Ask HN: Anyone else suffering from tinnitus?
I had awoken one morning 6 months ago and I noticed a high pitched sound seemingly from my right ear. Over the next few days it increased in intensity. Causing much disruption to my life. The doctors could not fix it. Hearing tests indicated no hearing loss. I recently had a cold where congestion in my right ear exacerbated the tinnitus a week ago just as I was "habituating" (as they say) to it.
I grew up in the generation with iPod's. So I'm wondering if I am now paying for it.
Tinnitus has disrupted my life significantly and impacted my sleep/focus two key things needed to do my job effectively as a a software engineer. I'm now on antidepressants and cannot go to sleep without a noise maker. I'm concerned about the future when/if I loose hearing in old age if I will be able to tolerate it.
Anyone else have this issue? Anyone know of any clinical trials that I could join?
107 comments
[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 195 ms ] threadThere's an electrostimulation trial I believe. Non-nvasive
https://www.lenire.com/what-is-lenire/#:~:text=Lenire%20is%2....
I recommend white/brown noise, natural sounds and CBT. Mine is a constant companion, made worse by being reminded about it gods curse you!
Only downside is they're not great for music (bass notes get muddled)
Also, get enough sleep.
If at some future time an actually effective treatment, prosthesis, or medication is developed, it will hardly be possible to hide from the news. Until that point knowing about all the things that were tried and didn't work doesn't really help me.
Also, hopefully this might help someone: For playing my ambient sounds on loop, I use an old first gen Raspberry Pi with a set of USB powered speakers running mpg123 (a command line audio app) which I edited into the RPi's rc.local script (run on boot) and yt-dlp (YouTube download and transcoding).
There are literally tens of thousands of different audio ambience tracks on services like Spotify and YouTube of every possible description. It's astounding really. So occasionally I ssh in to the RPi, grab some track off of YouTube, rip it to mp3, and then play it for a while. Otherwise it plays the same heavy surf track I've been listening to for over a decade. I know every moment of that track and there's something weirdly comforting to that.
Right now I am listening to "Rain on Tent" and on my laptop is some sort of upbeat morning Jazz cafe thing which is probably not entirely man made.
I've realised the following about what triggers and helps me -
1. Exercise: Regular exercise helps. When I regularly play tennis, go to the gym, or do yoga, the tinnitus increases right after the exercise, but is much lower throughout the day.
2. Stress and a proper schedule: If I drink more, eat garbage, or work during odd hours, my tinnitus increases. Instead of feeling bad about it, I use it as an early feedback mechanism to help me diagnose when my life is not in the right direction.
3. Weather: Tinnitus increases in the winters.
My aunt told me that regular yoga helped her mitigate her tinnitus symptoms too.
I felt quite sad and depressed during my early months of tinnitus, but over time I've tried using it as a motivator. If a slight ringing in my ears makes me feel so depressed, there are other things that could happen that could completely destroy my life. So I should remember that life is short, use the time I have left wisely, and do things that I've been putting off.
I've also tried using it as a feedback loop. If the ringing increases, there might be something wrong with my diet, daily routine, or stress. So it helps me recognise unhealthy patterns earlier.
I valued my hearing very highly, protecting it at all times. I carry hearing plugs any time I go out. I won't even use a hammer without hearing protection. Then I suddenly suffered hearing loss and tinnitus. I immediately made an appointment with an ENT, who wanted to give me a bunch of steroids and call it a day. I can't take those, however, so he referred me to one of the top hearing clinics in the country.
One of the first questions they asked was if I'd had a COVID vaccine recently. Yes, I had a second Pfizer booster. It turns out that hearing damage is a known side effect... but of course you don't find out about it until it's too late. This clinic had started seeing an influx of patients with sudden hearing loss after vaccinations, enough that they wrote a paper on it: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8443418/
And a vaccine researcher also got hit with it: https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/tinnitus-rare-sid...
Another one about trying to treat it: https://www.news-medical.net/news/20220523/Pfizer-COVID-19-v...
It's irresponsible as hell not to inform people about this risk, and also to claim that it's rare. The more-likely fact is that it's vastly under-reported, especially with people afraid of being "canceled" for speaking out. The benefits of that second booster were negligible, and the results disastrous and life-degrading. And now people are coming out of the woodwork saying, oh yeah, that's a "known thing." Well WTF then, LET IT BE KNOWN.
