Tinnitus of the ears

[Jazz+]

I have tinnitus. Has anyone found anything that helps reduce the ringing sound in the ears?

 

"Tinnitus is a sensation of noise (as a ringing or roaring) that is caused by a bodily condition (as a disturbance of the auditory nerve) and can usually be heard only by the one affected."

[ITGITC]

Jazz+, welcome to the club.

 

There's nothing you can do to stop it.

 

To reduce the volume, don't drink too much alcohol, limit your salt intake, and get plenty of rest. Other things set it off, too. However, those are the ones that seem to do it for me.

 

Obviously, try to stay away from those types who play loud cymbals or enjoy testing the limits of their 10" speakers' voice coils with odd-order harmonics.

 

If you are truly into jazz, try playing with some guys who understand and appreciate the concept of dynamics.

 

Finally, if you do yard work, always wear ear protection. And if you have a Mother-in-Law... oh, never mind.

 

Is There Gas In The Car?

[David Loving]

I found that a hearing aid helps - do you have hearing loss, too? You might get tested if you do not know. Hey, I just noticed that thinking about it makes it worse - or at least more noticeable. Welcome to the club!

[uffesa]

Check out the site www.tinnitus.org.

Some good information there.

Got my tinnitus due to autoimmune disease.

Get plenty of rest and check out your enviroment.

Stressful situations tend to worsen it.

Be cool.

Ulf

[Sven Golly]

For those of you who get an error following the link above, and don't know why, it's because of the trailing period. You can either take it out, or follow this link to the same page .

 

Cheers,

SG

(who can never seem to take off the web guy hat )

[Ben One]

I know of a novel experimental therapy for high-frequency tinnitus that I mentioned in one of my previous posts:

http://www.musicplayer.com//ultimatebb.php?/ubb/get_topic/f/18/t/013808/p/1.html#000005

 

But there are probably more practical tips out there.

 

Good luck!

 

Ben

[Dave Horne]

Tinnitus in the ears as opposed to tinnitus in your ... toes?

 

I've had it for 11 or 12 years. I've done a fair amount of research (back then) and learned there is really nothing you can do except to mask the noise (and I find that a bullshit solution). Do not spend money for a clinic that will retrain your ears - it's all nonsense.

 

I have it almost constantly but on rare days (like today) it seems to be gone. I've also tried going 30 days without chocolate, caffeine and booze - difficult and didn't accomplish anything but to lower my food and alcohol bill for that month.

 

You are not alone and my only advice is to try and ignore it and not make it the focal point of your existence. I wear ear plugs on most jobs and wear noise reduction headphones when flying, taking the train and also on very long trips with our diesel car. (Diesel's are a bit noisier when traveling at 80 mph \ 130 kph.)

 

I keep hoping they will find a cure for something else and the side effect of that drug will be the elimination of that high pitched noise that seems to be coming from my left ear. Welcome to the club ... and hit a drummer 'cross the side of his head for contributing to this annoying problem.

[Ricochet]

I too am skeptical of the "retraining." I think the best you can do is masking with low level background noise. Far better is prevention by avoiding loud noise exposure. That's a critical issue for musicians.

[ITGITC]

Originally posted by Ricochet:

Far better is prevention by avoiding loud noise exposure. That's a critical issue for musicians.

Yes, but often this just can't be helped.

 

Dave Horne says he wears protection during gigs and on airplane flights and rides in his diesel car. All well and good.

 

However, there is so much noise pollution all around us that it is awfully hard to protect oneself from it 100% of the time.

 

My point is that many people I know who are a certain age have tinnitus simply from exposure to everyday life.

 

I don't think hearing aids will help. If anything, they will simply make loud, annoying sounds louder and more annoying.

 

All one can do is to learn to live with it, try to keep stress to a minimum, and protect the hearing that you've got left.

 

Getting old(er) has it's rewards. Someone please tell me what they are!

[RABid]

Originally posted by Is There Gas in the Car?:

.... Getting old(er) has it's rewards. Someone please tell me what they are!

You have more money to buy gear. And .... ummmm ... you may eventually get grandchildren ... which takes away the money you had to buy gear.

 

I find it most aggrovating when I try to sleep on a restless night. Like Dave said, nothing seems to work and be warned of all the people that want to sell you something to make it better.

 

Robert

[ksoper]

I'm slowly learning to live with mine.

 

While exposure to years of loud music has probably caused the tinnitus, I find that an inflamed TMJ as well as allergy-related fluid in the ears exacerbates it.

 

These days I can always tell I'm getting a cold or allergy attack from the increased volume of the ring. Antihistimines help. Anti-inflammatories help the TMJ if you can find one that the government hasn't deemed lethal.

