7 ms·

Tinnitus in relation to neck/head muscle tension

107 points by colund 11y ago

nextos 11y ago
I've seen anecdotal links between neck muscle tension, TMJ (caused by wisdom teeth), tinnitus and eye floaters.
- increment_i 11y ago
  Yep, absolutely. I tried everything, had an MRI done, and the only thing that reduced symptoms was starting regular high intensity workouts (Olympic lifts and such). A year later and I'm nearly symptom free.
  - dazc 11y ago
    I started lifting weights a year ago for no other reason than for keeping in shape. My tinnitus (I'm a long time sufferer) has also become less severe over the same period. Until now I had not connected the two - mainly because I've made some other lifestyle changes such as improving my diet and avoiding stressful situations. So it could be coincidental, but an interesting idea nonetheless.
    - DanBC 11y ago
      When's the last time you had your blood pressure checked?
      - dazc 11y ago
        Many years ago. I suspect it's been on the high side for a long time though.
        DanBC 11y ago
        A blood pressure check takes a few minutes. High blood pressure can cause tinitus, although it's one of the less common causes: http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Tinnitus/Pages/Causes.aspx http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Tinnitus/Pages/Causes.aspx
        dazc 11y ago
        It may take a few minutes but getting a doctor's appointment takes a much longer - not to mention a lot of determination. Thanks for the link though, I may just have a try at getting an appointment again before the year is out.
        DanBC 11y ago
        Pharmacies (In the UK) can give blood pressure tests.
        kodis 11y ago
        So can many of those in the US. Hypertension isn't something to be taken lightly, especially given how easy it is to test for.
        dazc 11y ago
        Thanks, I should have known that.
thatswrong0 11y ago
I started sleeping on my stomach for about a month, and one day my tinnitus got way way worse.. It was distracting me from work. I evaluated what I may have changed (diet, exercise, sleep). Eventually noticed my change in sleep habits, and switched back to sleeping on my back (with the help of Benadryl). Needless to say, the severe tinnitus subsided. I have to imagine there are more things I can do with my posture / neck to further eliminate my tinnitus.
saulrh 11y ago
I'm not surprised by this. I have TMJ and tinnitus, and the tinnitus gets worse when I bite down.
occam65 11y ago
Within the past year I began experiencing tinnitus in my right ear, differing between two distinct but nearby high pitch frequencies. Only noticeable in silence, such as going to sleep at night. I've learned to notice it and subsequently ignore, but I know I'm lucky it's not worse. It's only a minor annoyance for me, for others it's much more than that.
corysama 11y ago
A couple weeks ago a redditor posted a simple activity that seems to give temporary relief. Doesn't work for me, but a lot of people responded with huge thanks. Maybe it'll work for you. https://np.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/3l3uri/these_guys_lighting_a_mortar_shell_in_their_garage/cv3474n https://np.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/3l3uri/these_guys_light... Looking for that, I also found this https://www.reddit.com/r/tinnitus/comments/3d294k/cured_my_own_tinnitus_and_wanted_to_share/ https://www.reddit.com/r/tinnitus/comments/3d294k/cured_my_o... tldr is: A minority of tinnitus suffers may be helped by the neck massage described in this vid: https://youtu.be/eDSESarTQXk https://youtu.be/eDSESarTQXk
- Kenji 11y ago
  I am pretty sure none of this helps people who have actually damaged their ears physically (i.e. loud sound). Because then you sustained physical and irreversible damage to your cochlea. It is important to distinguish between this and other tinnitus, like caused by stress, tension, etc. EDIT: Sorry to make it sound like I didn't read the article and just dumped this onto here. I simply noticed a tendency of people to throw this link at tinnitus sufferers without taking into consideration the aforementioned distinction, so yes, this is slightly off-topic.
  - emsy 11y ago
    The article was about tinnitus caused by muscle tension and the tips related to the causes described in the article.
graeme 11y ago
I've had tinnitus since a bike accident. Hurt my left jaw, and the tension spread through my neck and low back. Depending how I open my jaw, clench it, or move my neck, the noise will increase. Hearing is fine, been tested. Fortunately I mostly don't notice it. The only real permanent effect is that earplugs, for example on a flight, actually make noise worse.
- Jhsto 11y ago
  > Depending how I open my jaw, clench it, or move my neck, the noise will increase. This is not exclusive to muscle tension. I have tinnitus caused by damaged hearing from hand grenade explosion and I experience the same.
  - graeme 11y ago
    Interesting, didn't know that. I imagine this is a complicated thing to study because the symptoms can't be seen by others. In my case a hearing test ruled out any hearing loss.
foxbarrington 11y ago
Awesome to see this on here. I had pulsatile tinnitus for almost two years. I would wear soft headphones to bed so that I could listen to white noise (pink actually) to drown out the sound. During that time I saw at least five different doctors: general physician, two ENTs, hearing specialist, and a naturopathic physician (I might have even seen more that I'm not remembering). I even got MRIs. Nobody could fix it or tell me what was causing it. Eventually my wife suggested I get a craniosacral treatment from her yoga instructor -- she saw on the website that it could help with tinnitus. To say that I was dubious would be putting it very mildly. But, I was willing to try just about anything at that point. Long story short, craniosacral therapy is body work, and it's sort of like chiropracty. The practicioner noticed that my jaw muscles were very tight and did what she could to get them to release. Over the course of the next week, my tinnitus steadily decreased and has not been back. That was over a year ago. tl;dr: My specific case of tinnitus was definitely caused by head/neck muscle tension, and was cured. Hope others can find relief as well.
