Tinnitus Help - Stop the Ringing in Your Ears

A  BBC article  from way back in 2008 confirmed that research for a tinnitus cure is ongoing throughout the world. One British audiologist believes a noise-suppressive drug with no side effects will be found within 20 years.  A neurologist in Germany, who believes tinnitus sufferers have overactive hearing cells , is trying to normalize them by creating a magnetic field over the patient's head. The magnetic stimulation reduces neural activity and diminishes unwanted sound. Does it work?  "Only one patient so far has been completely cured but many have found the volume of their tinnitus reduced ." In Belgium, 30 patients have had electrodes implanted into their brains to permanently normalize overactive neurons, with some successful results.  For example, one woman, who had a permanent 80Db ringing in her head and felt suicidal, was the first tinnitus sufferer to have the operation. The outcome?  "The first night I fell asleep. I woke up and didn't hear a...

When the noise travels with you , inside your head, you have tinnitus.  If, on the other hand, you can literally run away from the noise , then you may be actually hearing something that's in your environment (older model wind turbines can create a hum, for instance).  Some people have very sensitive hearing and really suffer from hearing noise that nobody else hears. Check out this article about a British woman plagued by a 'hum' that no one else heard. The article details her story and goes on to report that it's "estimated that between 20 and 30per cent of the population suffer from some sort of noise sensitivity and at least 10,000 people hear The Hum."  What's problematic about hearing a noise that doesn't come from inside your head is that only "about a third of cases the specific cause of the noise can be identified." Don't forget to read the comments at the end of the article -- they're interesting and might well be helpful....

Over a decade ago, doctors at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit were saying they can pinpoint the area of the brain that is activated by tinnitus .  By using a special scanner to examine the brain, they hope it will allow more targeted therapies to be developed -- which might include implanting microchips to interfere with tinnitus signals sent out by the brain itself.  Imaging systems currently used to study tinnitus are simply not as sophisticated as the one being used in this study, and can only provide general information.  The research doctor compared the accuracy of the imaging as being "... like having the lights on in only the city of Detroit, compared to having the lights on in the entire state of Michigan." Although not a sure-fire cure, a UK doctor (where 2.3 million people suffer from moderate or severe tinnitus) says " this work could potentially solve a further piece of the tinnitus puzzle ."  Read the full article BBC News . Try Quietum Plus

TRT ( tinnitus retraining therapy ) combines retraining (perception modification) and sound enrichment (masking) in an attempt to achieve two goals: To stop a sufferer's negative reaction to the ringing in their ears. To lower and hopefully end the sufferer's perception of the noise. It is within TRT that the current school of thought that there's no cure for tinnitus is questioned. Advocates say that when a tinnitus sufferer is retrained successfully, it means that the person's awareness of the sounds in their ears is back to the level it was before the noise became a problem.  This is again going back to the idea that everyone has tinnitus ; the problem of the condition only crops up when a person (1) perceives the noise; and (2) the perception of that noise negatively impacts that person's life.  Unfortunately, these ideas in no way help those many tinnitus sufferers who have tried TRT (and many other therapies) and have not found relief.  However, it does i...

Tinnitus Masker is hardware you can download (there's a free trial so you can try before buying).  It's supposed to help mask your tinnitus by allowing you to mix sounds together to create either real time or recorded masking relief.  The theory here is that as each person's tinnitus is unique, pre-recorded masking sounds simply cannot be adjusted minutely enough to perfectly suit the individual user.  But by adjusting the output of each sound exactly to your specific requirements, you'll hopefully be able to create a masking effect that works for you and which can be adjusted (if need be) over time as your tinnitus changes.  Disclaimer: I haven't tried this product nor am I an affiliate. I just thought it looked promising. If you've tried this or any other masking device, please leave a comment as to whether or not it was of any help. Try Quietum Plus

The Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) was originally passed with help from disabled Vietnam war hero, Richard Pimentel . Richard lost most of his hearing in Vietnam, in addition to being left with permanent tinnitus.   If anyone in your life needs to know the vagaries and frustrations of tinnitus, recommend the 2007 movie of Richard's life called The Music Within . It shows in heartbreaking detail the confusion, lack of understanding and overt bigotry faced by disabled people like Richard and like his great friend, Art, a genius in a wheelchair, crippled by cerebral palsy.  Left too profoundly deaf to be considered having any hearing at all (yet able to hear certain registers as well as the non-stop noises in his head) Richard was denied a U.S. college education by the very government for which he had nearly lost his life.  And thus it began with simple employment advocacy for disabled friends and fellow veterans (and the story continues to this day).  ...

People who have constant noise in their head and ears will do just about anything to get it to stop or at least lower the volume. In addition to exercise and yoga, both of which address stress and improves blood flow, try cutting alcohol and caffeine from your diet .  If you are experimenting with caffeine-free living, it's important to remember that it's not just your coffee and chocolate products that are "verboten". Tea contains caffeine as do many soft drinks and even medicines .  If you smoke and suffer from tinnitus, there's another good reason for you to stop smoking. Nicotine (even in smokeless tobacco) reduces blood flow to the brain which can worsen tinnitus.  Although ginkgo biloba (an blood thinning Asian herbal supplement common in Europe and used as an antioxidant and memory booster) has not been proven to relieve tinnitus, it does help with blood circulation -- and getting good blood flow to the ears is important for healthy hearing. The only...

Every person's tinnitus -- and suffering -- is unique.  Some people hear it in just one ear, some in both. Some hear different sounds in each ear, like one tinnitus sufferer who had a high decibel ringing in one ear with a sound like a gentle roar in the other.  Sometimes the sound seems be be located in one ear, but it's such a high frequency and so continuous, that if there is a low volume sound in the other ear, it's basically impossible to ascertain.  Most people with tinnitus do talk about cycles of intensity , with the ringing or flute and whistle sound being fairly quiet one day followed by several days of increased levels of volume. Ticking, ringing and other sounds can come and go, in addition to the constant roar , or might be the only sound heard.  Sometimes the noise is so loud as to be actually painful (compared to the piercing shriek of a smoke alarm) and when this goes on unabated, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with no end in sight, the results a...

Tinnitus sufferers often say the noise suddenly stops and (just as suddenly) starts up again.  Although the reprieves from the otherwise unceasing noise (which one person described as loud and invasive as a smoke alarm) are wonderful, people with tinnitus know the "sounds of silence" won't last.  The length of time that the noise stops varies, but is often quoted as being a few hours although some are taunted by a cessation of noise that lasts only a few seconds before it starts up again. The opposite phenomenon happens too -- new sounds are heard by tinnitus sufferers. Like the temporary silences, the new sounds don't tend to last very long, but the concern is always that it will join the cacophony of other noises permanently.  What about your noises? Do you ever hear nothing? Try Quietum Plus

If you developed tinnitus after a sinus infection , you may wish to try humming or chanting (loudly, with your mouth closed) for at least 15 minutes, three times a day, for a minimum of two weeks.  Actually, even if you don't think sinusitis was the tinnitus culprit, go ahead and hum -- it can't hurt. Not only does the extra air rushing through the nasal cavities help reduce the risk of sinus infections , but the level of nitric oxide production increases by some 15 times. And that's good.  People with healthy sinuses usually have high levels of nitric oxide levels (nitric oxide being the body's response to inflammation). The sound vibrations created by the humming or chanting moves the air between the sinus membranes and nasal passages.  It's actually this air movement that allows sinuses to drain properly , which in turn is how the risk of sinus infections is reduced.   If you do notice a decrease in the noise of your tinnitus, you then may want to conside...