[HN Gopher] An FDA approved device offers a new treatment for ti...
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       An FDA approved device offers a new treatment for tinnitus
        
       Author : andsoitis
       Score  : 194 points
       Date   : 2024-04-15 14:58 UTC (8 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.npr.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.npr.org)
        
       | incomingpain wrote:
       | cricket sleep music seems to be the common go-to cure.
       | 
       | But an elevated one to check out:
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ke2BopotSIU
        
         | 4ndrewl wrote:
         | There's no common go-to cure sadly. That's the problem.
        
         | WarOnPrivacy wrote:
         | > cricket sleep music seems to be the common go-to cure.
         | 
         | I'll check it out but the video card announces 4.5khz virtues.
         | I'm at 11.5khz.
         | 
         | I've been using a streaming rain channel after I realized that
         | a running tub quiets it down more than anything else.
         | 
         | For a cause, my best theory is 6 years of road road/engine
         | noise from the current car. Most of us have a theory; some of
         | us might even be right.
        
         | hanniabu wrote:
         | Distraction, not cure
        
         | cpeterso wrote:
         | I use pink noise (it's less harsh than the cricket white noise)
         | notched to my tinnitus frequency. There are some studies
         | asserting that notching the noise may reduce your brain's
         | sensitivity to your tinnitus frequency.
         | 
         | https://treblehealth.com/notch-therapy-tinnitus/
         | 
         | https://audionotch.com/
         | 
         | https://www.youtube.com/@tinnitusreliever610/videos
        
       | uptown wrote:
       | Seems basic enough that this device should be available without
       | the whole "go to a Lenire doctor" consultation, but I guess
       | people gotta get paid.
        
         | hooverd wrote:
         | Where's the superior Chinese knockoff version.
        
           | instagib wrote:
           | 9V battery to the tongue?
        
             | jcims wrote:
             | I was thinking the other day that there's a generational
             | gap in this experience.
             | 
             | When I was a kid in the 80's it seems like lots of stuff
             | ran on 9V batteries, now almost nothing does except for
             | smoke detectors and test equipment.
        
             | selimthegrim wrote:
             | They meant not the MSS one.
        
         | repelsteeltje wrote:
         | The "clinical test data" was paid for by the company. There
         | seems to be some placebo bias (no control group). Test patients
         | had to meet "specific criteria" which is probably what this
         | consultation is about as well.
        
       | trimbo wrote:
       | > It includes a plastic mouthpiece with stainless steel
       | electrodes that electrically stimulate the tongue.
       | 
       | All I can picture is the device John Lithgow uses in Buckaroo
       | Banzai.
       | 
       | I might need to try this soon. I've had tinnitus for about 6
       | months after a cold. Last week, the doctor said my hearing is
       | perfect and to just wait it out. It's frustrating.
        
         | dmoy wrote:
         | I've had tinnitus for decades, and my hearing always checked
         | out fine. Idk what the cause was, maybe too much loud band
         | music.
         | 
         | I figure if it's not bad enough to affect my hearing on an
         | audiologist's test, it's fine.
        
         | hooverd wrote:
         | IMO there's not research into it as a brain issue. Especially
         | in medicine where we pretend there's a clean biological
         | separation between provider specialties.
        
           | hanniabu wrote:
           | It seems more likely to be a gut microbiome issue, which
           | would make sense considering it can be caused by antibiotics
           | and people tend to get it as they age which your microbiome
           | health tends to decline as we age too.
        
             | jijijijij wrote:
             | No, it's definitely insufficient faith in our Lord Jesus
             | Christ. Which totally makes sense since sometimes sinners
             | get it, and we're all sinners, aren't we?!
        
               | wizzwizz4 wrote:
               | Job did not have faith in Jesus (Job 9:33), but tinnitus
               | is not among Job's listed afflictions. I'm pretty sure
               | tinnitus is caused by reading too many books: since your
               | theory is wrong, by process of elimination, mine must be
               | right.
        
         | hcarvalhoalves wrote:
         | It's frustrating, I've been through that - hearing is fine, but
         | tinnitus persists.
         | 
         | There's no single recommended treatment studied by medicine so
         | far. I'm not a doctor but I visited multiple doctors and tried
         | many things, and I'm doing better now.
         | 
         | The obvious stuff:
         | 
         | - Stress management.
         | 
         | - Cut caffeine and alcohol. These substances affect blood flow
         | of the inner ear.
         | 
         | - Do you have neck pain? Pain in the neck region affects the
         | inner ear. Seek physiotherapy.
         | 
         | - Do you grind teeth or snore while sleeping? Seek TMJ disorder
         | treatment.
         | 
         | Less obvious stuff:
         | 
         | - Supplement magnesium. Magnesium chelated is best. Most people
         | are lacking it today, it is a muscle relaxant and also had an
         | important effect to regulate blood flow.
         | 
         | - Ginko biloba tea or extract can help on headache and promotes
         | blood flow on the brain as well. Must be consumed in small
         | quantities as it has a strong blood thinner effect, so if you
         | can get standardized capsules is best.
         | 
         | - B6/B12 rich diet or supplementation to help repair damaged
         | nervous cells of the inner ear after infection.
         | 
         | The treatments are a mix of things that help repair the inner
         | ear, promote blood flow and avoid pain signals in the area.
        