- cbd1984 11y ago
  http://skepdic.com/craniosacral.html http://skepdic.com/craniosacral.html > Craniosacral therapy (a.k.a. craniopathy and cranial osteopathy) is a holistic therapy that involves the manipulation of the skull bones (the cranium) and the sacrum to relieve pain and a variety of other ailments, including cancer. [snip] > Craniosacral therapists claim to be able to detect a craniosacral "rhythm" in the cranium, sacrum, cerebrospinal fluid and the membranes which envelop the craniosacral system. The balance and flow of this rhythm is considered essential to good health. The rhythm is measured by the therapist's hands. Any needed or effected changes in rhythm are also detected only by the therapist's hands. No instrument is used to measure the rhythm or its changes, hence no systematic objective measurement of healthy versus unhealthy rhythms exists. [snip] > Skeptics note that the skull does not consist of moveable parts (unlike the jaw) and brain cells lack actin and myosin (the things in muscle cells that make them move). The only rhythm detectable in the cranium and cerebrospinal fluid is related to the cardiovascular system, but craniosacral therapists deny craniosacral rhythms are due to blood pressure. When tested, therapists have been unable to consistently come up with the same measurements of the alleged craniosacral rhythm. (Dr. Ben Goldacre says there have been five such published studies and "in none of them did the osteopaths give similar answers.") http://www.quackwatch.com/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/cranial.html http://www.quackwatch.com/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/cranial.ht... https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/alas-poor-craniosacral/ https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/alas-poor-craniosacral/ In case anyone else was curious.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
dghughes 11y ago
I have mild tinnitus although it is always there I am not bothered by it unless I read something like this article. It's like breathing I don't notice it until someone says something about it. But I wouldn't doubt neck tension is an issue since I grind my teeth at night. Even awake and sleeping face down I can hear a sound like water rushing or a fluttering sound and realize it's my jaw muscles. I can't control it but I am sure it would be an issue and may cause or influence my tinnitus. I tried the reddit neck method but no luck.
- eridius 11y ago
  Grinding your teeth is pretty bad for your teeth too, not just your muscles. You might want to talk to your dentist about this. They should be able to get you a custom-fit mouth guard to wear at night to try and counter this (though it's not cheap).
  - dghughes 11y ago
    Welcome to my life. Yes several mouth guards/plates over the years at $500 each. I tried but I have acid reflux too and the combination of the guard and throat spasm makes me feel like I am suffocating. I need to destress or changed jobs. Or get a girlfriend.
cmarschner 11y ago
Got tinnitus about 3 years ago, eventually was able to link it to bad posture. I've been staring at laptop screens for 15 years, and now at cell phones in addition. My head was looking down most of the time, and then I realized it wasn't balanced even when normal walking through the streets. Add a challenging life period (young family) and voilà. i read a book about pain at some point that contained a good analogy: imagine holding a melon with one hand, arm upright. Now bend the hand forward, and try to hold this for several hours. Of course we wouldn't be able for more than a few minutes. The analogy of course being the melon as the head and the arm being the spine. It makes you realize how much muscle work is necessary to keep the head bent forward. In my case the tension went from my neck to the jaw, and the jawbone pressing on the region close to the ear. I first needed to relearn walking like a child, with the head being balanced on top of its center of gravity - one can feel a pretty remarkable effect of tension relief on the neck. Then relearn to keep the jaw relaxed. Then adjust work habits, spend more time walking, less staring down at phone screens. Takes a while. This morning I woke up with no tinnitus at all. It sometimes comes back, but then I know what to do. Some evidence here: http://de.slideshare.net/mobile/TinnitusResearch/somatosensory-tinnitus-from-past-to-now http://de.slideshare.net/mobile/TinnitusResearch/somatosenso...
elkelk 11y ago
Interesting to see alternative treatments for tinnitus. The classic one I've heard of is Notch Treatment Reminded of a JS site that one of my colleagues made: https://tinnitusnotch.com/ https://tinnitusnotch.com/
- abrichr 11y ago
  Another one: http://audionotch.com http://audionotch.com They offer not just white noise, but many other types of discrete noise samples. They also process your own music for you.
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]
TheAceOfHearts 11y ago
I've had tinnitus since I was in grade school. I think eventually you just get so used to it that you don't notice it unless you explicitly look for it. With that being said, I'm interested in trying out some of the techniques mentioned here. Being able to sleep in (almost) absolute silence sounds blissful.

