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Tinnitus linked to undetected auditory nerve damage

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Re: Tinnitus linked to undetected auditory nerve damage

#391

Post by codethief »

BreadPants wrote: post #341
hackernewds wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

how does nerve damage relate to sleep apnea? doctors have recommended tonsil removal to expand my palate space. also have tinnitus bte

It doesn't. If you have tinnitus caused by any one or more of the other issues, you likely have sleep apnea on top of it. Enlarged tonsils themselves are indicative of poor nasal breathing. If you have them completely removed you'll suffer from greatly reduced immune response. You have a fighting chance with intracapsular. Palate expansion through a good Ortho is still probably way better.

> If you have them completely removed you'll suffer from greatly reduced immune response

Citation needed. Every doctor I've talked to said the exact opposite.

Re: Tinnitus linked to undetected auditory nerve damage

#392

Post by pier25 »

kingTug wrote: post #353
pier25 wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My tinnitus started days after my first covid shot. Plenty of people have reported tinnitus after covid or the shots. Mine is very mild but it's still annoying.

Has yours been improving at all? Mine started (just in the left ear) about 48hrs after my 3rd Pfizer shot and remained loud for ~8months. Several months of noticeable dissipation followed by true silence at about the 1-year mark. Thought I was in the clear but it's started again out of nowhere this fall. I'm optimistic it will improve again and can probably be controlled with better lifestyle habits but at this stage…

It got noticeably milder after consuming medicinal mushrooms (lion's mane etc) for some months but it never went completely away.

I have days where it gets a bit worse. Maybe if I don't sleep well or recently I had some torticolis (neck pain) and had to take muscle relaxers. But then I go back to baseline.

Re: Tinnitus linked to undetected auditory nerve damage

#393

Post by upghost »

(*YMMV*)

For some of you suffering for tinnitus, if you came here looking for a hack, I can offer a small tinnitus hack that worked for me, and may work for you if you find a noise that "cuts" the tinnitus sound. This summarizes what worked for me:

I have bilateral tinnitus that sounds like people screaming in each ear at 15.5khz -- it's bad enough that w/o this hack, self-harm would seem like an attractive option, which was incentive enough to get creative and now I'm only in pain a few minutes/day.

I'm on mobile so please forgive the AI assisted rewrite of a different post I made on HN [1]:

I hope this message reaches those struggling with tinnitus. I understand the intensity of the condition – my own tinnitus was unbearable. But I've found an effective way to manage it, and I'd like to share the steps:

1. *Effective Sound Track*: First, use YouTube-dl to download a specific sound track from this link: [Sound Link](https://youtu.be/8indTo2ykPw?si=izyTOg4gYvnfsqZs). I found it incredibly effective for cutting out tinnitus. It’s worth trying different sound prints if this one doesn’t work for you. Others with tinnitus have also found it helpful. You might want to edit out the initial dialogue using Audacity.

2. *Special Headphones*: Buy waterproof bone conduction headphones that are specifically designed for MP3 playback. Here's the link to the ones I use: [Headphones Link](https://a.co/d/aqqhPm9).

3. *Usage*: Load the MP3 onto these headphones. It’s been a life-changer for me, allowing me to experience what a normal life feels like again. I only really notice my tinnitus briefly each day when I wake up, before I sleep, and when I charge the headphones.

(end AI assist)

The reason this works (for me) is because I hear the tinnitus "inside my head" and the bone conduction headphones similarly make the noise print sound as if it originates from "inside your head". It does not interfere with normal hearing and you quickly become accustomed to the noise print and forget you even have it on your head. This particular model is NOT bluetooth-- it is an appliance that has one function only, play the scrubber noise. This reduces anxiety of dings and beeps and untethers your from your phone, and most of you know anxiety makes it worse. You can also wear these in the bath and the shower.

I'm sure it won't work for everyone, but it's been a literal lifesaver for me, so I hope it helps.

Good luck out there.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37852711#37858011

Re: Tinnitus linked to undetected auditory nerve damage

#394

Post by ferd »

pacomerh wrote: post #374
ferd wrote: post #278

For what it's worth, here's my case: I have tinnitus, a 4khz tone on both ears, one more than the other. I have hearing loss at high frequencies (the curve of my hearing tests drops abruptively right around 4khz). The side with the worst hearing is also the one with worse tinnitus. My loss probably comes from many many ear infections as a child (plus hearing to loud music on a basement, and just bad genetics). Things…

I have hearing loss in my left ear, from mid frequencies to higher. So basically I can only hear bass on my left hear. Do people usually get hearing aids when one ear is damaged? I went to the doc and they said it was optional since I could still have a normal conversation, so I'm not sure if that's what you're referring to.