In fact, according to the Cleveland Clinic:
"But on April 29, the American Academy of Audiology, the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association and the Academy of Doctors of Audiology issued a statement regarding the matter.
The groups said that based on a recent study conducted by The University of Manchester and Manchester Biomedical Research Centre that was published in the International Journal of Audiology, scientists estimated that 7.6% of people infected with COVID-19 experienced hearing loss, 14.8% suffered from tinnitus and 7.2% reported vertigo. This study also conveyed that there is an urgent need for additional studies regarding the long-term effects of COVID-19 on the auditory system."[1]
So just getting infected by Covid-19 might give you a ~15% chance of getting Tinnitus.
I started having noticeable, permanent Tinnitus myself in September 2019. If it were a few months later I might have thought it was because of Covid-19, but it wasn't. It might have been a side effect to an antibiotic I took a while back (Cipro) that I had a bad reaction to (full body neuropathy after a single pill, lingering neuropathy off and on for a few years after) and some studies suggest could lead to Tinnitus, or because I had to wear headphones at work to block out noise at an open office (fuck open offices, I'll never RTO to those), or something else, hard to say. I got my hearing tested by an ENT doctor six months ago and I don't have any hearing loss, though.
By the way, since you specifically said hearing loss in yours, at least according to this study[2], there's no increased risk of hearing loss following a Covid-19 vaccination.
"Our data suggested no increased risk for SSNHL [sudden sensorineural hearing loss] following any COVID-19 vaccination. In particular, adjusted incidence rate ratios, with 95 percent confidence intervals (95% CI) for the BNT162b2 vaccine’s three doses were 0.8 (95% CI 0.6 to 1.0), 0.9 (95% CI 0.6 to 1.2), and 1.3 (95% CI 0.9 to 2.0). SARS-CoV-2 infection was not associated with an increased incidence of SSNHL either."
Not saying it's impossible yours wasn't caused by the vaccine, but it seems like it's so incredibly rare and Tinnitus can have a bunch of causes (and effects a large number of people eventually) that it's more likely to be coincidence than not.
Regardless of its origin, I'm sorry you're suffering from Tinnitus. I know firsthand that it sucks, and wish there were better treatments for it, because it gets damn annoying, and fucks with your concentration and ability to sleep at times. I hope at some point there's a breakthrough that lets there be some treatment (besides that stupid 'this one trick' on reddit and youtube of thwacking the back of your head with your fingers that relieves it very little for like 30 seconds that everyone keeps passing around as if it were a miracle cure).
[1]: https://health.clevelandclinic.org/can-covid-19-cause-tinnit... [2]: https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2022.07.10.22277380v...).
The auditory artifacts started before I ever had COVID, though. And the acute case didn't start during, or within months after COVID... it started after a booster.
They conclude there is no link from current data.
Using your logic you could blame any new reported medical condition on COVID.
The reality is that with such a huge vaccine rollout all over the world, there should be data by now.
There are also things that happened during the covid outbreak not related to the disease itself, such as more stress, people were in online meetings more, sharing workspaces at home which could have caused an increase in headphones usage, etc, etc.
> that's a "known thing."
Please show me the data! Because I looked and its not there.
And I didn't blame it on COVID.
It's irresponsible to ignore the likelihood of under-reporting, not to mention the fear of being "canceled;" this was mentioned in the article about the vaccine researcher getting it.
"I reject that"
With "that" referring to the tinnitus.
Tinnitus: "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee"
What helped me -Sleeping with a fan / aircon / noise machine -Listening to music / coffee shop bg sounds during work -Not having many silent moments at home, having music on etc to distract myself
I always wear ear plugs at loud events like gigs etc, something I always should have done. You need to stop listening to it, to see if its gone or how high it is. Eventually your brain will zone it out.
also this is a crazy suggestion but moving to Asia also helps, there is always traffic, fans, aircons and beach sounds
Funnily enough, I started noticing mine more when I moved to a new Apple silicon macbook that didn't need the fan running full all-day.
I was like "oh cool - I can have a silent workspace now", and I also disabled my Dyson fan's "constant air quality monitor" which spit our some constant decibels. Then when I was in silence, I realized I could notice it a lot. Maybe it's why I didn't notice it in the first place.