 

And some days I never hear it at all. Most days I'm not aware of it. But it never goes away. Damn it to hell.

 

k.

[Michelle ggurl]

Wow, that sucks. Does anyone know the average age for onset of tinnitus among musicians? When did you all first notice it (except Dave, as he already said when and based on what I remember, that means it hit you in your early 40s, right)?

 

Were there any warning symptoms, or did you just wake up one day and the ringing from the night before just didn't go away?

 

I try to avoid exposure to loudness without earplugs and don't get that temporary ear-ringing very often as a result (can't even remember the last time) ... but I'm still exposed to everyday background noise and wonder about the risk ...

[RABid]

I think I started to notice mine around the age of 35. In my case I just assume the cause is music. I played drums for years, then stood on stage between the base amp and drum set while playing keys for years.

 

This morning it did not bother me but after lunch I noticed my ears ringing again. Sometimes it is loud, sometimes it almost fades away. It is always the same high piched distorted note.

[captainmri]

if your tinnitus persists or worsens inexplicably, you might want to see your family dr. there is a type of tumor that can form in the internal auditory canal of your ear that is benign called an acoustic neoroma. it can cause vertigo, nausea, hearing loss and occasionally tinnitus. nothing to panic about, but many folks have them. good luck.

 

chp

[Dave Horne]

I remember I was sitting in front of my Gateway computer (486SX) and I started hearing a high frequency noise. I assumed it was coming from the monitor or the tower. I went upstairs to go to the bathroom and the noise followed me. It was at that point I knew something was wrong.

 

I was 44 I believe

[Jazz+]

I had the same experience, I thought I was hearing a high frequency from the computer in my room. But then I started noticing it all the time even when the machine was turned off. I wonder what high pitch I am hearing and how it effects my perception of music.

[JeffLearman]

I first noticed my tinnitus while learning to mix at the age of 22 or so. It doesn't seem to have gotten worse -- the only difference is now those tones are up in frequencies I can hardly hear any more anyway!

 

The best thing you can do to make it go away is learn to love it. I'm serious. Our brains are good at filtering out meaningless, constant input. The only time our subconscious minds generally forward that kind of info to our conscious minds is when it's meaningful for some reason -- most notably, as a threat, or something that causes stress.

 

These days, I only notice it when I'm thinking about it, and sometimes when I'm mixing or auditioning and trying carefully to hear clearly (which I think is a contradiction in terms -- kind of a zen catch 22).

 

BTW, what I've said above is entirely consistent with info at "http://www.tinnitus.org", which is a very helpful site.

 

I haven't checked out Ben's pointer yet, but it's on my list.

[Phait]

I have a constant very high ring in my ears that I can only really hear when everything else is silent or very quiet.

 

I attribute it to years of headphone use, from music to games. But I still use headphones for games, I don't want to annoy/disturb anyone.

[AcousticTones]

Originally posted by geekgurl:

Wow, that sucks. Does anyone know the average age for onset of tinnitus among musicians? When did you all first notice it (except Dave, as he already said when and based on what I remember, that means it hit you in your early 40s, right)?

I'm @ 34 years old, and I've had ever since either my later junior high or early senior high school years.

 

So there really is not set time. Some of us are just more prone to it. I've had mine more than half my life, and although it's a pain in the arss, it's just something that I learned to deal with and I've gotten pretty good at just blocking it out (and that's really saying something, 'cause sometimes it gets mightly loud...so loud that I have to ask my wife to make sure that it really is in MY head, and make sure that she's not hearing it as well...Some times it just amazes me that no one else around me can here...it's a very strange feeling sometimes).

[Analogaddict]

I´ve had tinnitus on both ears since I was 20, different frequencies in both ears. All the above tips are good, IMO it´s all about learning to ignore it. It´s not easy, but I think it´s the only way... Damn it to hell by ignoring it! :-)

[Phait]

So admit, how many of us use Q-Tips for ear cleaning?

[MikeT156]

Quote by "Is there gas in the car"

---------------------------------------------

Finally, if you do yard work, always wear ear protection. And if you have a Mother-in-Law... oh, never mind.

---------------------------------------------

 

That's a biggy. Lawn mowers and other motorized devices that produce high decibel noise that you're exposed to for a long period of time damage your hearing, period.