           | trimbo wrote:
           | Thanks for the ideas, I'll check them out.
        
           | criddell wrote:
           | Could you share the specific brand/dose for the magnesium and
           | ginko that helped you?
        
         | jordanmorgan10 wrote:
         | Same except for me it was covid. It's likely caused by
         | eustachian disfunction and they've all told me it takes so long
         | to correct itself.
        
           | calf wrote:
           | I may be having this now, E-Tube tinnitus due to seasonal
           | allergies and inflammation, likely worsened by prior
           | earwax/infection/COVID factors.
           | 
           | It's been 3 months of pulsatile tinnitus, this week I am
           | finally waking up in silence some days, but it returns by the
           | afternoon.
        
             | criddell wrote:
             | Can people close to you hear your tinnitus as well?
        
       | diego_sandoval wrote:
       | A similar device is being developed by Dr. Susan Shore. They are
       | currently working towards FDA approval.
       | 
       | Relevant clinical trial:
       | https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle...
       | 
       | Relevant Q&A with Susan Shore: https://www.tinnitushub.com/dr-
       | susan-shore-auricle-questions...
        
         | hooverd wrote:
         | They're also affiliated with Auricle, a YC company.
        
       | hypeatei wrote:
       | Hmm, seems interesting but it's intended to take the "focus" off
       | of the ringing rather than actually fix the underlying cause.
       | 
       | Personally, having tinnitus for so long I don't even notice it
       | anymore; it would be nice to experience complete "silence" again
       | though.
        
         | idontwantthis wrote:
         | It doesn't sound to me like it would help you in that case, if
         | it is just about attention.
         | 
         | I have tinnitus as well and after months of focusing on it
         | trying to "cure" it, I learned to adapt and now it is better
         | and doesn't keep me up at night or interfere with anything.
         | This sounds like a shortcut to the acceptance that patients
         | need to achieve in order to move on. But maybe it would make a
         | real difference to very high intensity patients.
        
         | Ataraxic wrote:
         | I don't understand it that way.
         | 
         | My understanding of the underlying cause of tinnitus iirc, is
         | that it's caused by damage to hair cells in your inner ear. Our
         | brains interpret this damage and loss of signal as a signal;
         | thus, we hear a high-pitched tone even when it is silent.
         | 
         | Training your brain to ignore this seems like treating the
         | underlying cause, which is a misinterpretation of auditory
         | signals or the lack thereof.
         | 
         | I have tinnitus but most times I don't notice it. Go to a loud
         | venue for a while and even with earplugs it noticeably comes
         | back for up to a week or two.
        
           | hooverd wrote:
           | Although, there are also people who are deaf as a doornail
           | and never get it. And you can experience it as a symptom of
           | psychotropics.
        
         | criddell wrote:
         | Are you implying the underlying cause is never a brain
         | malfunction?
         | 
         | I think of it a little like phantom limb pains If you feel pain
         | in a hand or foot that you no longer have, retraining your
         | brain is one way to fix it. Maybe regrowing a foot would be
         | better, but we don't know how to do that.
        
           | TheBigSalad wrote:
           | I'm not doctor or scientist, but I think of it like the
           | nerves in the ear are signaling off constantly. The brain is
           | operating normally by listening to them, but what you really
           | want is for it to adapt and start to ignore the bad signals.
           | The brain can phase them out, but it can never stop receiving
           | the signal, so you still hear it if you consciously focus on
           | it. It sounds like this person is already there but still
           | looking for a real cure, something to stop the signals.
        
         | 39896880 wrote:
         | "Silence" really does belong in quotes. I spent some time in an
         | anechoic chamber (a few hours a day over 6 weeks) and could
         | hear the blood flowing through my ears. It was quite strange
         | and convinced me that true silence doesn't exist unless you're
         | deaf.
        
           | jijijijij wrote:
           | Probably similar to the experience of seeing the blood
           | vessels of your retina when a focused light source moves past
           | your eyes. I think that's something we kinda always "see",
           | but the signal is removed by the brain before reaching
           | consciousness, until lighting quickly changes blood vessels'
           | shadows.
        
           | causality0 wrote:
           | One of the spookiest experiences of my life was activating a
           | pair of noise-canceling headphones in a room that was already
           | quiet and immediately being able to hear my neck vertebrae
           | touching. I snatched them off my head like they were a
           | spider.
        
