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We ‘may’ have discovered a potential remedy for tinnitus

• mjlee 7y ago
  This reminds me of the technique that went viral via Reddit a couple of years ago: https://lifehacker.com/this-weird-trick-might-give-you-brief-relief-from-your-1794093023 https://lifehacker.com/this-weird-trick-might-give-you-brief... I don't suffer from tinnitus, but I know people who do and some of them have said that this helped them.
  • jitendrac 7y ago
    Trust me, It never helped me. Edit: never knew telling your experiences gets you downvotes.
    • swinglock 7y ago
      I don't trust you. It works for me.
      • jplayer01 7y ago
        Trust me, it didn't work for me.
        • TrinaryWorksToo 7y ago
          I don't trust that you've read your own mind.
      • jitendrac 7y ago
        If it works for you that is great, but It does not work for me. and I don't have any reason to make you believe it.
        • weltensturm 7y ago
          So don't tell us to trust you?
    • Finnucane 7y ago
      It seems like the technique described would be unreliable and dependent on the nature of the damage causing your tinnitus. Also, at best it offers only momentary relief, though when tinnitus is bad that seems like that's worth a little effort in itself.
    • ralmeida 7y ago
      Why exactly should we trust you?
      • deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
    • senectus1 7y ago
      works for me for about 2 mins... then it comes back
      • jitendrac 7y ago
        Really nice to hear it. Do you also have hearing loss like me?
    • diffeomorphism 7y ago
      If you had written "It never helped me" that would have been telling your experience. "Trust me, it never helped me" is entirely different.
    • dspillett 7y ago
      > never knew telling your experiences gets you downvotes I think this case is more specific than that: expressing personal experience as something that must therefore be true for everyone often gets you downvotes, at least here, unless you experience agrees directly and completely with local group-think (and even then some who disagree with the local group consensus will downvote without explanation). Frame personal experience as personal experience that might inform others usefully, rather than framing personal experience as solid undisputable globally applicable fact. You'll likely still get some downvotes of course, no matter what you say or how you frame it.
      • swinglock 7y ago
        The answer is much simpler. Before the comment was edited, it said "Trust me, it never worked", which does not describe a personal experience but dismisses everyone else's.
    • diego_moita 7y ago
      I trust you, it never worked for me too.
    • deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
    • jgalentine007 7y ago
      I have bad tinnitus in both ears and doing the trick works for me, for about 60 seconds. I don't do it often because it makes me sad how much better that 60 seconds feels.
    • kupopuffs 7y ago
      you're getting downvotes because your original comment sounded like a general fact ("it never worked." (probably not your intention).
    • deleted 7y ago
      [deleted]
  • nnone 7y ago
    Also called "Beating the Heavenly Drum" https://allendaleacupuncture.com/2018/04/20/beating-the-heavenly-drum-qigong-exercise/ https://allendaleacupuncture.com/2018/04/20/beating-the-heav...
  • service_bus 7y ago
    I remember reading this on reddit as well and all of the comments were saying the same as the article. It works momentarily, but that's it. Not enough to provide any actual relief and does nothing for the situation long term. It's more or less a party trick for people who are suffering from this.
  • papreclip 7y ago
    It works for about a minute, then the tinnitus gradually creeps back. The brief experience of being tinnitus-free is refreshing, but it's not a quality of life improvement for which I would constantly perform this exercise or wear a vibrating headband
  • gowld 7y ago
    The OP device is a mechanical version of the same thing.
  • sethammons 7y ago
    Had never heard of it, thanks for the link. Just tried it. I think it muted the tinnitus to about 20%! Pretty good. Though, it only lasted about a minute. Back to normal now.
  • zzzeek 7y ago
    this sounds exactly like what the linked product does. applies cranial vibration behind the ears.
  • yosito 7y ago
    I wonder if that works for motion sickness too. Going on a cruise soon. I'll have to try it.
    • mjlee 7y ago
      From my experience, seasickness can be countered by: Getting on the upper deck for fresh air Having a full stomach If all else fails, sleep Seeing the horizon vs focusing on a fixed point on the ship helps some people and harms others - experiment to see what works for you. The other thing I've found is if you let it get bad you'll be in trouble until you get ashore. Take measures to fix it before it gets bad. This might include drugs - I'd always take dramamine if sailing into bad weather. Also, everybody gets seasick eventually. Anyone who claims they don't simply hasn't been in a rough enough sea for long enough yet. There's no shame in taking care of yourself. One last trick - ships have a metacentre that they rotate about. Ask a deck officer where on the ship you can get closest to it - it's the point where the movement of the ship will be minimised.
• PhasmaFelis 7y ago
  Now to wait 5-8 years for an FDA-approved medical device, which will cost $3000. I wonder if you could achieve the same effect with a vibrating massager? Sticking a repurposed cellphone vibrator motor in an elastic band, like the North Paw, also sounds like it would have potential. https://sensebridge.net/projects/northpaw/ https://sensebridge.net/projects/northpaw/
  • jplayer01 7y ago
    I'm sure we'll get DIY guides if this turns out to be legit. The concept is simple enough.
