The noise cancelling feature might be emitting ultrasonic sound, which might be causing damage. I've had tinnitus for a few decades, but I don't blame my airpods and it doesn't seem to be getting worse. (I had a hearing test a few years ago and my results were "perfect" despite the constant ringing.)
AirPods causing tinnitus?
141–150 of 200 posts
Re: AirPods causing tinnitus?
#142Hearing loss is very serious. You know your body better than anyone else so don't be afraid to be its biggest advocate and protector. Nobody else will. I once had tinnitus for a week after a concert and it was one of the worst weeks of my life, it felt like it would last forever (and for some people, it does). I had pristine, "golden ears" for audio engineering and was afraid about how much I'd be able to recover. I…
There is no cure for hearing damage. Your body can recover from slight damage after a few weeks but generally trauma to hair cells, synapses and auditory nerve is accumulative and overtime they loose their ability to recover. There's currently no way to regenerate these. There was a promising company attempting to do this and they recently announced discontinuation of phase 3 trials as their drug showed no significan…
> There is no cure for hearing damage.
There's no silver-bullet cure for hearing damage, but there are cures and effective treatment for the underlying causes, which can result in a cure for hearing damage.
The treatment and prognosis is highly dependent on the underlying cause. Cilia damage probably won't be curable until after a lot more stem cell research. Neurological damage is hard to impossible to cure depending on the age and neuroplasticity of the patient. TMJ or Eustachian tube dysfunction can lead to hearing damage that goes away once the underlying issue is treated.
This misinformation has killed people. Texas Roadhouse CEO Kent Taylor committed suicide after being diagnosed with tinnitus and being told it was untreatable, even though his tinnitus was caused by a COVID-19 infection causing inflammation. The treatment for that, which is highly effective, is two weeks of prednisone, with intratympanic steroid injections in severe cases.
Re: AirPods causing tinnitus?
#143"As a matter of fact, I carry a pair of earplugs in my pocket, just in case I encounter anything loud that would damage my hearing."
Fun fact: Frequently using earplugs is also a cause of tinnitus (through at least 6 identified routes.)
I'm not suggesting that this person's use of earplugs is the source of their tinnitus, but it does help demonstrate that tinnitus has a mind-bogglingly large range of sources such as immune disorders/allergy, infection, ear wax impaction, and conditioning, along with being a side effect to a long list of medical conditions.
Re: AirPods causing tinnitus?
#144I wonder if it's the noise cancellation causing problems. I definitely hear a high-pitched noise from the noise cancellation feature and rarely use it at all specifically because of that, except very infrequently like on planes. Maybe the high frequency noise is damaging the ear drums at high frequencies? But I can definitely say I do not have tinnitus despite wearing AirPod Maxes quite often.
I wonder if the ANC is actually bringing out latent tinnitus that was already there, but we don't often experience sudden transitions to and from silence where tinnitus becomes most notable.
There's evidence that in urban environments street noise is loud enough to cause hearing loss over time. Millennials or younger have basically worn headphones their whole lives as well, and only recently have devices started alerting for dangerous exposure. If you've listened to music or a podcast on a plane or the bus with earbuds then the volume would have been at dangerous levels.
I don't want to imply ANC may not cause tinnitus (this should be explored), but I suspect the reason people feel it wares off also has to do with the brain acclimating to background noise again.
Re: AirPods causing tinnitus?
#145Hearing loss is very serious. You know your body better than anyone else so don't be afraid to be its biggest advocate and protector. Nobody else will. I once had tinnitus for a week after a concert and it was one of the worst weeks of my life, it felt like it would last forever (and for some people, it does). I had pristine, "golden ears" for audio engineering and was afraid about how much I'd be able to recover. I…
There is no cure for hearing damage. Your body can recover from slight damage after a few weeks but generally trauma to hair cells, synapses and auditory nerve is accumulative and overtime they loose their ability to recover. There's currently no way to regenerate these. There was a promising company attempting to do this and they recently announced discontinuation of phase 3 trials as their drug showed no significan…
In my experience and according to literature, there are cures for hearing damage. N-acetylcysteine, for one.
I had been taking N-acetylcysteine (NAC) regularly for a while for reasons completely unrelated to hearing. I unmistakably noticed my hearing to improve. High frequency hearing once lost came back.
I didn’t believe it. Looked on Google Scholar. The effect is known.
The literature supports it; here’s just one paper: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fcell.2021.6594...
Antioxidant properties seem to be what’s helping, and I’d guess it’s the mucolytic aspect of NAC as well.