         | jijijijij wrote:
         | Have you tried this trick of overloading your acoustic nerves
         | temporarily? For both ears, close your ears with your index
         | finger and than tap on the index fingers with your middle
         | fingers - to make a loud pounding sound - a few times. As far
         | as I know, these short peaks are not dangerous to the ear, but
         | safely overload hearing sensitivity. You may gain a few
         | (sometimes critical) moments of silent peace this way.
        
         | fallinghawks wrote:
         | I can make mine go away temporarily (as in a minute or so) by
         | sticking my fingers in my ears and jiggling them around to make
         | a lot of noise for 10 seconds. I suspect it's just the
         | contrast, but it is really nice to have something resembling
         | real silence.
         | 
         | A few years back I got a bad wax buildup in one ear and stopped
         | hearing anything. After they took the wax out, my ear was
         | hypersensitive for a day or so. I heard every little rustle,
         | shifting in my chair, even fabric moving when I moved my arm.
        
           | KomoD wrote:
           | I can also make it go away temporarily (also just a minute or
           | two) with the tapping technique
           | 
           | "Place the palms of your hands over your ears with fingers
           | resting gently on the back of your head. Your middle fingers
           | should point toward one another just above the base of your
           | skull. Place your index fingers on top of your middle fingers
           | and snap them (the index fingers) onto the skull making a
           | loud, drumming noise. Repeat 40-50 times"
        
       | lovegrenoble wrote:
       | Occasionally, I put together my own "Asmr audio mix" with this
       | tool;
       | 
       | it helps me reduce my tinnitus and hyperacusis symptoms:
       | https://asmrion.com
        
       | hwbunny wrote:
       | Maybe try to drink less stimulants... like coffee-tea. When I
       | overdrink these the tinnitus comes.
        
       | jordanmorgan10 wrote:
       | 35 year old male. I developed tinnitus in my left ear only after
       | covid last December. It's been constant since December 21st,
       | 2023.
       | 
       | I have an amazingly huge level of empathy of anyone dealing with
       | this - the first few days were some of the longest of my life.
       | Through it all so far, it's amazing how little we seem to know
       | about tinnitus - TL;DR my doctors have said we don't have any
       | great answers for it.
       | 
       | Thanks for posting the link - I will try any "trick" or treatment
       | for this.
        
         | hanniabu wrote:
         | Same. I also ended up getting dry/itchy inner ear and was given
         | a steroid oil to put in my ear and to my surprise it also helps
         | out my tinnitus for a day or 2 after using it.
        
           | jordanmorgan10 wrote:
           | Would you mind sending me a link to the oil? Or is it
           | prescribed?
        
           | jijijijij wrote:
           | If steroids do help, maybe you could try to address
           | inflammation?
           | 
           | Do you use cotton swabs to clean your ears?
        
         | encoderer wrote:
         | Same here, was 39 when it happened, 41 now.
         | 
         | It was very troubling at first but you adapt.
         | 
         | I no longer doubt anybody suffering from long-covid. I used to
         | be very skeptical, like "chronic fatigue" and "fibromyalgia",
         | but when a cold does permanent damage to your hearing you
         | realize how different COVID really was
        
           | jordanmorgan10 wrote:
           | 100%! Thankfully, I am doing better mentally. I have accepted
           | that I may always have it, and that, honestly, has been the
           | best "cure" so far.
        
           | ksenzee wrote:
           | I hope you've changed your mind about chronic fatigue and
           | fibromyalgia as well. They're also post-viral diseases.
        
         | penneyd wrote:
         | I've always had it somewhat but COVID late last year definitely
         | kicked it up a notch for a while, it did fade back to
         | essentially being unnoticeable after a couple of months though.
         | Hope yours fades too, it's a nuisance for sure.
        
       | grugagag wrote:
       | I have tinnitus only when I think about it. The rest of the time
       | my brain just ignores it.
        
         | PcChip wrote:
         | I feel the same way - I forget I have it until I read about it,
         | then i can hear it again (unless I've had too much salt or
         | caffeine or something)
        
           | jbkkd wrote:
           | same - I noticed it again as I was reading this article
        
             | slekker wrote:
             | We need an adblock filter for tinnitus
        
               | wruza wrote:
               | I think we're fine, this little exposure is probably a
               | part of acceptance.
        
           | neilv wrote:
           | What I was told: salt, caffeine, alcohol, and stress.
           | 
           | (I check sodium on the Nutrition Facts of packaged food (it's
           | usually high), don't touch even decaf, don't touch alcohol,
           | and try to minimize the bad kind of stress that has no
           | constructive solutions.)
        
         | burnte wrote:
         | Yep, I've become excellent at ignoring it, only about 2% of the
         | time does it get bad enough to be bothersome or noticeable. I
         | always comment on these "this will make your tinnitus go away"
         | posts with be careful, you may find it makes the times you
         | can't use the device or product even worse because now you have
         | a taste of real silence!
        