    • londons_explore 7y ago
      You watch those DIY guides be region blocked to "everywhere but the USA" because the fines for even publishing the design of an unapproved medical device are massive.
      • QuesnayJr 7y ago
        Are they? Doesn't that have first amendment protection?
        • floatingatoll 7y ago
          The US specialized in medical quackery for a hundred years, so there are direct restrictions on speech around claiming medical benefits. The free speech laws permit that, as IIRC societal welfare trumps your right to claim that (for example) mercury and cocaine soda will cure all ills. EDIT: Commenters are right, you have to try to profit to be prosecuted. If you give away poison and call it a cure, as long as you have no benefit whatsoever, you're technically safe. Yippee.
          • akersten 7y ago
            Just disclaim it with "this device/supplement/lifestyle has not been shown and is not intended to treat any medical ailment" like all the homeopathic crap out there does and you should be good to go.
• h2odragon 7y ago
  Interesting. How very kind of them to mention this to the public for further experimentation. Has this individual now opened themselves to liability for IP theft, stealing potential billions of treatment money from the company that gets it approved by the FDA?
  • m_eiman 7y ago
    Assuming the US still has "first to invent", they've got a year to file their patent application IIRC.
    • mdorazio 7y ago
      It doesn't [1]. It switched to First to File several years ago. [1] https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/what-does-the-first-to-file-rule-mean-for-my-patent-application.html https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/what-does-the-first-...
      • rocqua 7y ago
        From that link: "A person shall be entitled to a patent unless—the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention" It seems to me that the "described in a printed publication, or in public use part" here would suffice to protect the inventor no?
        • simiones 7y ago
          Not sure what you mean, but those clauses describe what can remove your entitlement to a patent. So, if the claimed invention was "described in a printed publication, or in public use" before the filing date, the inventor is no longer entitled to the patent. Of course, complaining of the lost potential money from IP for a life-improving device is preposterous, but it is true that this article may prevent the company for ever filing a patent application for this idea (unless they have already filed it).
• ourlordcaffeine 7y ago
  So when can we get the device, or how can one be made?
  • londons_explore 7y ago
    Perhaps try taping an electric toothbrush behind your head...
    • apotatopot 7y ago
      I was thinking the same thing! Is buying a massager thing on amazon a similar solution, then just sleeping with it under your pillow?
    • joshuaheard 7y ago
      Haha, I held my electric toothbrush behind my ear for about 60 seconds and it worked! The effect lasted only a couple of minutes. It seems like the heavy vibrations mixed things up in there, and when they settled back down, the ringing slowly returned.
  • jarfil 7y ago
    You may find some cheap Chinese "body massage" vibrating devices with adjustable speed settings, probably in pink. You may not want to trust them with any intimate parts, but I've found that they're great at vibrating toner or flour down a paper funnel, so wouldn't be surprised if they also worked for this.
  • sp332 7y ago
    PSA - WARNING Do NOT attach vibrating things to your skull! This is a very easy way to get a concussion.
• wtvanhest 7y ago
  This is somewhat random, but my tinnitus gets worse if my posture is worse. I believe I am somewhat alone in this, but did find some other people on reddit saying the same thing. Basically, if I keep my neck more straight, it really relieves it. Something free to try for those seeking a solution.
• outime 7y ago
  A bit of a random comment here - it just happened that I recently injured my sternocleidomastoid muscle and has caused some hearing trouble on the right ear (not tinnitus). I saw that this also caused tinnitus in some individuals. I’m not a doctor or anything but if you suffer from this and didn’t find any relief, I’d suggest looking up for trigger point massage for this muscle. It’s safe and free, and it helped some people at least.
• throwawayhhakdl 7y ago
  I was excited when I heard about these for VR. Haven’t heard much about them yet. But I do wonder if there won’t be unintended consequences. The brain is pretty good at adapting. I believe these work by overloading the inner ear signal with noise so the brain stops paying attention to it. What if the brain decides to stop paying attention to it after the device is removed? Could it affect balance?
