Tinnitus Treatments

Hey guys, I figured I’d start a new dedicated topic about tinnitus to not muddy up Randy’s spring music thread.

As I mentioned, there’s a new FDA approved treatment that involves bimodal neuromodulation. The approved company is named Lenire.

The main cause of moderate/severe tinnitus for most is literally “in your head.”

The root cause being a lack of auditory stimulation from hearing loss.

Your brain “expects” a defined amount of auditory input, when the amount required for normal operation is too low, your brain makes up a sound to fill the void (tinnitus).

The new treatment from Lenire uses audible sounds and physical/neurological stimulation to trick/re-train your brain to stimulate your neurological pathways (which in turn reduces tinnitus).

Our brains are insanely complex, and if something is missing or doesn’t seem right it makes up something to compensate.

My best comparison is sea sickness.

People fall ill from it, not because the waves are rolling their stomachs, but because like tinnitus, your brain is most literally “trying to make the world right.” (level, steady, predictable, controllable)

Big waves or swells throw a wrench in those plans and causes problems with some people because it messes with your equilibrium. But it’s literally “in your head,” similar to a lack of auditory input from hearing loss.

After years of fishing, I’ve noticed that sea sickness doesn’t effect people who’ve had a couple beers, even if they say they’ve had motion sickness before.

My very unscientific, yet reliable anecdotal experience is that a little alcohol tells your brain “it’s okay that everything isn’t level/steady/predictable.”

Whenever someone starts getting quiet in heavy seas (first sign of sea sickness) I always suggest they slam a couple beers (but only if they drink already and aren’t 12 years old) LOL

It’s never failed to get them feeling better again, and I’m dead serious. They don’t have to get hammered, but have just enough to keep their brain from trying to correct something that can’t be corrected (obviously going to shore “fixes” it but I want to keep fishing)

I wish a few beers cured tinnitus, but this new therapy is a promising insight to a half-assed related problem.

as I said I will be following this thread.. Thanks B-man!!

Following as well. Mine is terrible, just like B-Man described in Randy’s thread.
Going in for Hearing Aids and HOPING this might be a fix…

Best thing I ever did! Try Costco.

Is it something you guys do for work or a hobby that caused hearing loss? I’m just curious. Where I work is ungodly loud but I always wear earplugs. Hoping I don’t run into this some day.

I remember the day I got tinnitus. I regularly, every year or so, had to have my right ear wax removed by Dr. Never left, just right. One time after clearing it she decided to do the left one as well (since I was in there). Have had tinnitus in that ear ever since that day, never a problem with it before. Biggest mistake I ever made. Confirms the old saying if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
My ear is screaming most of the time but it’s amazing how body adapts and most of the time don’t really notice it that much. Just when I think about it watching tv or whatever.

I wear a hearing aide in my left ear. It’s permanently damaged from years of gunfire without protection because I shoot right handed.

My advice for anyone that still has their full range of hearing in both ears: protect it.

I have had it for a long time. Might have started when working security at a Ted Nugent concert. Working right in front of the stage. Also went to a lot of concerts in my youth. Could have been all of my hunting for Pheasants late in the season and using 3″ mags. Rings loud unless I can get my brain to stop thinking about it then it seems to lower the volume. If it works for B-man I will find a way to scrap up the cash but pissed that insurance doesn’t cover at least some of the cost.

There is no cure, you can only train yourself to live with it and people claim to have the way to do it.
Me, I just accept it and move on. I don’t let it bother me anymore, even though it can be deafening.

Eelpoutguy wrote:

There is no cure, you can only train yourself to live with it and people claim to have the way to do it.
Me, I just accept it and move on. I don’t let it bother me anymore, even though it can be deafening.

That’s what I’m currently doing.

It’s always there and never “goes away.”

Since it’s there all of the time I can sometimes space it out during engaging activities (work, fishing, etc where I’m stimulated/distracted with sound).

It never turns on or off, but I’ve learned to live with it.

The times it’s most distracting are when there’s not a lot going on…like trying to sleep, reading a book, tying some jigs, sitting in a tree stand, etc, etc

My wife HATES that I prefer to have the TV on to fall asleep. I can do without it, but an audible distraction really helps.

I’ll also put a podcast or forest/water sounds on instead and that definitely helps too.

Like you said, the silence is literally deafening

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

Hearing loss sucks.

fins wrote:

Is it something you guys do for work or a hobby that caused hearing loss? I’m just curious. Where I work is ungodly loud but I always wear earplugs. Hoping I don’t run into this some day.

My hearing loss is likely a combination of occupation and hobbies.

The crappy thing is even when I was younger I feel like I did a decent job at protecting my hearing, but apparently it wasn’t near enough. But don’t get me wrong, I’m sure there was plenty of times at work and play that I should have used protection and didn’t.

The damage is done, and I’m saving what I have.

I’m super conscientious about Hank and Ben’s hearing, when we shoot guns they (and I) wear double protection [plugs and muffs].

I absolutely preach hearing protection to guys at work too. I’ve “caught” plenty of guys using a gas axe without ear plugs and I stop them immediately.

Your hearing isn’t worth a short cut.

B-man my CPAP machine helps me sleep distracting sound but some times I have a radio playing softly in the back ground..