107 points by colund 11y ago

nextos 11y ago

I've seen anecdotal links between neck muscle tension, TMJ (caused by wisdom teeth), tinnitus and eye floaters.

increment_i 11y ago
Yep, absolutely. I tried everything, had an MRI done, and the only thing that reduced symptoms was starting regular high intensity workouts (Olympic lifts and such). A year later and I'm nearly symptom free.
- dazc 11y ago
  I started lifting weights a year ago for no other reason than for keeping in shape. My tinnitus (I'm a long time sufferer) has also become less severe over the same period. Until now I had not connected the two - mainly because I've made some other lifestyle changes such as improving my diet and avoiding stressful situations. So it could be coincidental, but an interesting idea nonetheless.
  - DanBC 11y ago
    When's the last time you had your blood pressure checked?
    - dazc 11y ago
      Many years ago. I suspect it's been on the high side for a long time though.
      - DanBC 11y ago
        A blood pressure check takes a few minutes. High blood pressure can cause tinitus, although it's one of the less common causes: http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Tinnitus/Pages/Causes.aspx http://www.nhs.uk/Conditions/Tinnitus/Pages/Causes.aspx
        dazc 11y ago
        It may take a few minutes but getting a doctor's appointment takes a much longer - not to mention a lot of determination. Thanks for the link though, I may just have a try at getting an appointment again before the year is out.
        DanBC 11y ago
        Pharmacies (In the UK) can give blood pressure tests.
        kodis 11y ago
        So can many of those in the US. Hypertension isn't something to be taken lightly, especially given how easy it is to test for.
        dazc 11y ago
        Thanks, I should have known that.

thatswrong0 11y ago

I started sleeping on my stomach for about a month, and one day my tinnitus got way way worse.. It was distracting me from work. I evaluated what I may have changed (diet, exercise, sleep). Eventually noticed my change in sleep habits, and switched back to sleeping on my back (with the help of Benadryl). Needless to say, the severe tinnitus subsided. I have to imagine there are more things I can do with my posture / neck to further eliminate my tinnitus.