         | bluescrn wrote:
         | Yeah, similar here. The brain seems to do a pretty good job of
         | 'tuning it out' most of the time after a while. But as soon as
         | you start thinking about it, it's there and louder than ever.
        
         | joecot wrote:
         | The #1 cause of me remembering I have tinnitus is seeing
         | articles about tinnitus.
        
           | veyh wrote:
           | And now, you are manually breathing.
        
             | 2cynykyl wrote:
             | Between laughing, then forgetting how to breath, then
             | laughing at that, I nearly passed out. Thanks!
        
             | konstantinua00 wrote:
             | manual blinking
             | 
             | you can't stay in one place for long without moving to a
             | different pose
             | 
             | something on your body itches (your nose?)
             | 
             | manual swallowing
        
           | dandanua wrote:
           | I didn't know I had tinnitus until I read about it.
        
           | digbybk wrote:
           | I mostly notice it only when I meditate. I also notice that
           | my nose hurts.
        
         | closeparen wrote:
         | I have it only if the room is too quiet. Any reasonable level
         | of background white noise makes it go away.
        
           | dkarras wrote:
           | Does everyone not have ringing in their ears when they really
           | pay attention? Or like when they are trying to go to sleep? I
           | always thought everyone had it because I had it since
           | childhood. Still have to this day, same intensity. During the
           | day it does not bother me, nor do I notice it. But if I pay
           | attention, it feels pretty loud.
        
             | throwaway63467 wrote:
             | Apparently 60-80 percent of people can hear a sound like a
             | faint buzzing or hissing when inside a perfectly anechoic
             | chamber but Tinnitus is more noticeable in regularly quiet
             | environments.
        
         | joe_the_user wrote:
         | This comment is as useful as posting to a thread on clinical
         | depression that when you feel down you sing a little song.
        
           | TillE wrote:
           | There's absolutely nothing you can do about tinnitus except
           | adjust to it. You really do just have to relax and accept it,
           | and it essentially fades into the background. That's
           | literally the best treatment available.
        
             | jdminhbg wrote:
             | The entire reason this comment chain exists is that someone
             | has built a better treatment than just adjusting to it.
        
           | wruza wrote:
           | It's really one of the most true things about tinnitus. It
           | takes a while to put your mind in order to accept it, but
           | once you're done, the problem goes away (but tinnitus never
           | does).
        
         | throwaway63467 wrote:
         | Same for me, I think I probably had it since a young age (lots
         | of middle ear infections) but it seemed normal to me so I
         | didn't realize it was unusual until much later in life. I
         | freaked out about it for a few years but realized it was and
         | will always be there and didn't bother me before, so I pretty
         | much went back to it not bothering me anymore.
        
           | bsimpson wrote:
           | I had a mental health crisis when I first realized I had it
           | (triggered by a really bad audio mix at a concert and some
           | rando chastising "you're gonna fuck up your hearing" when I
           | didn't have earplugs). A few months followed of "oh shit, is
           | my life experience permanently broken now?" and all the bad
           | feelings that connotes. I was in a really bad place.
           | 
           | I've always been someone who can hear electronics - when CRTs
           | are popular, I'd know if one was in the upcoming room while I
           | was still in the hallway. At some point, I realized that I
           | heard all sorts of minor sounds just by existing in my
           | apartment, and that tinnitus isn't much different than that.
           | Helped me chill out about the whole scenario.
           | 
           | My mom taught me "lean into the good, and you'll feel more of
           | the good; lean into the bad, and you'll feel more of the
           | bad." That's certainly been my experience with tinnitus.
           | Letting yourself panic and gloom about it is the worst part
           | of having it. If you don't assign valence to it (don't let it
           | be good or bad, just a thing you experience), it loses its
           | power to drive you mad.
        
         | palla89 wrote:
         | Am I the only one that hear tinnitus only when sleeping and if
         | I yawn a LOT I can finally remove it?
        
           | throwaway63467 wrote:
           | Probably jaw related, you should have it checked. Can be a
           | posture problem.
        
         | jozzy-james wrote:
         | that's great for you, i have to sleep with sound - the silence
         | is not deafening, but the hum/etc is when it is silent
        
         | germandiago wrote:
         | Same most of the time. But the first two weeks were hard man...
        
       | hanniabu wrote:
       | Anybody try using a stim machine for tinnitus? I've read that had
       | helped some people. I wonder if it works similar to other areas
       | where it helps promote healing so maybe some of the hair cells
       | recover?
        
         | instagib wrote:
         | I have one that has ear clips I can try.
         | 
         | Idk if I can fashion a tongue clip but maybe one that attaches
         | above the ears for bone conduction hearing also.
         | 
         | There's been some studies into magnetics for neuropathy
         | treatment, migraines, etc. They are called PEMF devices but
         | most are quite expensive ~ $5k.
        