• mettamage 7y ago
  I wrote this relatively recently in another comment. I think it applies here: I have tinnitus. I got it from going out too much. I wasn't the biggest party-hardy individual, but there were moments where I went out quite a bit. During that time I lived in Amsterdam and loved parties for: music, social experimentation and doing whatever. I wasn't too much into the drugs/alcohol thing. I think during my 'going out phase' I was above average in terms of how many times I went out to clubs. This period lasted for 4 years. It was 6 months of agony, then I started to ignore it. It wasn't a conscious decision, the ignoring happened automatically. I only have the high pitched ringing in my ears when it's quiet. It literally feels like a curse though, I can't hear silence. 5 years later, I found out something remarkable (and I hope there's a researcher willing to test this with me and other tinnitus people). It was an accident to figure this out. When I do the Wim Hof Method, for just a brief moment it's silent. I can kind of have an idea why, since it's silent during an oxygen starvation moment (breathing all your oxygen out and then not breathing for another 2 to 3 minutes). But for me it was a life saver. Why? Because if I really want to experience true quietness again, I can do the Wim Hof Method and experience about 10 to 20 seconds of quietness per 5 minutes. My curse is lifted. It's not perfect, but good enough for me. If you have tinnitus and want to learn the Wim Hof Method from me, feel free to reach out [1], my email is in my profile. [1] My time is limited, I can teach up a total of 6 people for free who also have tinnitus. If you send an email, I'll put you in an online session with 1 to 2 other people (who also responded to this, so they're all from HN). After 6 people, I need to charge for my time. And please, leave the spots open for people who actually have tinnitus. Don't fake it, there are probably (hopefully) videos online on how to do the Wim Hof Method. Final note: learning the WHM to alleviate yourself from tinnitus is an experiment. It worked for me. It may not work for you. Also, learning the WHM you need someone to be physically there to be a 100% sure about your physical safety (normally that would be me). And you need to be in an otherwise healthy condition. I'm not a doctor, and this invitation is for entertainment purposes only.
  • hvidgaard 7y ago
    Is it like described here (https://thoughtbrick.com/wim-hof-method/wim-hof-method-power-breath-exercise-explained/ https://thoughtbrick.com/wim-hof-method/wim-hof-method-power...)? I've had tinnitus for 25 years, and sometimes I wish I could be free of it, if only for a while.
• growlist 7y ago
  Tinnitus is weird. When I first had it I heard it all the time, it ruined my enjoyment of music, and I felt I was cursed for life. These days I can go for weeks without even realising it's there. I'd literally forgotten about it until I read this.
  • mhandley 7y ago
    I've had tinnitus for 40 years, accompanied by deafness in one ear, due to inner ear damage caused by getting Mumps when I was 13. If I focus on it, it's really loud - I can easily hear it over a loud pub environment, and it's there all the time. But the brain is amazingly adaptive - if I don't focus on it, it doesn't annoy me, and I forget it is there.
• napsterbr 7y ago
  I suffer (quite literally) from Misophonia [0], and I can only hope someday we find a cure for it. It's a curse. As a developer, I'm afraid the only thing I can do about it is to raise awareness. [0] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misophonia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misophonia
  • meowface 7y ago
    What sort of sounds are you sensitive to?
    • napsterbr 7y ago
      People eating/chewing, mainly. Basically any sound that comes from the mouth, even when not eating. Tooth picking, brushing teeth, etc. Unless I'm on a noisy environment (like a crowded restaurant), I simply can't eat with others. I just ended a 2-year relationship because of it -- and I have no idea how I'm supposed to live with someone else while having this disease. Ironically, I'm indifferent to sounds that most people have aversion to, like metal screeching or fingernails on a chalkboard.
      • the-dude 7y ago
        I have a friend with the same ( Misophonia @ people eating/chewing ). Cost him his relationship as well. He was treated at Amsterdam AMC IIRC. edit: treated after his relationship ended that is.
  • birdyrooster 7y ago
    I too suffer from this, and I think it must be related to my ADD, because I think most people can filter these noises out. To the point that they won’t become enraged by something their brain ignores as noise. Who wouldn’t become enraged if their brain was hijacked by the most bullshit, meaningless sounds?
    • birdyrooster 7y ago
      To my point https://www.additudemag.com/misophonia-sensitivity-to-sounds-adhd-hypersensitivity/ https://www.additudemag.com/misophonia-sensitivity-to-sounds...
• deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
• hawski 7y ago
  I have mild tinnitus so that's what brought me here, but I wonder about something else from the article. They wanted to test for motion sickness while facing backwards. That's my minor pet peeve. I think that we can't realistically think of driving in something in a size of a car facing backwards, because it's just inherently dangerous. In case of an accident anything in your hands will hit you hard in your face, neck or chest. Same with whatever people in front of you would have. So: hot coffee, bottles, books, laptops and phones.
  • toyg 7y ago
    British black cabs have rear-facing seats, they make millions of perfectly-safe trips every day.
• tosser0001 7y ago
  I get the sense that tinnitus is so different for so many people there will never be a single solution. I think it can only be stopped at its source in the hearing centers of the brain itself, but good luck getting that accomplished. I can only describe mine as the sound of a dump truck full of chandeliers going by the house. There are low-pitched rumbles, high-pitched wails and everything else in between if I really concentrate on it. I'm not sure exactly why I'm not despondent about it, but for whatever reason, I simply choose to ignore it and it doesn't impact my life in any way. I'd pay big money to make it go away, but I don't hold out any real hope.
  • asdfman123 7y ago
    > I'm not sure exactly why I'm not despondent about it, but for whatever reason, I simply choose to ignore it and it doesn't impact my life in any way Actually, I've read that the best way to cope with tinnitus is to... just not worry so much about it. I suppose it's possible to catastrophize if you have it, but if you go about your day and don't mind it it won't bother you nearly as much. I actually have fairly soft tinnitus myself, but I only notice it every so often.
