry. We get yearly hearing conservation training in my line of work.
Thanks for that. I was aware of its permanence generally, though I have heard of a few people who have been "cured".
Hey Su lin, I did a medical literature search for you regarding tinnitus. Unfortunately, the outcomes were pretty bleak.... There are some medications, gabapentin in very high doses, intravenous lidocaine injections, intratympanic membrane injections of steroids are the most common ones that came up, but the success rate is very low. The gabapentin is the most "benign" of the treatments There has also been limited success with biofeedback techiniques, electrical stimulation therapy as well as accupuncture. Homeopathic wise, I have tried ginko, but again, have not had too much success.
Gabapentin and steriods is what I was prescribed for my cluster headaches and spoadic ear ringing. IMO its little more than snake oil. I'm on the max dose, and it leaves me feeling very spaced out, and apathetic to everything. I think Brad Pitt could walk through my bedroom covered in honey and sprinkles and I wouldn't even notice. It only really dulls the pain/noise down, and still feels like someone's taking a drill to me head.
I haven't heard of that before and the GP didn't mention it ,but from the sound of what it does to you Saz I would rather not try it at all.
Its not the worst stuff I've been on, it may well work for you. Medicines affect different people in different ways. Talk it over with your doctor. It does have a low side effect profile generally and doesn't affect most people very much, so you could try it for a while. I can pretty much say once you stop taking it, things return to normal after a day or so. However it has some "interesting" side effects as well. One of which is reducing the effectiveness of my opiate based pain medication. If you aren't on that, it might not be so bad.
I seem to be in good company anyway with people like Bono, The Edge, Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner.Van Gogh also had it,although I'm not quite at the cutting my ear off stage! I am almost convinced it has something to do with other problems I have (wow I sound like SUCH a hypochondriac now!) ,including Temporomandibular Joint Disorder (knackered jaw) and lower back problems (back knacker). I'm looking at these issues at the moment. I did actually mention the TMJ to the GP who looked blankly at me. I also had some physio for the TMJ which helped the jaw but the tinnitus remained and when I mentioned the tinnitus to the physio she hadn't heard of any links. There seems to be a lack of seeing the patient as a "whole" in general, even though like I say,I am convinced that the issues are linked. May have to make a trip back to the GP for sleeping tablets though as the lack of sleep seems to just exacerbate the issues.
Hi Su Lin, I'm full of sympathy for you as I've got it too :bang: A friend of mine is an accupunturist and she seems to think its connected to the kidney maridian but it can be a tough one to treat. Her advice was to stay off the alcohol, coffee and chocolate (not so sure I like THAT peice of advice! ) and keep your lower back warm. Also from personal experience have found earth/wood tai chi helps a bit. It gets worse for me at night and when my lower back is playing up too, a warm bath helps. Hope you find a way to turn the volume down, good luck. Slide
Hey It's always kind of comforting to hear from someone else who has it! Coffee and chocolate My 2 vices. I'm going to try cutting down though to see if it helps. Good luck to you too
Here. http://www.tinnitus.org.uk/ Even a section about TMJ exascerbating existing tinitus and even perhaps causing it. If it is related & treatment for TMJ improves it you will be very lucky. 1 in ten people have tinitus in some form! I've had an annoying whistling noise 24 hours a day for 20 years :cry: What was interesting with mine, after a number of hearing tests, was my hearing was spot on apart from one particular high frequency that I simply could not hear. However, I could hear the frequency above and below. The whistling I 'hear' is the frequency I couldn't hear, if that makes any sense. Basicaly, my middle ear was damaged, switching on that frequency permanently. So, my nervous system registers one frequency all of the time even though I am not physicaly capable of hearing it. Have you spent a lot of time clubbing or at gigs? Because to be honest, noise damage is the number one culprit and musicians and DJs have a much higher incidence of tinitus. TBH if you've got it chances are you are stuck with it. Probably better to invest time in finding ways to live with it rather than hoping for a cure.
Gabepentin has various effects on people. Some people it makes a "zombie" others have no problems. Interesting that they used it for cluster headaches, the usually treatment for that is oxygen therapy. Also, around 80% of people who get cluster headaches have an underlying sleep disorder. TMJ is also a culprit in many things, a dentist may be able to help with a mouth piece you where at night. There is some manipulation for the TMG, but it usually involves loosening a muscle called the pterygoid (sp?) and it is intra-oral, in the cheek. I've done it a few times, have about a 50% success rate. Hope you get better, tinnitis is a real pain. I always though van gough cut off his ear from drinking too much absinthe? Maybe thats just an urban legend.
I get the symptoms of tinnitus every now and then when I'm trying to sleep. What I do, and this may sound kind of silly, is meditate on it. Usually (and i kid not) It gets so loud apon doing this, that it changes from a tinny hum/ring , to a weird electro-static discharge sounding noise, allmost like somethings getting fried inside my head. If I do this for a while, and get to a completly relaxed state, I either a) fall asleep, or b) induce a lucid dream (or out of body experience it feels like. I can now, more often then not, induce these lucid dreams on command when I hear the tinny buzz. Its acctually pretty sweet. Somtimes it gets so loud it sounds like a jet engine in my head, then shortly after I get the sensation of rocketing away from my body LOL!
Hi Prphet, The meditating sounds cool, haven't thought to do that. I'm totally going to give it a go. Thanks for sharing your experience Slide.
I've been in bands for years and did some damage to my hearing early on. Try to stay away from Echinacea. It sends my tinnitus into ringing overdrive!