       | nerflad wrote:
       | I still pray for some advancement that can actually repair the
       | cause (damaged hearing) rather than the symptom (tinnitus).
       | 
       | [EDIT]: Ok... The cause in my personal case.
        
         | hanniabu wrote:
         | Many with tinnitus see no decline in hearing
        
         | jijijijij wrote:
         | I don't think it's a single cause disease.
        
       | archsurface wrote:
       | I had an interesting experience a few months ago. I seem to be
       | incorrectly remembering it as percussive tinnitus - all I can
       | find now is pulsatile tinnitus. Whatever it's called, it was a
       | tapping in my ear at about 120 bps, only noticeable when going to
       | sleep. It was possibly caused by a bike fall, very jarring to the
       | body, no head contact, and disappeared after two or three weeks.
        
         | earslap wrote:
         | I had that in one ear for 2-3 years. By pulsatile tinnitus I
         | assume you mean the loud "whooshing" sound that is in sync with
         | your heart beat (hearing the blood flow basically). Doctors
         | were pretty ignorant about the phenomenon, I gave up. It was
         | not constant either, would go away for a few hours, start again
         | for another few hours - repeat. One day, it stopped and never
         | came back. Pretty mysterious.
        
           | calf wrote:
           | I'm having unilateral pulsatile tinnitus, and it's been 3
           | months so far.
           | 
           | My doctor thinks its often just eustachian tube seasonal
           | allergies, and so gets better on its own slowly. The steroid
           | spray I've been using for months just hurts my nose.
           | 
           | It was pretty constant up till this week, now for several
           | mornings I wake up all clear! What relief! But it comes back
           | over the afternoon. I really hope it improves on this
           | trajectory.
        
             | foxbarrington wrote:
             | I hesitate to recommend this because of how woo woo it
             | sounds, but... I had terrible pulsatile tinnitus (both
             | sides) for over a year and half. I went to doctors,
             | specialists, tried steroids, the works. I had to sleep with
             | headphones to drown it out. Eventually my wife suggested I
             | try craniosacral therapy. After the first session it
             | started to get a lot quieter and even would "stutter" out
             | for short periods of time. After the second session it
             | disappeared and hasn't been back. The practitioner came
             | from https://milneinstitute.com/what-is-vcsw/
        
           | archsurface wrote:
           | It wasn't whooshing or heart sync'd. I'm not sure it was
           | pulsatile, I'll have to search again. It was like a 120 bpm
           | metronome - tap, tap, tap, tap, ...
        
       | j45 wrote:
       | Fascinating.
       | 
       | There is also a form of tinnitus that is made worse by neck
       | muscles, be it from an injury, TBI, etc. Massage can reduce this
       | kind of tinnitus.
       | 
       | There are also audio files that can help you find the frequency
       | of and reduce the tinnitus you are hearing.
        
       | palla89 wrote:
       | Am I the only one that hear tinnitus only when sleeping and if I
       | yawn a LOT I can finally remove it? I can't understand why it's
       | happening and fortunately it doesn't happen always
        
         | lbourdages wrote:
         | My tinnitus is worse when I am congested (because I guess there
         | is more pressure in the internal ear or something). Yawning can
         | help relieving the pressure.
        
       | instagib wrote:
       | I have had several audiologists begin their speech of "as you may
       | know tinnitus is from damage to the ear due to loud ... ", well
       | mine is from Covid.
       | 
       | I read about a study a few years ago that focused on shocking the
       | tongue and its nice someone followed up on it. They described one
       | year of relief post treatment.
       | 
       | https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/10/201015173126.h...
       | 
       | Bimodal neuromodulation combining sound and tongue stimulation
       | reduces tinnitus symptoms in a large randomized clinical study.
       | Science Translational Medicine, 2020; 12 (564): eabb2830 DOI:
       | 10.1126/scitranslmed.abb2830
       | 
       | Mine is constant and loud. If people speak and pause it gets
       | difficult to orient where we're at with the fire alarm sound
       | going on in the middle of speech. Soft spoken people I have to
       | fill in the conversation with guesses to what they said.
       | 
       | Hearing aids help but you're not supposed to sleep with them in.
       | So when you manage to fall asleep then wake up, it can be hard to
       | fall asleep again or impossible.
        
         | stuaxo wrote:
         | I had it already, Covid made it much worse.
         | 
         | NHS tinnitus awareness course had a bit about accepting it as
         | background noise (vs just concentrating on it and being
         | annoyed), I rubbished that at first but it helped quite a bit
         | in the end.
         | 
         | That was before Covid after that it's got much louder, it comes
         | back whenever I think about it, so seeing the article brought
         | it back, hopefully I can make it go again.
        