I was told the same thing 20-or-so years ago: if you feel like you can have a "normal" life, you don't need to wear one... Now I regret not trying them earlier. As others said here: your nerves stop receiving stimulus... which over time might trigger tinnitus. And even without tinnitus, unused nerves become atrophied... so using hear aids too late might not help as much doing so now.

It's a social thing... if it were about your eyes, you'd be wearing glasses for sure. Glasses are nowadays "fashionable". Hearing aids definitely aren't.

Now, I do have a big doubt about aids: Couldn't they make your hearing loss even worse?! (since they amplify sound and inject it right into your ear, the exact same thing that ear doctors say that kill your hearing)

Re: Tinnitus linked to undetected auditory nerve damage

#395

Post by runeb »

hackernewds wrote: post #308
janmo wrote: post #60

Most people having a peeep tone tinnitus including myself can experience complete silence for a few seconds (up to 30) by listening to a tone at the specific frequency of their Tinnitus. For example listen to the following, at a level that it isn't uncomfortable and your Tinnitus might be gone for a short time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNf9nzvnd1k This is called residual inhibition. You can Google "tinnitus re…

you can also try this exercise for very low risk temporary tinnitus suppression https://youtu.be/2yDCox-qKbk?si=eEjtlP97v8UiubX4 it works reliably well

Not for everyone, it’s never worked on my tinnitus unfortunately

Re: Tinnitus linked to undetected auditory nerve damage

#396

Post by LegitShady »

ddingus wrote: post #342
nsxwolf wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. I can “play my eardrums”, which I describe as the ability to consciously control something in my ears that causes a loud fluttering, ringing sound that is something like wind entering my ear canals combined with a bell. After some research I’ve found some people can control something called the “tensor tympani” and generate sounds described as a “roar” but being a subjective experience I am not certain t…

I can do that. It is like a roar at the loudest point I can manage. A light effort sounds a lot like the ship thruster sound in Asteroids. I find I can clench the muscle, but can only and occasionally relax the thing. When I do clench, my ear response curve in the midrange, say 800Hz to a few KHz, is improved. Have a fan handy? Try it and listen. You may hear a lot more from that fan.

I have had the same thing my whole life that I can remember but no tinnitus. If I clench my jaw enough I get that roaring rumble. I assumed it was normal.

Re: Tinnitus linked to undetected auditory nerve damage

#397

Post by mbirth »

doodlebugging wrote: post #30

I recently bought a couple of audiomoths for monitoring or tracking birds passing through my area. It records up to 192kHz I think so it can pick up ultrasonic chirps from bats. Anyway while passing the recorded data into Audacity to search for bird calls I was able to finally nail down the bandwidth where my tinnitus overwhelms all other signal and to begin to understand the depth of my work-related hearing loss. I…

If you have Apple devices: There’s a free app called “Mimi - Hearing Test” that works together with Apple AirPods and allows you to test your hearing of different frequencies. From the results you can create a profile which you can then set in the iPhone’s accessibility settings so it will adjust the audio output of the AirPods accordingly.

Re: Tinnitus linked to undetected auditory nerve damage

#398

Post by kccoder »

hackernewds wrote: post #308
janmo wrote: post #60

Most people having a peeep tone tinnitus including myself can experience complete silence for a few seconds (up to 30) by listening to a tone at the specific frequency of their Tinnitus. For example listen to the following, at a level that it isn't uncomfortable and your Tinnitus might be gone for a short time: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNf9nzvnd1k This is called residual inhibition. You can Google "tinnitus re…

you can also try this exercise for very low risk temporary tinnitus suppression https://youtu.be/2yDCox-qKbk?si=eEjtlP97v8UiubX4 it works reliably well

Thank you so much for this!

Re: Tinnitus linked to undetected auditory nerve damage

#400

Post by rcstank »

im3w1l wrote: post #338
almostnormal wrote: post #247

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Click is from pressure gradient when opening/tightening the eustachian tube. If I switch to open I can hear myself breathing. Partially covering the outer ear makes the flow of blood audible. That's not tinnitus-related.

A long time ago I would sometimes amuse myself by opening the tubes and humming some melody - would sound really loud.

This actually relieves my tinnitus for a short period of time. Humming as loud as I can with my Eustachian tubes open would cause my tinnitus to either disappear or be imperceptible for about 3-5 seconds. It's such a relief that when my tinnitus gets really bad, I'll find I need to do it several times.
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