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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?

#171

Post by Tor3 »

FreeFull wrote: post #154
od1nos wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand, and there could very well be some psychoacoustic cancellation when stimulating with a matching tone. But any effect will be regardless of the phase of the signal, because phase cancellation is a physical effect of sound waves that occurs before they are converted to neural activity (where tinnitus originates from). In simpler terms: tinnitus does not have phase, at least not in the same way a sound wave…

Neutral activity itself definitely takes phase into account somehow, since you can hear the phase difference of two same-frequency tones being played independently into each ear, without any kind of sufficiently strong mechanical connection that would explain it.

I experimented with this when I was young and I concur - it's really like this. Astonishing but that's how it works.

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

#172

Post by Tor3 »

jshmrsn wrote: post #141
jraby3 wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

My tinnitus gets worse afterwards if I'm subjected to noise (as in an airplane). Noice-cancelling headphones is a must for me at this point if I'm to experience prolonged increased sound levels.

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

#173

Post by saalweachter »

harryvederci wrote: post #67

I'm not saying this will work for everyone, but I just lie to myself. I know this isn't true, but I've told myself that having tinnitus is a normal thing, that everyone has. The "fact" that it's normal and that everyone has it has removed the suffering for me. Weird, but maybe it will help someone here. "Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional."

Honestly it's not much of a lie. Something like 20% of the population in the US has some degree of tinnitus.

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

#174

Post by maccard »

bayindirh wrote: post #142
criddell wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Have you any citations for this? This is exactly the sort of stuff people are to about about when referring to snake oil

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

#176

Post by DavidPiper »

I have tinnitus in my left ear, caused by Meniere's Disease. It's fairly quiet most of the time, really only a single note (more like a squeal), and I only really notice it at night when it's quiet. It's been permanently ringing since October 25, 2019. I've been unable to hear silence since then (I'm 30).

Except for a single night: November 12, 2022. For about 8 hours I had no tinnitus. (Sadly, it came back the next morning.)

The only unusual thing about that day was that I'd had an MRI (Brain and Cervical Spine, with contrast) for unrelated (and thankfully pointless) reasons. But somehow it fixed my tinnitus for a few hours??

Back in 2019 I had a Meniere's Protocol MRI and CT Scan to diagnose my Meniere's Disease. Gadolinium contrast. No effect on my tinnitus.

After a bit of reading I came across rTMS as a possible mechanism for temporary relief of tinnitus - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3563643/ - which the MRI that day would have induced. (Can't explain why the previous one had no effect, but the paper suggests that the literal motion and direction of the magnetic resonance matters).

A Uni nearby where I lived was even doing clinical trials. But I was dealing with another health issue at the time, and life got busy, and I've since moved interstate. I have no idea how it works or if it's just some incredible coincidence. But one day soon I'll go exploring down the rTMS path and see if I can consistently get tinnitus relief.

Like others in the thread, I've heard of plenty of other snake oil things. And my tinnitus is really not bad enough that I need to consider anything right now. But if tinnitus relief is a real thing one day, my money is currently on rTMS. Just far too big a coincidence for me to ignore.

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

#178

Post by bayindirh »

maccard wrote: post #174
bayindirh wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Have you any citations for this? This is exactly the sort of stuff people are to about about when referring to snake oil

Citations? I remember the prescriptions and Doctors' notes for the diet itself. He had to endure through IV drug treatments at home, was not able to sleep for 17 days because of the given drugs.

I remember cooking everything without salt (then buying reduced sodium salt for some time because he missed the taste of it to a certain degree), stop buying sparkling water, how my father tried to cope with the remaining tinnitus after the hearing loss mostly reversed (>95% IIRC), and how it increased and decreased over time.

He still doesn't drink sparkling water, we still cook with reduced salt. If we deviate from this, his tinnitus increases, yet he tries to hide it from us.

Do you need any more citations?

Mom also has tinnitus, but hers is different, not affected by diet. She uses an advanced hearing aid which counters it using sound somehow. She is relieved to a certain point with it.

There are different kinds, reasons. Need to understand each case.

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

#179

Post by emporas »

mettamage wrote: post #170
emporas wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't have tinnitus, but i put my head into ice cold water everyday for an hour. I would be very surprised if ice cold water for an hour, does not treat tinnitus successfully in a week. Mind you, ice cold water, not just cold water.

Wait, what? Why? So you just come up every minute for breath or something? It sounds interesting! Not as a tinnitus relief, just the practice of doing this.

Well, lying down on a bed or a sofa, and putting a big bowl of ice water on the side. Then immersing the head slowly at first, into the ice water. The nose, is facing the sky. Then alternate between the two ears, putting them as deep as possible into the water. There is no problem in breathing, because the nose is always out of the water.

The first days of doing that, you will go right to sleep after the cold water and you gonna wake up with a heavy head, like drinking whisky the previous night. After some days it won't be like that, and the body will get used to it.

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

#180

Post by lxgr »

mettamage wrote: post #166
jshmrsn wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It depends on your tinnitus itself. My tinnitus gets crowded out by a loud environment, I don't tend to hear it. I only hear my tinnitus when there's no sound. So for me, noise-cancelling headphones do give some temporary symptom relief. Wearing a Bose QC 35 is so important for me when I go to sleep, because the ANC also blocks out sound and blocks out my tinnitus to some extend. It's a bit of a skill to sleep with t…

But active noise cancellation removes (perceived) sound. Wouldn't that make it worse, then?
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