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Apple Hearing Study shares preliminary insights on tinnitus

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Re: Apple Hearing Study shares preliminary insights on tinnitus

#141

This is anecdotal info, but if you're suffering severe tinnitus to the point where it cannot be ignored, meaning ≥8/10, a short course of memantine for a few weeks could bring it down by about 2/10, making it more tolerable. The course may have to be repeated as needed about once a year. There probably exist other milder medicines that too could help make it less severe, e.g. mild SSRIs, but their effect usually goes…

How come when i say "hey test your vit D and everyone probably needs more D supplementation" i get called out and downvoted, but this memantine comment goes unanswered? One of the side effects is aggression. here i'll try this, anecdotally my neighbor was prescribed 5mg (20mg is max dose) for short term memory issues, and he said "it's a good thing i wasn't prescribed more, i would have killed my wife." This was so o…

The trick with memantine is to limit usage to three months max. Its dopaminergic aspect gradually takes over its anti-glutamatergic aspect. If the limit is not applied, people can engage in progressively riskier behavior. This manifests itself even after the second month, but depending on the condition, continuing to the third month can be necessary.

In regard to tinnitus, just a few weeks (3) could be plenty.

Amantadine could be a bit safer for longer-term use, but it too carries behavioral risks.

Re: Apple Hearing Study shares preliminary insights on tinnitus

#142

This is anecdotal info, but if you're suffering severe tinnitus to the point where it cannot be ignored, meaning ≥8/10, a short course of memantine for a few weeks could bring it down by about 2/10, making it more tolerable. The course may have to be repeated as needed about once a year. There probably exist other milder medicines that too could help make it less severe, e.g. mild SSRIs, but their effect usually goes…

Is there any science out there to support it? Gabapentin is also supposed to be a miracle cure but it only works (anecdotally) for very few people and the studies are inconclusive.

It (memantine) is not a full cure, and I never advertised it as such. It only anecdotally lowers the severity of tinnitus which can make the difference between a person wanting to stop living versus continue living. Also, it is strictly for short term use only, a few weeks (3) to a few months (3), and no more, but its benefit can last.

Re: Apple Hearing Study shares preliminary insights on tinnitus

#143

Mine started in one ear after a problem while ascending during a scuba dive. Something remained different in the region around my ear afterward. Then COVID did some sh*t to my sinuses which left them changed. Now I have relatively low tinnitus in one ear and very noticeable tinnitus in the other ear. The pitch is high... reminiscent to the squeal that an old CRT or tube TV would make if it had no signal. The tinnitus…

If it's pulsing, get it checked out. Pulsatile tinnitus is often a symptom of a bigger underlying issue.

Well that sucks. But thank you. I will.

Re: Apple Hearing Study shares preliminary insights on tinnitus

#144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How come when i say "hey test your vit D and everyone probably needs more D supplementation" i get called out and downvoted, but this memantine comment goes unanswered? One of the side effects is aggression. here i'll try this, anecdotally my neighbor was prescribed 5mg (20mg is max dose) for short term memory issues, and he said "it's a good thing i wasn't prescribed more, i would have killed my wife." This was so o…

The trick with memantine is to limit usage to three months max. Its dopaminergic aspect gradually takes over its anti-glutamatergic aspect. If the limit is not applied, people can engage in progressively riskier behavior. This manifests itself even after the second month, but depending on the condition, continuing to the third month can be necessary. In regard to tinnitus, just a few weeks (3) could be plenty. Amanta…

my anecdotal reference didn't even finish 2 weeks out - he showed me the bottle so i could look up what it was in the PDR, then i started reading up to see if that side effect was uncommon. and yes, i carry the PDR on my phone when i'm not at home with the big blue and red books.

Re: Apple Hearing Study shares preliminary insights on tinnitus

#145
post #5

I have mild tinnitus and the best advice I've ever read on the internet for it is: Stop reading. Don't look up information about tinnitus. Don't think about it. If you happen to notice it, try to distract yourself immediately. There maybe legitimate hearing damage but for the psychological aspect, the more you think about it the worse it becomes. I think I saw a quora answer somewhere where the doctor said "Nobody co…

The best advice I ever heard was just to massage the back of your head and neck. One relatively common cause of it is muscle tension back there and a quick massage often makes it go away like magic.