    • jefftk 7y ago
      I have minor tinnitus as well, a high pitched sound like a CRT makes, and I just don't pay attention to it. But I don't know if this is "it doesn't bother you if you don't pay attention" vs "mine is very minor" vs "something about it makes it not bother me, and also not pay attention" or what.
      • _fy0z 7y ago
        I'm leaning towards the former option. I'd describe mine as very similar to yours (mentioned in another comment), and it doesn't present an issue unless you really think about it, where your mind consciously/subconsciously focuses on the frequencies the tinnitus manifests in. Getting to a place where it's just not something that you think about/bothers you is, all things considered, a pretty good place to be in. Edit: I don't mean to trivialize this issue, as it definitely does have a greater effect on some people more than others. So, your 3rd possible explanation is quite intriguing here too.
• dghughes 7y ago
  This looks like something you could make into an app. Put phone on vibrate and apply to back of head. It's also very similar to the remedy suggested in a reddit comment. The comment said to drum your fingers on the back of your head. Many people said it did work to reduce their tinnitus.
• swalsh 7y ago
  "We know from an earlier experiment that facing backwards in a driverless car causes a lot of motion sickness" Could this be true for backwards facing baby seats too?
• mitch-snipline 7y ago
  I would urge anyone that suffers from tinnitus to get their hearing checked if they haven't already. Getting hearing aids has given me significant relief from tinnitus and if my hearing aid battery dies the tinnitus comes back fairly quickly. It's as if my ear is trying to compensate for the lack of sound. Of course, there are multiple reasons for tinnitus to occur so your mileage may very, but it's absolutely worth checking out.
  • flamtap 7y ago
    >It's as if my ear is trying to compensate for the lack of sound. As I understand it, this is exactly what tinnitus is. Your ear becomes insensitive to a certain frequency, so your brain "equalizes" it, if you will, and over compensates to the point that you're hearing something that's not there.
    • falcolas 7y ago
      The brain can also confuse input from nearby muscles for missing sounds in some cases. My own tinnitus can get a lot worse if my upper back and shoulder muscles are tense.
      • ymolodtsov 7y ago
        Yes! Mine is connected with the jaw joint.
    • ymolodtsov 7y ago
      There are multiple reasons for it, including nerve damage and effects from surrounding tissues and joints.
  • ekianjo 7y ago
    Is tinnitus diagnosed as a chronic condition? If you are only susceptible to sporadic hiss/ringing would that be considered normal or pathological?
  • SkyPuncher 7y ago
• macca321 7y ago
  So I have very mild tinnitus (a bit of ringing when in bed at night, or if I really really try to listen for it). I've noticed another auditory effect though, since I bought a glockenspiel for my child. After hearing a loud, high note on the glock, immediately after there is a momentary deep, squelchy rumble in my ears. Is this a tinnitus artifact or something else? My google skills have failed me on this one.
  • noonespecial 7y ago
    Some people say that they can hear this(1) as a distinct sound. (1) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic_reflex https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic_reflex
    • macca321 7y ago
      Thanks, that could be it!
• angel_j 7y ago
  It's probably the headband, not the vibration. Pulling the ears back helps open the flow to them.
  • swvjeff 7y ago
    Headbands don’t cure tinnitus
    • tristanlange 7y ago
      Nothing does.
    • angel_j 7y ago
      this forum is retarding
• tapland 7y ago
  This thread reminding me about the sound is going to cause me so much agony until I manage to not think about it again. For the rest of you: The Game
  • remyp 7y ago
    ughhh now I lost the game too why would you do that
• BurningFrog 7y ago
  I hate this kind of "double weasel" headlines. Either of these would have been fine: We may have discovered a remedy for tinnitus – by accident or We have discovered a potential remedy for tinnitus – by accident
  • JadeNB 7y ago
    I don't get the significance of the quotes, and the article doesn't seem to clarify. What, I wonder, is the intended difference between "we 'may' have discovered …" and "we may have discovered …" (except possibly a weird third layer of distancing)?
• aplacelikethis 7y ago
  I have something related to tinitus: I sometimes get a ringing in my ear(s) when I'm deep in thought. It's not always both ears. The article suggests to me that tilting your head sideways could be a way to cure tinitus - e.g. try various tilting movements (different speeds, angles, repetitions) to tune in and out of the parts of your inner ear that cause the tinnitus, taking note of any phenomenon that arise during various movement patterns. And don't forget the tension/relaxation variable! E.g. large, fast movements increase base tension, while slow, small movements decrease it. I've quite a bit of experience loosening and tightening my joints from martial art; I imagine a similar process can be applied to nerve connections. (In fact I've been trying to apply it to muscle growth via nerve stimulation because my room is on the small side for doing exercise. Burnt out a lot of nerve cells trying, now focussing on nutrition before I continue.)
  • sooheon 7y ago
    > muscle growth via nerve stimulation Is this different from growth from physical activity?