I need to sleep with the TV on every night.
The more quiet it is the more loud the tinnitus is

Lets see if my experiences help anyone, I grew up running farm equipment with straight pipes for exhaust stacks, stood close to hundreds of drag race engines with open exhaust, airplane engines screaming at full throttle setting fuel pressures, and ran tools/equipment that are very loud including air hammers with zero ear protection, it wasnt thought of back then.
I have shot tens of thousands of rounds of shotgun and high powered rifle rounds, no hearing protection during those years
Fast forward to the late nineties, after six years of working with ag chemicals I ended up with dysautonomia due to toxic effects of solvent, almost identical to agent orange syndrome.

I started having ears that rang nonstop, so loud I was afraid a plane would home in on the signal and try landing on me, it was unbearable.
My doctor at the time attributed it to many years of going unprotected and said I had to live with it, nothing could be done about it.
Funny thing, when I was being tested for chemical exposures I noticed the ringing would calm down, or get worse, way worse, what the heck?
I mentioned this do my doctor, part of my testing for chemical reactions was to keep an hourly daily register on what I had to eat and drink and how I felt a half hour, hour, three hours and so on later to see how combinations of foods and their additives would affect the many reactions I suffer with.
We were trying to see what chemicals in foods affected me worse, phenol, glycerides, salts, many forms of alcohols that are used in foods, meds, etc.
Red dyes, yellow dyes, on and on, these things could be tied back to the chemicals I sprayed and how they were related.

I started noticing that certain foods or combos of foods made it worse and it depended on what chemicals were used to preserve them, nitrates, xanthan gum, and numerous others.
After about six months of eliminating a lot of those things the ringing became almost nonexistent, then I drank a mountain dew, good Lord !! the ringing started immediately ! and it was horrendous! 48 hours later it subsided.
Long story short, in the last 22 years I have become attuned to what will set it off and what wont, sometimes I forget and eat or drink something that affects it, then suffer with it until my body processes it out of itself.

At my shop, I have control over what chemicals I can use and what I cant, and sometimes what I have to use cannot be avoided so its mask up, put on the neoprene gloves and hope to heaven that the gloves wont dissolve before I am done with it, I dont use that stuff that very often and I try to pawn that job off if I can.
I gotta be honest, somedays fumes from outboards especially two strokes can make me loonier than a shithouse rat, dizzy, hallucinations etc, not much fun, but I struggle through it.

I will mention sugars and salts while I am at it, any synthetic sweetener makes my ears ring terribly, when I drink soda it has to have real sugar in it.
Salts, MSG, I have to ask, how is it legal for some of this poison to be used??
My point is, start paying attention to what you eat and drink and how it affects your ringing ears, it will take a while, but if you can even get a little relief it will be worth the time spent, trust me on that as it is very nice to sleep without a garret turbine screaming you to sleep.

awesome for you Iowaboy!! and hope it always stays good for you!! or better at least!!

Eelpoutguy wrote:

I need to sleep with the TV on every night.
The more quiet it is the more loud the tinnitus is

I can relate to this. It’s gotta be on or I’ll lose my mind. I need background noise almost always when at home. I’ve tried explaining it to my lady friend but she doesn’t quite understand. My left ear has had hearing loss since I was a child. Horrible ear infections, tubes, the whole nine yards. Today, its much of the same as most of you explain. My left ear is a mess and my yearly hearing test shows it. I do my best to wear hearing protection at work but what really gets me is the bang from the 30-06 in November.

Thanks for explaining it like that B-man. It makes better sense in that aspect.

Thanks for the post. Lots of good info here. I haven’t had much luck with remedies, but I definitely have found a few things that make it worse. Being tired, stress, nicotine, alcohol, and cannabis all intensify the ringing.

It sucks and I preach to my boy about protecting his hearing. It definitely has a negative effect on mental health.

Every night the white noise machine is on and pretty loud. It helps me fall asleep faster and the wife doesn’t hear me snore quite as loud.

Ever notice people with Tinnitus talk really loud? I’m one of them and the work place is full of em. After my 3rd hearing test which I failed miserably I decided to try hearing aids. On week 3 and not 1 person has noticed them, kinda nice I have an app on the phone which I can change settings on room volume, bass, sharpness etc. Before I watched TV, now I can hear it without the volume cranked. The mrs noticed right away I don’t talk as loud as I did before…lol.

Swimjiggin,
I tried some a few years ago but everything sounded “tinny”, do yours?
and if not what ya got?
I’m sick and tired of watching TV and need the closed captions and sitting at the bar saying “what did you say” so now I just nod my head.

Going forward sure be nice to be able buy a cans for my rifles/shotguns and handguns without all the hassle. Its a matter of preserving what little hearing many of us have left .

B-man, great topic! Am deaf as a stump from all the stupidity of youth. Can’t imagine the damage we all could’ve mitigated with just simple ear protection.

Eelpoutguy wrote:

Swimjiggin,
I tried some a few years ago but everything sounded “tinny”, do yours?
and if not what ya got?
I’m sick and tired of watching TV and need the closed captions and sitting at the bar saying “what did you say” so now I just nod my head.

They were really tinny at first, got home and played around with settings. After 5 days .miracle ear wanted me back in for further adjustments, she brought the sharpness down more off the computer. I think most places that sell em would have the ability to adjust them to our needs.