> I always wear ear plugs at loud events like gigs
It's kind of a blessing to experience it so you can be aware.
I find very helpful using my phone to put some background noise (raining. noise from mynoise.net). Some times, I use a Bluetooth sleeping ear plugs.
Actually I'm taking some (receted by my doctor) pills that looks that it's helping a bit, and doing some exercises to teach to my brain to ignore it.
I had it since I was early 20s; it didn't get worse, but also not better. It's very annoying when counting on me hearing something in meetings (irl or via zoom/phone etc); there cannot be any background noise or I hear literally nothing but static. That's why I generally just tell people to chat/email; I prefer that anyway, but it's also a necessity when there is background noise (and let's face it, there is always that one person who has produces a strange amount of noise on Zoom), or has a broken headphone so it crackles through everything they say. Or they use that black conference 'thing' big companies have in the middle of the table which has the worst sound quality ever if you don't bend into it and shout.
Hope they can fix it for you! It sometimes makes me lonely in busy bars as I cannot understand what anyone is saying unless they scream their heads off into/close to my ear. Now that i'm a bit older, more people have hearing issues and are more sociable in helping out instead of thinking i'm just some introvert weirdo 'who does not want to call but only chat'.
Like other people here mentioned, I found that the best way to deal with it, when it does bother me, is to have another background sound that stops you from focusing on it.
I'd recommend trying to "listen" to Sleep, an 8.5 hour album by Max Richter written to be played while you sleep, although I also sometimes play it in the background during the day since it helps me switch off and focus on what I'm working on.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_(album)
Thankfully that passed and I can hear but the ensemble of differently pitched constant ringing ... can genuinely be a nightmare sometimes. As someone else stated, I cannot hear other people speak when there is background noise. I don't go to bars, concerts, or movies anymore (for almost two decades now). It sucks.
These ones I can wear all day comfortably:
https://firstaidsuppliesonline.com/first-aid-products/safety...
Cheap in bulk, which is handy because I need them to sleep.
Doing all of the followings has helped me greatly:
* Brownian noise generator, as needed
* cold compress on forehead as needed
* avoidance of large number of Rx (ototoxic)
* no tobacco-derivatives
* no cannibus (did not discern between THC or CBD (sp?)
* no overeating
All those are very noticeable in form of tinnitus when violated. But it took a very long time to discover what works and what doesn't. Self-awareness of all those stimulus is required to identify and it gets easier once self-trained to recognize association between your own action and tinnitus. Most are identifiable within 30 minutes, some Rx takes 5-7 days to notice).
At age of 48, I lost 85% of hearing within 30 minutes of taking one dosage of Zyban (Wellbutrin-class) Rx. Filed a report with FDA. Warning sheet made no mention of this.
Cochlear implant helps a lot with reducing (built-in Brownian noise generator) as well as restoring my hearing to almost better than avg. human. But it took away my natural sound spectrum (think 32 distinctively-sieved equalizer bars, or crescendo sounds jumpy) in favor of huge dB increase.
Edit: am sedentary, my BMI is 29. Relatively stress-free (might explains less need for exercise there but do do notice Yoga helps a little).
Listened to music that has varied rhythms (Jazz, classical, low-bass beats) but that music selection has noticeably becomes no longer the requirement for tinnitus reduction once my list above were maintained. (Derivative of Brownian noise, panacea?). I now enjoy nearly all music variety (metal opera, anyone?)
aspirin is noticeable but preferred over Tylenol (liver protection). And a light social drinker.
Tinnitus is largely gone but every now and then some new act such as eating enjoyable jalapeño would bring it back with a vengeance or a nasty bout of Staph-B (high temperature).
I only wished I was told of all this ahead of time because life quality has improved greatly overall with not just better in terms of avoiding tinnitus-induced depression but oral communication has improved.
Ask your medical professional to add to your medical record the anti-Ototoxic list as part of your known allergies to avoid hearing loss (as well as tinnitus):
https://www.soundrelief.com/list-of-ototoxic-medications/amp...
Good luck with your self-awareness training.
Unfortunately, a lot of things that worked for you to make it 'largely gone' hasn't worked for me - it is ever present in the background and then gets amplified. I don't have a cochlear implant though since my hearing is still good.
Anyways, many many thanks for sharing your experiences and that link.
Devastating. So sorry to hear that.
Also, do you have to go back periodically or has it made it go away?