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Ask HN: Trouble With Tinnitus?
Hey All,
I've suffered from tinnitus in my right ear for about 4 years now.
I've been fortunate in that it's a mild case--mostly unnoticeable during the workday, but it's definitely had a deleterious effect on my life.
I'm constantly worried about begin stuck in loud situations that could worsen the tinnitus, which has had an effect on my social life, since many bars are loud places.
Does anybody else here have a similar problem? Have you found a way to cope with it?
- mindcrime 14y agoI've had issues with tinnitus, yes. Mine kinda comes and goes, and I've largely learned to just ignore it. But I did some reading a while back that suggests that Melatonin may help. I sometimes use melatonin to help me fall asleep anyway, so it's hard for me to really isolate things and say if it helps my tinnitus or not. But you may find this interesting: http://brainposts.blogspot.com/2011/09/melatonin-for-tinnitus-clinical-trial.html http://brainposts.blogspot.com/2011/09/melatonin-for-tinnitu...
- logn 14y agoI've read somewhere that playing high frequencies (at a reasonable volume) which resonate with the tinnitus frequency can re-align the misfiring of the eardrum hairs causing the problem. Worth a shot. An app I made where you can generate a sine wave and set the frequency: http://sourceforge.net/projects/originalsynth/ http://sourceforge.net/projects/originalsynth/ If it's any consolation, almost all professional musicians and myself included suffer from this.
- vnbn 14y agoAre you still able to go to converts? If so, do the loud noises bother you, or are you able to use earplugs or anything else to cope with the sound?
- logn 14y agoI still go to concerts occasionally. The loud noise does not bother me. However, in the short term it can exacerbate the tinnitus. And it the long term concert-level noise is known to cause hearing loss (and maybe worsen tinnitus). Good venues usually play the volume at a safe and enjoyable level.
- rlf 14y agoFinally, something that I'm an expert in. I've had Tinnitus in one of my ears for about 12 years. When it started out, it was at a very high frequency but as time has passed the frequency has gotten lower and the sound louder which leads me to believe that it's getting worse. The only way I've found to cope with Tinnitus is to try not to think about it. At night, I've found that it helps to have a sound machine or fan running to help mask the sound. As for Melatonin, I've taken it off and on for about a decade and have never found that it's reduced my Tinnitus. I'm hoping that medical researchers will begin working harder to find some way to alleviate or even cure the condition since so many veterans are coming home with Tinnitus. There are a few so-call treatments such as Tinnitus Retraining Therapy and Neuromonics but I'm skeptical about their effectiveness since they don't seem to have any scientific studies to back back them up. There is a new device at TinnitusHearing.com that claims to mask the sound. To me, this at least seems plausible since all sounds are just sound waves. I would think we could create a device that is tuned to have a frequency that's inverse to your Tinnitus's frequency that would help mask it. I could see this being very helpful at night when you're trying to sleep. Hope this helps, and good luck!
- ahoyhere 14y agoDo you take a lot of aspirin or something that's aspirin-like, like Pepto Bismol? That's what caused tinnitus for me. When I quit the Pepto, it slowly disappeared over a few months.