 

Sound we are exposed too over a long period of time shouldn't be any louder than conversation level. In today's world, that's tough. Noise everyhwere. When I was younger and not having any hearing problems yet, I ran a lawn mower every week with no hearing protection. When I was in the military they gave us ear plugs to use on the rifle range that were just about useless. Then add a lifetime of playing music, my hearing is damaged. I carry ear plugs in my car and usually have a pair of plugs in most jackets I wear, and now I always wear hearing protection when working in the yard. I've learned to play music a lot softer than I use to, and I "rest" my ears when I am playing music by taking a break. I can't do anything about the damage that has already been done, but I sure can prevent more.

 

 

Mike T.

[Immo]

All this thread has done for me is got me thinking, "Oh yeah I've got ringing in my ears too. I almost forgot....wait! Doh!!!"

[Andre Lower]

Well, part of my questions have already been asked by Geekgurl (and duly answered), but let me ask something specific: Besides the obvious continued exposure to high decibels (and perhaps some individual, biologic predisposition), is there anything else I should consider in order to do my best to keep myself out of this astonishingly long list of fellow KB players that suffer from tinnitus? I am 38, never had it and hope to avoid it.

[JeffLearman]

Yeah, Immo -- lately, I only notice my tinnitus when reading this thread!

 

Andre, first: don't listen for it and try to find it. Chances are, you have it and don't even know it! Second: no, just the obvious -- protect your ears carefully. And you want to do that to avoid other kinds of hearing loss as well.

 

If you don't have one, consider getting an SPL meter so you can see what you're being exposed to. Only $35 at Radio Shack for their cheapest analog one (which I prefer to the slightly more expensive digital one). You can also use this as a calibration mike, BTW.

[Dave Pierce]

Originally posted by Sven Golly:

For those of you who get an error following the link above, and don't know why, it's because of the trailing period. You can either take it out, or follow this link to the same page .

 

Cheers,

SG

(who can never seem to take off the web guy hat )

That's weird. I haven't read the RFC in a long time, and I'm too lazy to do it right now -- but the . at the end is actually implied, and simply means "top level". So it should work, I would think. Is that the browser not complying with standards? Or me not understanding standards?

 

I mean, you certainly DO include the period in a zone file.

 

--Dave

[Dave Pierce]

OK, back to the topic.

 

I don't have tinnitus, but I have some fairly measurable hearing loss. I keep saying I'm going to get professionally fitted earplugs Real Soon Now , but I haven't done so yet.

 

When I was in the Sunday Night Jam house band at JJ's, I always sat back line, stage right. So, yeah, the drummer's ride cymbal was like 6 inches from my left ear. Believe me, that gets old fast.

 

The house band went through drummers like Spinal Tap, and I often surprised the new ones. After being Mr. Mellow Guy all night, suddenly in the last set, when the dynamics of a solo built up, my face would contort and turn red, I'd shout a few obscenities, followed by "high hat! High Hat! HIGH HAT!!!" A few seconds later I'd take a deep breath and say, "Sorry. But stay off the ride now, OK?"

 

--Dave

[MikeT156]

Quote by learjeff:

--------------------------------------------

If you don't have one, consider getting an SPL meter so you can see what you're being exposed to. Only $35 at Radio Shack for their cheapest analog one (which I prefer to the slightly more expensive digital one). You can also use this as a calibration mike, BTW.

--------------------------------------------

Actualy I had one of those some years ago. What surprised me is how quickly the db level go to potentially damaging levels. A basic observation I made was that anything over a normal conversation level for a prolonged period of time is potentially damaging.

 

Note to Andre:

 

Something else to be concerned about are ear infections. You want to treat them as quickly as possilbe. I had a few dandies some years ago and they've made some contribution to my hearing loss. Tinnitus is annoying, hearing loss is scary.

 

Mike T.

[ELP71]

Huh?

[mike g]

I seen an Audiologist (ear doctor) They did say getting an hearing aid will help decrease the Tinnitus. Tinnitus as they explained to me is your ears nerve endings that are damaged, trying to work. there trying to hear the tones and volumes normally but can't because the nerve cells are permently damaged...they don't grow back. With a hearing aid your brain will register the tones and those nerve endings won't "fire all the time"

 

Make sense to me...as i type this I really hear the ringing bad. I have hearing lose in the right ear certain vowel sounds D's, E's ch's Va's sounds at certain volumes are like mud to me. I lip read alot in conversation with people and in a loud room is impossiable for me to hear the other person talk...muddy mud mud. (think the teacher in Charlie Brown)

 

I wear "musician ear plugs" when i'm gigging or out where I think it will be loud. the plugs are special molding to my ear with a noise filter. it's like turning the volume turned down, with out losing High or low end frequences. I have to get them remolded because they loosen over time.

 

Go to an ear specialist to inquire about an hearing aid and the plugs.

 

Hope it helps.