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Bad news and good news for tinnitus sufferers

nautil.us

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Re: Bad news and good news for tinnitus sufferers

#11

Post by compiler-guy »

Certain causes of tinnitus cannot be treated, but some can. So be sure your doctor tries to understand the cause of your tinnitus.

For example, one (of many) causes of tinnitus is otosclerosis--the "stirrup" bone in your ear grows extra bone and becomes unable to vibrate properly. The primary symptom of this problem is somewhat muffled hearing, but it is often accompanied by tinnitus.

This condition comes on extremely slowly, so you may not notice the hearing loss. I finally noticed it in myself once when I put my head down on a pillow and suddenly couldn't hear the TV.

There is a good medical solutions to it though--"stapes mobilization surgery". Low risk, better hearing, and tinnitus gone.

So if you have tinnitus and somewhat muffled hearing, see a doctor and mention otosclerosis. It is definitely worth getting checked out. It can really improve your life.

Re: Bad news and good news for tinnitus sufferers

#13

Post by adventured »

tim333 wrote: post #6
Kenji wrote: post #2

> Martin’s resignation in the face of tinnitus isn’t rare, perhaps because tinnitus remains poorly understood. No. It's because you go to the doctor and you literally get sent home without being helped in any way whatsoever. Well, he looks into your ear and maybe you get some useless medication. Just save the money and time and deal with it, that's all you can do as of today.

I found the docs useless. I found earplugs helped a bit - they can prevent further damage and allow the body to recover.

I had been using various forms of white noise for years to help reduce external annoyances while I was working and trying to concentrate. That has led to what appears to be an early form of tinnitus. It doesn't cause me pain yet, sometimes it's really annoying and I no longer hear actual silence when I should. I've found relief by using gun shooting ear protection, as funny as that sounds. 34 to 37 db level protection. The ear protectors are dirt cheap to buy on Amazon and moderately comfortable. They would probably look stupid to wear in an office setting, but I work out of a home office, so no concerns there. A few hours here and there of wearing them and the tinnitus (or whatever it is at this point) is meaningfully reduced.

Re: Bad news and good news for tinnitus sufferers

#14

Post by lutorm »

I have mild tinnitus, it's not really bothering me but is noticeable in quiet environments. I find it interesting that I can exacerbate it by pulling on my jaw or clenching my jaw. If I'm feeling a bit under the weather, it is also exacerbated by moving my eyes. So at least in my case, there's a definite connection to muscles around the ear.

There appears to be at least some support for this in the literature, e.g. http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S1808-86942012000600004&...

Re: Bad news and good news for tinnitus sufferers

#15

Post by coffeeaddicted »

Kenji wrote: post #2

> Martin’s resignation in the face of tinnitus isn’t rare, perhaps because tinnitus remains poorly understood. No. It's because you go to the doctor and you literally get sent home without being helped in any way whatsoever. Well, he looks into your ear and maybe you get some useless medication. Just save the money and time and deal with it, that's all you can do as of today.

Yeah, I got the exact same experience at my doctor. I tell them it's not single sound but several and the frequencies are changing all the time. Completely ignoring that assistent then spends a few minutes figuring out the sound frequency (me trying to compare a hissing sound in my ears to a single tune...). Afterwards doctor looks into both ears for a few second and then tells me it's nothing obvious, so there is nothing that can be done about it, but I can get some cortisol for 3 days in case it helps (didn't).

Re: Bad news and good news for tinnitus sufferers

#16

Post by Kenji »

greenshackle wrote: post #7
Kenji wrote: post #2

> Martin’s resignation in the face of tinnitus isn’t rare, perhaps because tinnitus remains poorly understood. No. It's because you go to the doctor and you literally get sent home without being helped in any way whatsoever. Well, he looks into your ear and maybe you get some useless medication. Just save the money and time and deal with it, that's all you can do as of today.

How does that contradict the quote? Maybe your doc sends you home with no help precisely because it is poorly understood and so they don't know how to help you?

Because the article makes it sound like Martin is an idiot who has a choice, he could at least try to understand it better, when really, Martin has no option other than resignating and sucking it up unless he's a brilliant doctor and neurologist and dedicates his entire life to this problem. The 'perhaps' is also completely out of place. How about some honesty: The doctors are completely clueless and can't do anything, therefore, Martin resignated.

Re: Bad news and good news for tinnitus sufferers

#17

Post by krautsourced »

lutorm wrote: post #14

I have mild tinnitus, it's not really bothering me but is noticeable in quiet environments. I find it interesting that I can exacerbate it by pulling on my jaw or clenching my jaw. If I'm feeling a bit under the weather, it is also exacerbated by moving my eyes. So at least in my case, there's a definite connection to muscles around the ear. There appears to be at least some support for this in the literature, e.g. h…

I can confirm that for mine as well. If I move my jaw forward, I can hear a very clear high pitched noise, relatively loud too. Even when my regular tinnitus is barely or not at all audible. Stretching the neck and jaw muscles can sometimes help or at the very least modify the sound. Also, colds and such seem to have a very direct effect on it as well.

At least for me, it does not seem to be related to stress as such.

Funny, btw., I'm 39 and up until last week or so I was certain that the high pitched noise happened to everyone if they moved their jaw forward. I've had that for as long as I can remember, way before I ever had my first tinnitus episode, and never even thought that that may not be normal :)

Re: Bad news and good news for tinnitus sufferers

#18

Post by krautsourced »

tim333 wrote: post #6
Kenji wrote: post #2

> Martin’s resignation in the face of tinnitus isn’t rare, perhaps because tinnitus remains poorly understood. No. It's because you go to the doctor and you literally get sent home without being helped in any way whatsoever. Well, he looks into your ear and maybe you get some useless medication. Just save the money and time and deal with it, that's all you can do as of today.

I found the docs useless. I found earplugs helped a bit - they can prevent further damage and allow the body to recover.

I've found some help visiting an Osteopath, but that's because mine seems to be at least somewhat related to the neck/jaw muscles or around that area. He showed me some relaxing and general exercises that do help a bit. But in the end he agreed that basically for now, you just need to find a way to deal with it.

Re: Bad news and good news for tinnitus sufferers

#19

Post by jdc0589 »

lutorm wrote: post #14

I have mild tinnitus, it's not really bothering me but is noticeable in quiet environments. I find it interesting that I can exacerbate it by pulling on my jaw or clenching my jaw. If I'm feeling a bit under the weather, it is also exacerbated by moving my eyes. So at least in my case, there's a definite connection to muscles around the ear. There appears to be at least some support for this in the literature, e.g. h…

weird... I don't have tinnitus, that I know of, but if I put earbuds in that provide a lot of sound dampening and clench my jaw muscles, it makes a pretty noticeable roaring sound, kind of sounds like the inside of an airplane.

Re: Bad news and good news for tinnitus sufferers

#20

Post by patorjk »

Whew, I thought this was going to be about the results of Auris Medical's new tinnitus drug, AM-101. The results are due to come out within the next month or so. The drug is injected into the ear, so it wouldn't effect tinnitus that originates in the brain. I've had tinnitus for about 10 years now, and it sucks that doctors know so little about it. However, there seem to be a lot of companies popping up recently that are trying to attack the problem, so I'm excited.

Another company, Otonomy, is also working on a tinnitus drug that's injected into the ear (see http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19847455). It's an NMDA receptor antagonist (just like AM-101), so it doesn't seem like it would work for tinnitus that originates in the brain.

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