• beloch 7y ago
  Always be wary of researchers who go straight to the publicity mill instead of seeking verification via a sample size >1.
  • mrandish 7y ago
    Sure, but that seems a little harsh in this case as the OP is essentially 'open sourcing' the observation because he's moving on from his Phd. There's no product on offer or apparent benefit to the author.
  • war1025 7y ago
    I believe he said he found several people with tinnitus and let them try, all with similar results. So I Would guess the sample size is probably more like three or four.
  • falcolas 7y ago
    > It is hoped that this information generates further research by others within the field of hearing / vestibular dysfunction. I have finished the research for my PhD, this however I feel should be continued with active tinnitus researchers (over to you). I, in contrast, think this is perfectly reasonable. The title promises nothing, the article describes the methodology in detail, and they give it over to others to study since they can't.
    • gowld 7y ago
      The article is fine as is. Posting it on HN is a distraction.
• aazaa 7y ago
  Interesting, but the article doesn't give enough information for third parties to duplicate it. The referenced paper "Less sickness with more motion and/or mental distraction" uses a completely different device. Nor does the article indicate how long the relief persists after removal of the device. The article is also vague about how many people have reported relief. There's also the question of controls. Assuming the effect is general and real (a stretch at this point), there could be something about the device besides its vibration that leads to relief of symptoms. Nothing along these lines is reported. I get that this is a blog post and that the author is probably in the process of commercialization, but extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. The article does little to convince.
  • tim333 7y ago
    Re commercialisation he's "Spencer Salter, wellness technology researcher at Jaguar Land Rover" so I guess they'd have first dibs. That said I'm guessing is must be something like a phone vibrate unit in box strapped behind your ear - probably not so hard to give it a shot at making one. Googling vibrators gives a lot of them for sale though mostly designs what would be embarrassing to strap to your head ;)
• abstractbarista 7y ago
  Is it possible that tinnitus is actually just a person's inability to ignore natural noise in the hearing systems? More of a physchological issue like chewing fingernails or having OCD, but which can be amplified by legitimate physical hearing damage? I ask this because for all the life I can remember, I've always been able to perceive a high-pitched tone, even in completely quiet environments. If I actually focus on it, it's quite loud and annoying. It's just that my "default state" is to not think or notice this tone, and instead focus on "actual" sounds. I have been tested to not have hearing damage.
  • tim333 7y ago
    My experience as a moderate tinnitus sufferer the high-pitched tone you hear is basically the same thing but at a lower level - I think most people have it to some extent. But in sufferers the tone is much louder, normally after some damage to the ear from excessively loud sounds or similar.
  • sauwan 7y ago
    I have the same thing. When I'm aware of it, it's really loud and annoying. Probably 90%+ of the time I'm not aware of it though. Was never sure if this qualified as tinnitus.
  • soapboxrocket 7y ago
    Yea, I second this. I had my hearing tested and the results came out "very good." I talked with the doctor and she basically said that what is most likely happening with me is that I have "better" hearing than most and this is what is making it difficult to hear. She said what is probably happening is that I hear a lot of ranges outside the test window and/or I just hear the lower background noises better than I hear human vocal range. She talked about how she would like to do an experiment that allowed testing to be expanded but didn't have the resources or time to try it.
    • magduf 7y ago
      This sounds like me; I seem to have great hearing (I can still hear those "mosquito" devices used to annoy teenagers even though I'm over 40), but I have a hard time understanding human speech when there's a lot of ambient noise. Noisy restaurants are very unpleasant for me, and I'm constantly asking people to repeat themselves.
• neilwilson 7y ago
  I love accidentally discovered cures for issues. This might be like penicillin for ears and hopefully it will relieve the suffering of thousands of people. Let's hope it turns out to be true and can be developed rapidly into a medical device.
• pfrench42 7y ago
  For free you can try a (scientifically?) based tinnitus modulator at mynoise.net, it works a little bit for me. https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/neuromodulationTonesGenerator.php https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/neuromodulationTonesGenera...
• tristanlange 7y ago
  I have had it for 20+ years from DJing + performing. They ring 247, you get used to it. The ringing is caused by damaged nerves in your ears turning audio signal into white noise. It's hearing damage. Any cure that doesn't fix the damaged nerves causing the problem, is bs.
• manmal 7y ago
  It's not a cure, and the sample sizes are low, but low level laser therapy (LLLT) has been shown to bring significant improvement to some people with tinnitus: "Over half of the patients (56.9%) had some form of improvement in their tinnitus symptoms. Mild improvement was reported in 33.8% of patients, moderate improvement was reported in 16.9%, and full improvement was reported in 6.15%. Of the patients who reported dizzy spells as a symptom of their tinnitus condition, 27.7% reported mild improvement and 16.9% reported full improvement." (My own note regarding that study: 5mW at 650nm does not penetrate tissue very deeply; one could e.g. use 100mW at 850nm to penetrate up to 5cm deep. Exposure time would likely have to be reduced by at least an order of magnitude.) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3658799/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3658799/ Also: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3830897/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3830897/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3063436/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3063436/
• joecool1029 7y ago
  There are also some other causes of tinnitus. For some patients SSRIs (and SSRI-like medications, like Tramadol) cause tinnitus. Paper on it: https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(17)31098-7 https://www.cell.com/cell-reports/fulltext/S2211-1247(17)310...