         | stevesimmons wrote:
         | Mine started after Covid too. The audiologist did some tests
         | and found I have one ear having a section of frequencies with
         | poor response.
         | 
         | His hypothesis is vascular damage due to Covid restricted blood
         | supply to the hairs in that one part of the ear canal. The
         | brain fills in the discontinuity from the resulting "notch
         | filter" audio response (in Electrical Engineering terminology),
         | and that hallucinated sound is the tinnitus.
        
         | JohnFen wrote:
         | Hearing damage is the most common cause, but it's far from the
         | only one. It can also be caused by other sorts of physical
         | damage (TMJ, blood pressure, etc.), certain drugs, and some
         | diseases.
         | 
         | > diabetes, thyroid problems, migraines, anemia, and autoimmune
         | disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus have all been
         | associated with tinnitus
         | 
         | https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/tinnitus/symp...
         | 
         | I don't find it the least bit surprising that Covid could also
         | cause it.
        
         | fierro wrote:
         | anecdote for anyone else reading about Covid related tinnitus -
         | I've had hearing damage related tinnitus for a decade. Got
         | Covid in April '22 which caused my existing tinnitus to 2-3x in
         | severity, lasting a couple months before it either reverted to
         | baseline or I got used to the new normal. Very scary
         | experience. The CEO of Texas Roadhouse famously committed
         | suicide due in part to severe post-Covid tinnitus.
         | 
         | For anyone struggling to cope with Tinnitus out there, one
         | thing that has helped me immensely is Zen meditation. Doesn't
         | make it go away, but builds up a control over attention with
         | which you can cope much better.
        
         | gagabity wrote:
         | I also had it before but the 3rd vaccine shot amplified it
         | maybe 3-5x for a few months, it was like a siren when trying to
         | sleep, thank god it back to its normal level which I forget
         | about most of the time.
        
       | Ancalagon wrote:
       | A tongue vibrator with a pair of headphones is $4,000? And
       | insurance doesn't cover it...
        
         | criddell wrote:
         | If I knew it would work, that would be the easiest $4k I've
         | ever spent.
        
           | mmh0000 wrote:
           | I'm in the same boat. If I had any assurances that it would
           | work, I'd spend the $4K in a heartbeat. But, I'm really
           | skeptical it would work, and I'm not ready to part with $4K
           | on a promise and private "studies".
        
       | oblib wrote:
       | I've been taking magnesium ("Calm" brand), zinc, potassium, and
       | D, at night after dinner and just before I go to bed and that's
       | really helped quiet down the tinnitus for me. For me, it's stress
       | that triggers it and it can get vicious loud.
        
         | abdela wrote:
         | Do you know what caused your tinnitus?
        
       | tithe wrote:
       | I've had a mental visualization I've used to control tinnitus
       | flares for about 20 years now - i.e., "biofeedback".
       | 
       | I image the entire soundscape (what I'm possible of hearing) as a
       | long, thin line which is warbling a bit, as I'm hearing things
       | right now -- like the line in an oscilloscope. The present
       | tinnitus represents itself as a sharp spike in this
       | visualization, the location dependent upon its texture (sharp
       | pings, or a low muffled warble).
       | 
       | I then imagine a giant hand (my hand) on top of that spike,
       | pushing it down, slowly, and as I push it down, the tinnitus
       | subsides (since I know what that subsiding sensation feels like).
       | Sometimes I have to do this pushing motion a few times before the
       | spike slowly attenuates by itself and it joins the surrounding
       | levels.
       | 
       | The entire process takes about 30 seconds, and doesn't work every
       | time. If after a few attempts it fails, I abandon the
       | visualization exercise (lest my brain somehow learns the pushing
       | motion to be ineffective).
       | 
       | It's not entirely clear to me how / why this works: mapping a
       | physical phenomenon onto an abstract mental visualization /
       | picture, and then manipulating that mental picture and thus the
       | physical phenomenon.
       | 
       | I'm also very musical, so these sorts of visualizations tend to
       | come very naturally to me.
        
         | pmx wrote:
         | Holy crap this works! I've the loud high-pitched type all
         | evening and i've just used your method to reduce its volume
         | significantly! Thank you!
        
           | tithe wrote:
           | It gives me goosebumps that this method works with others. I
           | thought it to be very idiosyncratic...but it seems not?
           | Either way, I'm glad it could help!
        
             | toast0 wrote:
             | Our brains are very weird, but there's a lot of common
             | weirdness. There's a pretty wide range of common 'weird
             | dreams', for example driving from the backseat, mandatory
             | test or you'll be ungraduated from high school where you
             | haven't been in 10+ years, various flying/falling, the
             | tetris effect, etc.
        
           | edm0nd wrote:
           | You can also try this trick which works for me
           | 
           | You place the palms of your hands on the sides of your head
           | or over your ears and then drum/tap your fingers on the back
           | of your head. After about 10-15 seconds, it will stop the
           | ringing.
        
