Tinnitus

[MancMike]

A bit of a thread revival, but I'm a subscriber of a popular youtube channel SciShow, and they've a great video I just watched on the mechanics of tinnitus. I.e, what actually causes it and why it's permanent. It seems the cells which detect the vibrations get broken, and don't repair, they then go faulty, reporting sounds they haven't heard.

I don't have a job where this is an issue for me, and while a hobby of mine is woodwork, I wear ear protection while using certain tools out of comfort rather than protection, it's obviously providing protection along the way. I do have some incredibly powerful headphones which is an experience to listen to them at full volume, but I'll be more aware of that in future to make sure it's not a regular thing.

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[rockits]

Thanks for that MancMike...very interesting.

The placebo effect or consciousness of things is certainly something I believe exists. Funnily enough (well not really!) my own Tinnitus has seemingly become effective worse or more pronounced since seeing/reading this thread. I never knew it really existed for me or was any issue before as was ignorant to the issue. It was there but was less of any issue and certainly less noticeable than it is now.

I have never really been exposed or worked in environments of high DB's for a sustained or regular periods. I have played music in my car as a youngster loud, I did work in my dads business with loud woodworking machines and have worked in many Server/comms rooms or datacenters over the years. However I would say it hasn't been sustained, regular and I have mainly worn ear defenders when operating loud certainly a majority of the time.

I am not 100% sure but it certainly feels that my tinnitus is more pronounced or possibly only in my left ear. I also cannot say if I have always had it from birth or it happened at some point.

I wonder how much or what it takes to permanently damage these hairs or cells so they are irretrievably damaged? I could understand a rock band member or builders working on building sites for numerous years years having issues. My dad is a builder by trade, never wore ear defenders (idiot!) and has been exposed to high levels of DB's for many many years. He is maybe 80% deaf in one ear and maybe 20% in the other ear. I could understand this though so no sympathy there. It wasn't as though it wasn't known even back to the 60's & 70's. Just stupid male bravado and pride standing in the way of sensible behaviour.

I don't understand smoking and never have smoked. We know it kills or if not reduces health. However I have no issue driving a car fast on a race track. Each to their own I guess. I know the likelihood or stats of me having a big accident on a track while driving is minimal as I don't do it often to start with and am not racing competitively with lots of other competitive drivers on track at the same time. We do know that smoking will kill or reduce health substantial in all or most cases. So the risks are much higher. I balance the risk/fun/pleasure where I can.

Yes, you should enjoy things you like to do and have fun also to enjoy life. However if the pain/risks outweighs the pleasures to me the risk is too great and it is not worth it. For that reason I don't smoke.

I am not sure if Tinnitus can be tested, diagnosed or anything can be done about it? Has anyone gone down the road of seeing if it can be reduced or resolved?

 

[Deleted member 113659]

I am not sure if Tinnitus can be tested, diagnosed or anything can be done about it? Has anyone gone down the road of seeing if it can be reduced or resolved?

Yeah, it can be diagnosed but not cured. Mostly the treatment is a hearing aid to boost/increase background noise to take your mind off the tinnitus sounds.

I've tried a few prescription tablets over the years that claim to reduce the symptoms (Betahistine being one of them) but I've never noticed improvement with any of them.

Subtle background noise in the bedroom can help massively when trying to get to sleep. We have a fish tank with a filter for that very reason.

 

[renault12ts]

I spoke with an ENT consultant about this, not as a patient, merely as an interested party. His attitude was the more you try to fix it, the worse it is likely to get. Hard to ignore sometimes, but probably best.