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Ask HN: Has anyone gotten complete, permanent relief from tinnitus?

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Re: Ask HN: Has anyone gotten complete, permanent relief from tinnitus?

#141

Post by jshmrsn »

jraby3 wrote: post #108
MichaelMug wrote: post #82

I’ve had tinnitus for about one year now. There is no permanent relief or treatment. Lots of snake oil. My hearing was tested by an Audiologist and my hearing was normal. The “sound” I observe is high pitched. Using a tone generator I matched it to around 16,500 Hz. Interestingly, if I play that tone I get temporary relief on the order of 2-10 minutes. As far as I understand my tinnitus is the result of something goi…

Aren’t in ear headphones with noise cancellation better than not using them and instead raising the volume to overcome background noise?

If the “sound” is an internal perception, then noise cancelling headphones would not help at all. They might make it worse by quieting any background sounds that could otherwise help cover up the internally produced sensations.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone gotten complete, permanent relief from tinnitus?

#142

Post by bayindirh »

criddell wrote: post #127
MichaelMug wrote: post #82

I’ve had tinnitus for about one year now. There is no permanent relief or treatment. Lots of snake oil. My hearing was tested by an Audiologist and my hearing was normal. The “sound” I observe is high pitched. Using a tone generator I matched it to around 16,500 Hz. Interestingly, if I play that tone I get temporary relief on the order of 2-10 minutes. As far as I understand my tinnitus is the result of something goi…

I’ve had tinnitus for something like 5 years now and mine varies from day-to-day. Mine seems to be somewhat connected to diet. I think salt might be a trigger. If I have a French Fries or some other salty snack, I’m in for louder ringing an hour or two later.

Dad went through acute hearing loss twice. They banned salt during recovery. Your tinnitus is related to blood circulation in the ear. Reduce salt.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone gotten complete, permanent relief from tinnitus?

#143

Post by vjaswal »

I can't help with tinnitus itself, but I highly recommend "Eargasm High-fidelity Ear plugs", or similar devices, to help prevent further damage.

They work really well to dampen loud sounds and, importantly, they let conversation through, though it sounds muffled. But you can feel the difference. They are much better than using foam ear plugs, which muffle everything.

I used to go to a lot of concerts without any ear protection, when I was young and dumb. I REALLY wish I had these things back then, since I've acquired mild tinnitus as a result.

Now I carry them on my keychain all the time and use them even in restaurants and bars or whenever I'm some place where I have to speak at an elevated level.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone gotten complete, permanent relief from tinnitus?

#145

Post by _wwr6 »

I had tinnitus many years ago for maybe a year. It eventually went away on its own. I had been abusing my ears and when I stopped it eventually died out. One thing I learned, it’s not just how loud sounds are coming to your ear, it’s also doing things like overwearing of earplugs that distance your eardrums from sounds and cause it to do something similar to turning the gain up on a mic.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone gotten complete, permanent relief from tinnitus?

#147

Post by akvadrako »

I got tinnitus a few years ago and the only thing which reliably helped was drumming my fingers on the back of my head, just above the neck. It silenced the ringing for a few minutes.

However, the annoyance went away by itself after a few years. If I focus I might be able to hear it still, but it's hard to tell.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone gotten complete, permanent relief from tinnitus?

#148

Post by jerome-jh »

Tinnitus is not a disease, it is a symptom. Do you know the underlying condition? If not this should be your priority. It is not easy to have a clear diagnostic when the only symptom is tinnitus (often associated with hearing loss). Some otorhinolaryngologists are satisfied with the diagnostic of "sudden hearing loss", which is catchall for "I don't know". Don't let yourself be fooled by this and search for better doctors.

If you are lucky enough to have a diagnostic, then the priority is to treat the disease. This may alleviate the hearing loss and sometimes the tinnitus. In some cases tinnitus may completely disappear (for example in the case of a viral infection affecting the auditory nerve). But often tinnitus remains and you have to live with it. Anyway having a diagnostic is in itself a relief.

If you do not have a diagnostic, I guess you have to learn to live with it. It may be more difficult in this case. After all it is not the end of the world. Many things are worse than this. It can be hard to sleep at times. Doing sport improves sleep. It can be hard to hear people during meetings. Sometimes you will have to ask them to repeat. You can seat closer to the main speaker. You can prefer to connect remotely with a good headset.

I have a disease of the hear which for sure won't improve. In a sense this is a relief because I stopped "monitoring" my tinnitus so closely, maybe 7 or 8 years after my diagnostic, and 2 years after my second surgical operation. It does not keep me awake at night.

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone gotten complete, permanent relief from tinnitus?

#149

Post by Podgajski »

First post on HN! And apprehensive to say all this but here goes.

My tinnitus is triggered upon exposure to EMFs, both household, low frequency EMFs and now from higher band frequency from cell towers. My tinnitus made its' first appearance in 1998 when I was a network engineer and was messing around with WiFi. I did not know EMFs were the cause at that time. But gradually the sound got worse, but would always come and go. (Loud, high pitched, mostly left ear, sometimes I get a muffled pop and then a really loud ringing that tapers off to the normal level.) I also now have physician confirmed hearing loss in my left ear.

I first discovered the EMF connection around 2016 when I went camping in the desert and my tinnitus totally disappeared. We were so remote none of us had any cell signal. I still did not realize it was EMFs but at that point I knew there was an environmental connection. It was only after a few years in experimenting that I found the cause. I traveled up toe Green Bank, WV which is a radio free zone with no cell signals allowed and my tinnitus vanished.

Why I think this is happening to me is that the EMFs affect the voltage gated ion channels (Potassium?[1], Calcium [2]), in the ear stimulating the neurons [3][4]. I think this is a genetic condition caused my some sort of channelopathy [5] that runs in my family.

I use my cell phone on my left as well which would make sense that it is mostly in my left ear.

But ever since the 5G roll out things have become terrible for me. Much louder an more frequency in certain places.

I am not saying what I have here is proof, and this is the cause of everyone's tinnitus. But my experience is that mine stops every time I am away from Anthropogenic EMFs.

And please, no tinfoil hat jokes or Better Call Saul references, I heard them all.

[1] https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fneur.2015.0007...

[2] https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/physrev.000...

[3] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32783480/

[4] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33945157/

[5] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3935107/

Re: Ask HN: Has anyone gotten complete, permanent relief from tinnitus?

#150

Post by highertellurian »

hbossy wrote: post #99
MichaelMug wrote: post #82

I’ve had tinnitus for about one year now. There is no permanent relief or treatment. Lots of snake oil. My hearing was tested by an Audiologist and my hearing was normal. The “sound” I observe is high pitched. Using a tone generator I matched it to around 16,500 Hz. Interestingly, if I play that tone I get temporary relief on the order of 2-10 minutes. As far as I understand my tinnitus is the result of something goi…

Have you tried playing that tone and shifting it's phase to cancel the imaginary signal?

AFAIK when there is not enough external sound input, the brain amplifies the signals from the inner ear in an attempt to compensate which leads to hyperactivity in the auditory nerve and auditory cortex, which can be perceived as tinnitus. So you cannot cancel a 'signal' that doesn't exist. This is my understanding and I may be wrong.
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