             | zoklet-enjoyer wrote:
             | I showed this trick to a guy at work and it was really
             | funny and cool seeing how shocked he was that it worked
        
             | nurettin wrote:
             | Nice move! This reduced the high pitched noise, but I still
             | sense a general overall ambient signal ready to increase.
        
             | ilikeitdark wrote:
             | Holy crap, just tried it and it worked! Thank you! Mine has
             | started to get bad the last year, and especially at night.
             | Driving me CRAZY!
        
         | mtalantikite wrote:
         | Oh this sounds really interesting, thanks!
         | 
         | Sometimes during my daily meditation practice I use my tinnitus
         | as an object of awareness, like you would with your breath,
         | which, coincidentally, I did this morning. There's so many more
         | frequencies and changes going on when you meditate with it,
         | including tones that definitely only arise when you're
         | practicing with it. I find it helps and I'm definitely going to
         | try it with your visualization.
        
         | monknomo wrote:
         | I don't have tinnitus, but I do have this thing where when I'm
         | falling asleep, my eyes (despite being closed and in a dark
         | room) will start to feel like they are looking at a brighter
         | and brighter light. This is very irritating for me.
         | 
         | For that I usually open them really briefly and imagine some
         | kind of equilizer level-set thing happening and that makes it
         | dark behind my eyes again. I wonder if there is a way to do it
         | without opening them
         | 
         | These feedback things are interesting, thank you for sharing
        
           | mtalantikite wrote:
           | This is actually an experience that people that engage in the
           | tantric practices in Vajrayana Buddhism -- of which Tibetan
           | Buddhism belongs to -- cultivate. I've encountered the
           | instructions as part of the dream yoga practices, to
           | cultivate it so that you actually watch yourself fall asleep
           | and enter the dream state completely lucidly. I've only ever
           | been able to "catch" the dream and become lucid when already
           | in the dream. Maybe you're way ahead of the rest of us!
           | [1][2]
           | 
           | [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illusory_body
           | 
           | [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dream_yoga
        
             | wholinator2 wrote:
             | I was able to do it once with the simple exercise of barely
             | typing my name on an invisible keyboard while keeping the
             | rest of my body completely still, only moving the tips of
             | my fingers maybe a centimeter or two. Something about that
             | repeated motion allowed me to keep some subset conscious as
             | the whole transitioned into sleep. It was a very spooky
             | transition! I descended until I felt a cold hand on my
             | shoulder and whispers all around me, crescendoing to me
             | opening my eyes to the lake in the neighborhood i grew up
             | in. The fidelity of the simulation was very high as well,
             | certainly beat my ability to distinguish! Eventually, as i
             | was flying down the street a giant sand worm emerged from a
             | darkness and closed in on me until i woke up. I could
             | control some things but it felt like the dream telling me
             | it'd had enough.
        
               | mtalantikite wrote:
               | That's awesome, thanks for sharing that. I've gotten to
               | the point of hearing dream sounds like you described
               | while falling through the sleep stages, but it startled
               | me enough to wake me up! I'll give the slight movement
               | thing a try -- which actually reminded me of how Tesla
               | claimed to curl his toes 100 times per foot before going
               | to sleep [1].
               | 
               | [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla#Work_and_d
               | ining_h...
        
           | toast0 wrote:
           | > I don't have tinnitus, but I do have this thing where when
           | I'm falling asleep, my eyes (despite being closed and in a
           | dark room) will start to feel like they are looking at a
           | brighter and brighter light. This is very irritating for me.
           | 
           | Me too, just started happening recently too. Brains are
           | weird.
        
           | kalkr wrote:
           | You may be experiencing this?
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnagogia
           | 
           | I have read a few anecdotal experiences of people allowing
           | these kinds of hallucinations to continue and they have
           | reported that they can become quite vivid and even
           | interactive. Maybe try waving your arms around when this
           | happens to see if it goes away? That should indicate if it's
           | sleep-related or not.
        
         | disantlor wrote:
         | I do the same thing though I have a different mental analogy,
         | but it works!
        
           | tithe wrote:
           | Could you share the visualization that you use?
        
         | jakeway wrote:
         | Interesting, I've done something similar for headaches. I
         | imagine the pain as a sort of toy in a claw machine and then
         | try to extract the pain with the claw. Like you said it doesn't
         | always work but surprised it has ever worked.
        
           | krackers wrote:
           | From this perspective, techniques such as Reiki are not that
           | surprising, they may be methods of more effectively
           | exploiting this mind-body connection: all of these techniques
           | usually have in common some sort of visualization, and
           | learning to associate certain colors/signs/symbols with
           | desired effects. (Although the fact that it seems to have
           | effects even when the practitioner differs from the recipient
           | means there's probably more to it than just that.)
        
         | JohnFen wrote:
         | I've done something similar to this to control my hay fever
         | since I was a kid.
        