Re: AirPods causing tinnitus?
#146Hearing loss is very serious. You know your body better than anyone else so don't be afraid to be its biggest advocate and protector. Nobody else will. I once had tinnitus for a week after a concert and it was one of the worst weeks of my life, it felt like it would last forever (and for some people, it does). I had pristine, "golden ears" for audio engineering and was afraid about how much I'd be able to recover. I…
Yeah it can’t be stressed enough, if you go to live events, get concert earplugs and wear them religiously. You hear the music better anyway. It’s been sad to see friends fail to heed this advice. You don’t want to be that person who needs hearing aids at age 50 due to something you could have prevented with a little forethought. Etymotic are great and were my standby for years. Recently upgraded to Earasers on the r…
I recently got earasers, mainly to make it easier to hear people over music (I have auditory processing disorder), however I have found them just to muffle everything, making the music a good level, but speech unbearable.
Is this your experience?
Wondering because maybe I'm doing something wrong or maybe I chose the wrong level of them (I think I chose the regular EU level).
Re: AirPods causing tinnitus?
#147Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is no cure for hearing damage. Your body can recover from slight damage after a few weeks but generally trauma to hair cells, synapses and auditory nerve is accumulative and overtime they loose their ability to recover. There's currently no way to regenerate these. There was a promising company attempting to do this and they recently announced discontinuation of phase 3 trials as their drug showed no significan…
In my experience and according to literature, there are cures for hearing damage. N-acetylcysteine, for one. I had been taking N-acetylcysteine (NAC) regularly for a while for reasons completely unrelated to hearing. I unmistakably noticed my hearing to improve. High frequency hearing once lost came back. I didn’t believe it. Looked on Google Scholar. The effect is known. The literature supports it; here’s just one p…
There may be cures in future (ways to regenerate all the areas that are involved in hearing - Auditory nerve, synapse and OHC, IHC) but there currently is no way to regenerate HC after apoptosis in Humans. Recovery of damaged/stressed HC, auditory is shown to happen naturally to a degree and -might- be helped through supplements.
I take NAC myself and a few other supplements, the idea is to help support and lessen the effects of oxidative stress. I wouldn't promote any of my protocol since the literature is too weak and from various hearing related forums I read, efficacy highly subjective.
If you're wondering - 7,8 Dihydroxyflavone (DHF) shows promise and there's some literature on frontiersin on this but delivery was done intratympanic injection to the RWM and on animals. Taking the it as a oral supplement may raise risks of some cancers.
Re: AirPods causing tinnitus?
#148Earlier quoted context omitted.
In my experience and according to literature, there are cures for hearing damage. N-acetylcysteine, for one. I had been taking N-acetylcysteine (NAC) regularly for a while for reasons completely unrelated to hearing. I unmistakably noticed my hearing to improve. High frequency hearing once lost came back. I didn’t believe it. Looked on Google Scholar. The effect is known. The literature supports it; here’s just one p…
There may be cures in future (ways to regenerate all the areas that are involved in hearing - Auditory nerve, synapse and OHC, IHC) but there currently is no way to regenerate HC after apoptosis in Humans. Recovery of damaged/stressed HC, auditory is shown to happen naturally to a degree and -might- be helped through supplements. I take NAC myself and a few other supplements, the idea is to help support and lessen th…
Thanks! Yes, it’s important to distinguish between cure-some-types-somewhat-sometimes and cure-almost-any-type-consistently.
I’ve been very surprised in recent years to learn just how much actionable information is in the scientific literature. More is known than is known, sort of.
Re: AirPods causing tinnitus?
#149Earlier quoted context omitted.
I am under the assumption constant use of any headphones at the volumes most people listen to inevitably causes tinnitus.
If you don't set a volume limit on your iPhone, it will damage your hearing. Apple has a mode to do this, and I've set mine at 80 decibels and rarely have the volume all the way up. The iPhone can output over headphones at 100+. The smart move is to get headphones that fit well that naturally dampen outside noises and to set your volume limit judiciously.
I am curious if there is data that the volume limit actually does anything to prevent tinnitus over the course of decades of headphone use, especially with active noise cancelation. I imagine enough time simply has not passed yet to know.
Re: AirPods causing tinnitus?
#150I never experience tinnitus before buying the AirPods Pro.
After using them a couple of hours with anc on on low loudness I get Tinnitus that wears off after three to four days without using AirPods.
Using them without anc does not seem to trigger it.
It is reproducible, sadly.
First time I was very scared but now I understand the situation and limit anc to situations where it is really necessary.