• fortran77 7y ago
  I had no idea that there was a connection between motion sickness and tinnitus, and interestingly I suffer from both! (I was unable to complete the "road to Hana" in Maui because I got out of the car to puke several times!)
• wazoox 7y ago
  I have tinnitus because of beta blockers. One I switched treatment and it disappeared, that was a huge relief. Unfortunately, without beta blockers my pulse hovers at 100BPM when sitting, 120BPM when standing and 220BPM after climbing 10 stair-steps. So I have not much choice but live with tinnitus...
  • astrodust 7y ago
    Unless you're a chipmunk that's an impressively and worryingly high rate.
    • gowld 7y ago
      One presumes that's what the beta blockers are for.
      • astrodust 7y ago
        Chipmunks?
      • wazoox 7y ago
        Yup. With beta blockers I have a perfectly healthy heart rate and blood pressure. Other products work well for the blood pressure in my case, but not the heart rate.
• peheje 7y ago
  I had a ringing for a weekend and found and used this extensively https://github.com/generalfuzz/acrn https://github.com/generalfuzz/acrn I remember it being after some loud event. But I honestly can't remember. It went away. But it might not have been tinnitus and just an ear infection. Or it might have helped, I'm just one sample size.
  • x2f10 7y ago
    Interesting. It seems my tinnitus is around freq 8200. I'll give this tool a go when I'm in a more quiet environment.
    • peheje 7y ago
      I remember when I used it the ringing totally stopped in between the calibration sounds. Does it do that to you as well? The sounds were pretty annoying but at least I could control their intensity and while going to sleep I could gradually make it lower and lower until I slept.
    • SNACKeR99 7y ago
      Same! I'm going to try to nail it down really exactly, but so far 8,236 is as close as I've got while on a conference call :)
    • mav3rick 7y ago
      Can you update and tell us what happened ?
      • x2f10 7y ago
        Update: I tried it twice. Both times it failed. There were times between the beeps were I swore it was gone, but when I took off the headset (or muted the volume), it was indeed still there. Perhaps you have to continuously do it?
        • mav3rick 7y ago
          I am scared of trying it because of some unknown side effects:/
• pedrocr 7y ago
  Finding a cure or treatment for tinnitus would be awesome. I have a very mild case from a few too many loud concerts. What I find amazing is how we don't attack the source of the problem much that I can see. Concerts, clubs, fireworks, even movies blast away above any reasonable level, causing damage to large parts of the population. We all just get progressively damaged hearing bit by bit. And yet there's very little policing of this that I have seen. It's just another form of pollution that's being imposed on people, often in public places where they haven't even had a choice (e.g., the fireworks case) or have a very poor choice (e.g., not going out with friends over this because they want to go to a rock concert).
  • peheje 7y ago
    Go to concerts dude! Just wear protection. You can get these plugs designed for music. Just have a backup pair with you as well.
    • mattmanser 7y ago
      I regularly go to concerts with earplugs, often it sounds better with them in, especially if the volume is too loud or treble is too high.
      • StavrosK 7y ago
        Yes! I noticed that too, the sound gets all jumbled up without earplugs. Not to mention the pain and damage.
      • microtherion 7y ago
        A few years ago, after a Ministry concert which was off the scale loud (or maybe I just have become off the scale old for this kind of music), I bought a pair of Earasers (https://www.earasers.store https://www.earasers.store) and the few times I had to wear them, they worked great, protected my ears while being fairly transparent, and did wonders for my enjoyment of the music.
        • 7y ago
• billsmithaustin 7y ago
  I've had tinnitus for as long as I remember. Haven't tried this, but I've read some people have luck treating it with biofeedback.
• Bootwizard 7y ago
  Anyone know where I can buy one? I've had tinnitus for as long as I remember, and it impacts my enjoyment of music and sometimes my ability to fall asleep.
• aasasd 7y ago
  My guess is, the nervous system dampens the signal from the middle ear when it sees obvious noise coming in. IIRC tinnitus also gets diminished in a noisy environment. (Afaik it's a pretty well-known feature of the nervous system, an example being how the ‘pins and needles’ fade out in a previously-sleeping limb.)
• keitmo 7y ago
  I have a double hit of tinnitus. The first hit started in 2010, a neurological "gift" from the swine flu. The second hit happened in 2013 while mounting a new tubeless mountain bike tire. The tire blew off the rim and caused permanent hearing damage in my right ear. I have to sleep with a fan or white noise machine now -- the "sound" I hear in a silent room is enough to keep me awake.