I don't think that works for everyone, but it's such a simple thing to try that anyone suffering should see if it works for them.

Re: Apple Hearing Study shares preliminary insights on tinnitus

#146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or further, if you do read stuff about it and start thinking about it, don't sweat it. You'll eventually stop thinking about it, and life will go on. When I first started dealing with tinnitus, it sucked. Until I realized it didn't. Would I rather not have it? Sure. But life is not near as bad as I thought it would be at first, and I'm perfectly fine several years after it started.

When I first started experiencing tinnitus, it was a nightmare. I'm a naturally anxious, catastrophizing person. All the reading I did about it made it so, so much worse, both in terms of perceived severity of symptoms and psychological impact. It had a profound effect on my life. I genuinely had intrusive, obsessive "I'll never be happy again" type thoughts. A few years later, it has basically zero impact on my life…

Did you ever try massaging the back of your head & neck specifically? That seems to work well for me.

Re: Apple Hearing Study shares preliminary insights on tinnitus

#147
post #61

I can ignore my tinnitus during the day fairly well. It just doesn't bother me that much. I've never really used earpods, no longer use over the hear headphones, and keep the volume down on my speakers. But at night it's a completely different story. With a quiet house and nothing to distract, it was causing a huge problem in my ability to get rest. The solution was to play Spotify all night long at a low volume. The…

Interesting. Would those rain/storm whitenoise relaxation sounds work as well? There is now one built into iOS.

I've tried those and found them incredibly distracting. I can't fall asleep with them on. I suspect they would work just fine to keeping the tinnitus under control, however.

Re: Apple Hearing Study shares preliminary insights on tinnitus

#148
post #100
post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Decades ago I read about NASA's silent room, with the big wood spikes on the walls. All you can hear is your heartbeat and this high pitched whine. NASA figured out the high pitched whine was the nervous system (like, your brain). I've got some mild tinnitus. I always wonder if it's my brain listening to itself. That little recursive loop is enough to distract me, even if it's not true.

what if the brain just runs an, "event loop" and the frequency is just the sample rate for responding to events?

That would require synchronous processing. In reality you have a trillion async threads.

Re: Apple Hearing Study shares preliminary insights on tinnitus

#149

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The trick with memantine is to limit usage to three months max. Its dopaminergic aspect gradually takes over its anti-glutamatergic aspect. If the limit is not applied, people can engage in progressively riskier behavior. This manifests itself even after the second month, but depending on the condition, continuing to the third month can be necessary. In regard to tinnitus, just a few weeks (3) could be plenty. Amanta…

my anecdotal reference didn't even finish 2 weeks out - he showed me the bottle so i could look up what it was in the PDR, then i started reading up to see if that side effect was uncommon. and yes, i carry the PDR on my phone when i'm not at home with the big blue and red books.

> One of the side effects is aggression.

Verbal dominance (or slight verbal aggression) is actually not a side effect per se; it's IMO a primary effect, although its observance depends on the baseline state. It's a genuine state of power, of not putting up with bs. Unfortunately, however, this power will last only as long as the memantine intake lasts. The names adamantane diamondoid mean something. As for physical aggression, that should be quite rare indeed.

Calling it a side effect is like saying that feeling energetic is a side effect of caffeine. If you're already very tired, then you won't even have this effect anymore from caffeine until you're back to a baseline state.

Re: Apple Hearing Study shares preliminary insights on tinnitus

#150
post #78
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This! Said it before here but also consider than right next to each ear drum is a huge artery. When you run you might hear your heart beating in your ears, but generally we totally tune it out. But it is always there. Once I realised that I could also tune out tinnitus, I did just that - but a big part of that was just not thinking about it/dwelling on it. Been nearly 20 years now and tinnitus rarely troubles me, in…

Decades ago I read about NASA's silent room, with the big wood spikes on the walls. All you can hear is your heartbeat and this high pitched whine. NASA figured out the high pitched whine was the nervous system (like, your brain). I've got some mild tinnitus. I always wonder if it's my brain listening to itself. That little recursive loop is enough to distract me, even if it's not true.

Wait, what happens if the high pitched whine is always there when you’re in a somewhat quiet place? Is that still the nervous system?
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