saulrh 11y ago

I'm not surprised by this. I have TMJ and tinnitus, and the tinnitus gets worse when I bite down.

occam65 11y ago

Within the past year I began experiencing tinnitus in my right ear, differing between two distinct but nearby high pitch frequencies. Only noticeable in silence, such as going to sleep at night. I've learned to notice it and subsequently ignore, but I know I'm lucky it's not worse. It's only a minor annoyance for me, for others it's much more than that.

corysama 11y ago

A couple weeks ago a redditor posted a simple activity that seems to give temporary relief. Doesn't work for me, but a lot of people responded with huge thanks. Maybe it'll work for you. https://np.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/3l3uri/these_guys_lighting_a_mortar_shell_in_their_garage/cv3474n https://np.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/3l3uri/these_guys_light... Looking for that, I also found this https://www.reddit.com/r/tinnitus/comments/3d294k/cured_my_own_tinnitus_and_wanted_to_share/ https://www.reddit.com/r/tinnitus/comments/3d294k/cured_my_o... tldr is: A minority of tinnitus suffers may be helped by the neck massage described in this vid: https://youtu.be/eDSESarTQXk https://youtu.be/eDSESarTQXk

Kenji 11y ago
I am pretty sure none of this helps people who have actually damaged their ears physically (i.e. loud sound). Because then you sustained physical and irreversible damage to your cochlea. It is important to distinguish between this and other tinnitus, like caused by stress, tension, etc. EDIT: Sorry to make it sound like I didn't read the article and just dumped this onto here. I simply noticed a tendency of people to throw this link at tinnitus sufferers without taking into consideration the aforementioned distinction, so yes, this is slightly off-topic.
- emsy 11y ago
  The article was about tinnitus caused by muscle tension and the tips related to the causes described in the article.

graeme 11y ago

I've had tinnitus since a bike accident. Hurt my left jaw, and the tension spread through my neck and low back. Depending how I open my jaw, clench it, or move my neck, the noise will increase. Hearing is fine, been tested. Fortunately I mostly don't notice it. The only real permanent effect is that earplugs, for example on a flight, actually make noise worse.

Jhsto 11y ago
> Depending how I open my jaw, clench it, or move my neck, the noise will increase. This is not exclusive to muscle tension. I have tinnitus caused by damaged hearing from hand grenade explosion and I experience the same.
- graeme 11y ago
  Interesting, didn't know that. I imagine this is a complicated thing to study because the symptoms can't be seen by others. In my case a hearing test ruled out any hearing loss.

foxbarrington 11y ago

Awesome to see this on here. I had pulsatile tinnitus for almost two years. I would wear soft headphones to bed so that I could listen to white noise (pink actually) to drown out the sound. During that time I saw at least five different doctors: general physician, two ENTs, hearing specialist, and a naturopathic physician (I might have even seen more that I'm not remembering). I even got MRIs. Nobody could fix it or tell me what was causing it. Eventually my wife suggested I get a craniosacral treatment from her yoga instructor -- she saw on the website that it could help with tinnitus. To say that I was dubious would be putting it very mildly. But, I was willing to try just about anything at that point. Long story short, craniosacral therapy is body work, and it's sort of like chiropracty. The practicioner noticed that my jaw muscles were very tight and did what she could to get them to release. Over the course of the next week, my tinnitus steadily decreased and has not been back. That was over a year ago. tl;dr: My specific case of tinnitus was definitely caused by head/neck muscle tension, and was cured. Hope others can find relief as well.