• mikelyons 7y ago
  Anecdotal, but a close friend told me that during a moderately high dose mushroom experience his tinnitus was gone for the duration (~4 hours). I was there with him while he was experiencing this.
  • citruscomputing 7y ago
    I've seen people reporting the same, and also sustained (weeks or months) improvement from even microdoses.
• owlninja 7y ago
  Do any other long time sufferers experience that it gets louder when tired or stressed? Also, definitely trying this with my electric toothbrush when I get home!
• goodmachine 7y ago
  I believe the original applications for this device were in vertigo and seasickness, also being trialled to reduce nausea in VR As far as I can work out the bone-conducted vibrations are simply a white-noise distraction - or as the makers put it 'consistent and non-informative stimulus' https://vrscout.com/news/device-solves-vr-motion-sickness/ https://vrscout.com/news/device-solves-vr-motion-sickness/ https://otolithlabs.com/use-cases/ https://otolithlabs.com/use-cases/
• ourmandave 7y ago
  The story is also about preventing motion sickness. Just reading about the test van with rear facing seats made me nauseous. I'm still amazed people who can read or do whatever without ever looking out the window for long periods of time.
• newnewpdro 7y ago
  When I moved to a largely off-grid remote location of dead silence it became clear I had a mild form of tinnitus. Initially it was quite annoying and I thought it would drive me insane being in otherwise complete silence where it was so hard to ignore. But after a few months of silence it magically went away. I suspect it was caused by my nearly constant use of headphones in cafes/offices. On my land there's no need for such isolation mechanisms. We're probably doing more harm to ourselves than expected by wearing headphones every day, it's certainly not natural.
• fjabre 7y ago
  It’s already well known that TMS or repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation can help with Tinnitus
• m3kw9 7y ago
  Wouldn’t this make things worse when you may need to turn it off at night when you sleep? Also what are the side effects of vibrating for too long? These question are important
• ibatindev 7y ago
  Just in time for Archer's finale.
• deleted 7y ago
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• benji-york 7y ago
  Ignore the click-bait URL, this gives me a temporary improvement: https://lifehacker.com/this-weird-trick-might-give-you-brief-relief-from-your-1794093023 https://lifehacker.com/this-weird-trick-might-give-you-brief...
• Ace17 7y ago
  "Although this is only anecdotal evidence" This should have been at the start of the article, not the end.
• daenz 7y ago
  >The device we asked them to wear has four vibration levels. Half the volunteers (the control group) had the device set to the lowest vibration (level one), and half had it set to level three (the experimental group). Level 3 is the effective vibration level for motion sickness reduction. Shouldn't the control group be wearing the device but have no vibrations active?
  • mrzimmerman 7y ago
    I wonder if the subjects knew the device should vibrate, so if it didn't vibrate at all it would have thrown off the test. If not, I agree with you. Or just find subjects that don't know what the devices do so they can just sit on their heads doing nothing.
• founderling 7y ago
  To those who have tinnitus: When you put a finger in your ear and create a bit more or a bit less pressure - does that change the frequency of your tinnitus? Because for me it totally does. And I wonder if every tinnitus is like that. Also: Is your tinnitus mainly on one side or equally on both sides? For me it is mainly on the right side.
  • 5oksuuhm 7y ago
    I have a ~1400hz tinnitus that changes with pressure as you describe. I've also recently noticed ibuprofen quietens it some.
• n-gauge 7y ago
  What I have done in the past (which is a temporary solution) is play a matching frequency from a free phone app and make the volume repeatedly lower and higher for a few minutes.. This cancels out the pitch in my ear for a while. Sometimes the tinnitus just stops by itself, and this can be for days. I am aware of some triggers for it.
  • eikenberry 7y ago
    Get your earwax checked. Earwax buildup can cause intermittent tinnitus. If that is the case they can remove it and the tinnitus may go away.
• sethammons 7y ago
  Wow, this could be huge. My tinnitus is mild and generally is only audible in quiet situations with small bouts where it gets really loud. On the opposite end of the spectrum, a former co-worker committed suicide because he could not continue life with such debilitating tinnitus.
• toyg 7y ago
  I am a heavy sufferer from motion sickness, working exactly as described here. This device sounds like a godsend, if it works as they say. Even just used for short periods, it would ensure I don't have to suffer mild nausea and headache for hours after each and every flight (landing is hell). My dream is to find something so effective, that I could travel by boat while awake. But that would have to last for hours.
  • hinkley 7y ago
    Small sample size, but I’ve had pretty good luck with giving people chewing gum to avoid motion sickness. Something about the jaw moving seems to tamp down the motion sensitivity quite a bit.
• loceng 7y ago
  It sounds to me like it's basically a white noise machine. For those who don't know there is a sound therapy called Auditory Integration Training (Berard AIT) - along with a book you can buy on Amazon called "Hearing Equals Behaviour: Updated and Expanded" that can help reduce or eliminate tinnitus; it more or less from my understanding and experience is allowing the brain to un-focus from the sound, from that sensory, allowing the brain and sensory input to equalize - as body is a system designed to constantly find homeostasis.