         | szundi wrote:
         | Ladies and gentlemen, it works
        
         | raincom wrote:
         | In a way, this is similar to many meditative techniques.
        
       | joshspankit wrote:
       | I accidentally did something similar, but there's a significant
       | cost.
       | 
       | Got tinnitus at 15 and over time my brain filtered out the sound.
       | Unfortunately one of the tones was in the upper vocal range so I
       | then developed trouble understanding people with higher-pitched
       | voices as some syllables would be entirely filtered out.
       | 
       | Second is that I stopped paying attention to sounds that
       | aggravated it. This caused me to gather more damage and I ended
       | up getting additional frequencies that my brain wasn't filtering
       | out.
        
         | criddell wrote:
         | Have you tried hearing aids? I went to an audiologist a week
         | ago and found that I have mild hearing loss in higher
         | frequencies and as a result certain letter combinations are
         | hard for me to hear. She told me hearing aids might help. I get
         | a 30 day free trial, so the only thing I have to lose is the
         | time to get them and get them dialed in.
         | 
         | The audiologist also gave me a copy of the audiogram. In the
         | health app I used the camera to scan it and it adjusted the
         | frequency output on my ear buds to compensate for some of my
         | hearing loss.
        
         | technofiend wrote:
         | That's the real problem with hearing loss: if you compensate by
         | raising volume across the entire spectrum of sound to
         | compensate for a few frequencies, you slowly make yourself more
         | and more deaf.
         | 
         | And I suffer from a notch in my hearing where speech is
         | generally found, so I hear clinking glasses and shuffling
         | chairs far easier than people. It's aggravating for everyone
         | involved. If you're lucky enough to afford hearing aids, you'll
         | soon discover hearing aid companies know the best fidelity
         | comes from high discretion and narrow band amplification. And
         | they're pricing hearing aids accordingly: the more and narrower
         | the bands, the higher the price. Also aggravating.
        
       | ourmandave wrote:
       | I'll get to enjoy real sound of the coming Cicada-pocalypse,
       | instead of these fake crickets.
        
       | KomoD wrote:
       | > Banks paid about $4,000 for the Lenire device
       | 
       | Hahaha, yeah alright...
        
       | joewrong wrote:
       | I wonder if you could have similar results from licking a 9v
       | battery
        
         | WalterSear wrote:
         | It's the sounds and the noise together.
         | 
         | I wager that, given the details of the patent and any published
         | literature, it's likely it would be possible to replicate the
         | effects cheaply.
        
       | bradley13 wrote:
       | My case is classic: hearing damage at one particular frequency
       | (from _one_ stupid event). Apparently, the neurons got bored, and
       | decided to create their own input at that frequency.
       | 
       | As others gave said, you get used to it and rarely notice it. I
       | suppose that is more difficult if it's not just constant noise.
        
         | dtgriscom wrote:
         | Ah, how we'd all benefit from a life rewind button...
        
       | DoreenMichele wrote:
       | For anyone suffering tinnitis: In alternative remedy circles I
       | once ran in, some people reported relief from improving their
       | magnesium status.
        
       | germandiago wrote:
       | I have tinnitus since last january. It came. It does not go away.
       | Learnt to deal with it. It os quite bothersome. I did nothing
       | except going to the doctor. He told me there is no solution and
       | checking my audition in the next 6 months to 2 years.
       | 
       | I did not do anything about it except taking some medication for
       | one month. If anyone has tips and tricks for it I will keep them
       | with me. It always helps. :)
        
       | causality0 wrote:
       | Four thousand dollars for a device with a bill of materials
       | that's probably less than $20. Disgusting. Open source version
       | when?
        
       | ramoz wrote:
       | My anecdote:
       | 
       | I assume I have fairly severe tinnitus at this point. It was in
       | part exposure to loud noises over the years (military), but I
       | think chemotherapy really did me in the past year as tinnitus has
       | become more bothersome than ever; caveat I tend to register and
       | take interest in anything physical after cancer.
       | 
       | Its a constant beaming sound - I hear it right now. I can go most
       | of the day distracting away from it, but there is no great aid or
       | distraction when trying to go to sleep.
       | 
       | The closest solution has been trying to cancel it out with mobile
       | apps that allow to you build custom frequencies (white noise
       | generators) but they aren't perfect its not something I really
       | have been able to become accustomed to using.
        
       | moshegramovsky wrote:
       | I have tinnitus and count myself as extremely lucky that it
       | doesn't bother me. My hearing is very poor and that does bother
       | me, but there isn't any apparent fix other than a hearing aid.
       | I'm only 49! By the time I am 70, I'll almost certainly be deaf
       | except for the tinnitus.
        
       | greenavocado wrote:
       | I have had some low frequency tinnitus clusters over the years
       | permanently go away after losing 50 pounds
        
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