cbd1984 11y ago
http://skepdic.com/craniosacral.html http://skepdic.com/craniosacral.html > Craniosacral therapy (a.k.a. craniopathy and cranial osteopathy) is a holistic therapy that involves the manipulation of the skull bones (the cranium) and the sacrum to relieve pain and a variety of other ailments, including cancer. [snip] > Craniosacral therapists claim to be able to detect a craniosacral "rhythm" in the cranium, sacrum, cerebrospinal fluid and the membranes which envelop the craniosacral system. The balance and flow of this rhythm is considered essential to good health. The rhythm is measured by the therapist's hands. Any needed or effected changes in rhythm are also detected only by the therapist's hands. No instrument is used to measure the rhythm or its changes, hence no systematic objective measurement of healthy versus unhealthy rhythms exists. [snip] > Skeptics note that the skull does not consist of moveable parts (unlike the jaw) and brain cells lack actin and myosin (the things in muscle cells that make them move). The only rhythm detectable in the cranium and cerebrospinal fluid is related to the cardiovascular system, but craniosacral therapists deny craniosacral rhythms are due to blood pressure. When tested, therapists have been unable to consistently come up with the same measurements of the alleged craniosacral rhythm. (Dr. Ben Goldacre says there have been five such published studies and "in none of them did the osteopaths give similar answers.") http://www.quackwatch.com/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/cranial.html http://www.quackwatch.com/01QuackeryRelatedTopics/cranial.ht... https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/alas-poor-craniosacral/ https://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/alas-poor-craniosacral/ In case anyone else was curious.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

dghughes 11y ago

I have mild tinnitus although it is always there I am not bothered by it unless I read something like this article. It's like breathing I don't notice it until someone says something about it. But I wouldn't doubt neck tension is an issue since I grind my teeth at night. Even awake and sleeping face down I can hear a sound like water rushing or a fluttering sound and realize it's my jaw muscles. I can't control it but I am sure it would be an issue and may cause or influence my tinnitus. I tried the reddit neck method but no luck.

eridius 11y ago
Grinding your teeth is pretty bad for your teeth too, not just your muscles. You might want to talk to your dentist about this. They should be able to get you a custom-fit mouth guard to wear at night to try and counter this (though it's not cheap).
- dghughes 11y ago
  Welcome to my life. Yes several mouth guards/plates over the years at $500 each. I tried but I have acid reflux too and the combination of the guard and throat spasm makes me feel like I am suffocating. I need to destress or changed jobs. Or get a girlfriend.

cmarschner 11y ago

Got tinnitus about 3 years ago, eventually was able to link it to bad posture. I've been staring at laptop screens for 15 years, and now at cell phones in addition. My head was looking down most of the time, and then I realized it wasn't balanced even when normal walking through the streets. Add a challenging life period (young family) and voilà. i read a book about pain at some point that contained a good analogy: imagine holding a melon with one hand, arm upright. Now bend the hand forward, and try to hold this for several hours. Of course we wouldn't be able for more than a few minutes. The analogy of course being the melon as the head and the arm being the spine. It makes you realize how much muscle work is necessary to keep the head bent forward. In my case the tension went from my neck to the jaw, and the jawbone pressing on the region close to the ear. I first needed to relearn walking like a child, with the head being balanced on top of its center of gravity - one can feel a pretty remarkable effect of tension relief on the neck. Then relearn to keep the jaw relaxed. Then adjust work habits, spend more time walking, less staring down at phone screens. Takes a while. This morning I woke up with no tinnitus at all. It sometimes comes back, but then I know what to do. Some evidence here: http://de.slideshare.net/mobile/TinnitusResearch/somatosensory-tinnitus-from-past-to-now http://de.slideshare.net/mobile/TinnitusResearch/somatosenso...

elkelk 11y ago

Interesting to see alternative treatments for tinnitus. The classic one I've heard of is Notch Treatment Reminded of a JS site that one of my colleagues made: https://tinnitusnotch.com/ https://tinnitusnotch.com/

abrichr 11y ago
Another one: http://audionotch.com http://audionotch.com They offer not just white noise, but many other types of discrete noise samples. They also process your own music for you.

deleted 11y ago

[deleted]

TheAceOfHearts 11y ago

I've had tinnitus since I was in grade school. I think eventually you just get so used to it that you don't notice it unless you explicitly look for it. With that being said, I'm interested in trying out some of the techniques mentioned here. Being able to sleep in (almost) absolute silence sounds blissful.