• modeless 7y ago
  I am super excited about the motion sickness application of this. My wife gets carsick and it is a source of tension in our relationship because it makes her reluctant to travel. I wish they would start selling these already. I heard about it last year but it seems that they are slow to market.
• reeddavid 7y ago
  There are many calls for personal responsibility here. But I think the average person is not making a choice to sustain permanent hearing damage – most people don't know the risks. I used to own a decible meter. I brought it to a movie theater (large chain) and found sustained volume of 100+ decibels. It was physically painful. I was the only customer who complained to the theater. I asked what sound level they intended to set the movie to. They told me it's up to the projectionist, who sets the volume knob in the booth based on no measurement or preset. There's a lot of real harm being done, and I would like to see at the very least some basic informative disclosure. And operators should be held responsible for creating dangerous conditions that are not disclosed or agreed to by customers. If people want to sustain hearing damage for a night of enjoyment, they should do so only willingly (and therefore knowingly). I'm very keen to protect my own hearing, so I carry musician's earplugs (reduces volume without sounding muffled) and wear them often – not just at obviously loud places like concerts, but in common situations like loud restaurants.
  • goda90 7y ago
    Do you know how these musician's earplugs work? I imagine instead of just blocking vibrating air like regular earplugs, it must be trying to dissipate the sound waves a bit. Is that even possible across the whole range of sound?
    • apk-d 7y ago
      Materials absorb different parts of the frequency spectrum with varying efficiency. Regular earplugs are made to simply stop as much sound as possible and hence there's a lot of muffle at the top of the spectrum (that's easiest to achieve - cover your ears!). Concert earplugs are more carefully designed to absorb the entire spectrum as uniformly as possible.
  • RonanTheGrey 7y ago
    It's been my experience that most places can reduce volume levels (music, theaters etc) about 10-15% without loss of experience or fidelity and I have taken to actually asking managers to turn down volume because my ears actually hurt. It's loud for the sake of loud. I can't understand why the music in a restaurant needs to be so loud that I have to scream at the people at my table to be heard. Obviously we're screaming over other tables, too, who are also screaming over us. It's a big scream fest, and I have observed that alot of it starts with high music volume levels. Turn down the damn music, come on. Oh and get off my lawn. (I'm not that old really hah but I sound that way when I make an issue of this...)
• lvturner 7y ago
  Thank you to everyone in the comments - I noticed I have mild tinnitus in my right ear just on Friday. Have already been to the doctors, but so far just at the "monitor it" stage with more tests to be done in a few weeks if it persists.
• brentis 7y ago
  This has merit. You guys do know this trick too? Place the palms of your hands over your ears so your fingers wrap around the back of your head. Set your middle fingers on the top of your neck right at the base of your skull. Put your index fingers on top of your middle fingers and apply pressure. Now snap them on the back of your head over and over like you’re drumming. Repeat it about 30-50 times. Ideally, when you pull your hands away, you won’t hear any ringing, hissing, or buzzing anymore. When I tried it, there was definitely a huge difference and bizarre inner calm that came over me. I wouldn’t say it’s a miracle trick or anything, but to experience what true quiet is even for a few minutes is amazing.
  • deleted 7y ago
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  • defulmere 7y ago
    I've tried this and while it really does seem effective for a minute or so for me, I'm still not convinced that it's not just an auditory illusion, like the tinnitus is somehow pushed aside by the sensation of the sudden (comparative) silence that starts the instant that you stop drumming on the back of your head.
  • pas 7y ago
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pcPr3266as https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pcPr3266as https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3We5SK-6Ic https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3We5SK-6Ic beating the heavenly drums
• sabujp 7y ago
  If you have slight tinnitus, you can use a white noise generator. What I've found that works really well at work to both keep loud colleagues from interfering and to reduce any high pitched noises I hear is this https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/whiteNoiseGenerator.php?l=99997447473531250000&m=&d=0 https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/whiteNoiseGenerator.php?l=... , you can also try their datacenter one. In another life when I used to have to go to the DC and work directly on servers I found it actually quite relaxing.
• jpindar 7y ago
  My tinnitus doesn't bother me very often, but when it does, this provides the most amazing instant relief. And the relief lasts for some time even after you stop listening to it. https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/neuromodulationTonesGenerator.php https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/neuromodulationTonesGenera... That site also has an extremely wide variety of background noise.
• d-d 7y ago
  Amazing! I'm holding my vibrating iPhone to my head in a certain spot which gets the skull resonating, and it's cutting the tinnitus down by about 70%. This is definitely doing something beyond masking the sound because when the vibration stops there is a few seconds delay before the tinnitus comes back. Pretty exciting stuff! I really hope this leads to a reasonable cure. I'm not sure having a thing vibrating on my head would be any less distracting!
• terrycody 7y ago
  why I feel extremely thrill when I read such a news from any ambitious tech workers in the world, kudos to them!
• rasz 7y ago
  >motion sickness Who will build it into VR gear first?