Dear all,
[apologies for what has turned out to be a rather long post to describe my symptoms - thanks in advance to anyone having the patience to read it]
I began having tinnitus a month or so ago. While it has been varying slightly from day to day (some days are better), on most days I hear a buzzing in both ears which is constant for the duration of the day. I would describe the buzzing as an "electrical noise", which does not have a single pitch but multiple high-frequency components in its spectrum - I measured two identifiable components at 1500 and 2000 Hz for instance (or possibly some octaves higher), although again the noise is far from having a single-pitch perceptual footprint.
I don't see any evident causes that might have triggered this. I have suffered no ear trauma, nor been exposed to any loud noises. I don't suffer from any allergies apart from a mild pollen allergy. For the past few months I've been listening to podcasts while cycling, with an earphone in right ear only, but not too loud, and not for longer than ~30mins at a time; also, giving this habbit up for the past week hasn't changed my symptoms. Other unlikely links include lower-back pain, that I get after periods of standing/walking, and a slight nasal-septum deviation (that gives no symptoms).
The only likely causal link I can think of is that for the past half a year or so, my sleep has been rather disturbed (namely, I feel dizzy and half-awake for the latter stage of sleep, early in the morning about 1h before waking up). This problem is ongoing and tends to make me irritable during the day, despite otherwise thankfully not having major stress in my life.
Another suspicion that I had is related to blood-circulation, since the internal noise I am hearing feels somehow like an intense "high-voltage" in my head. However, a complete cardiology check-up that I had made recently all came out OK, including normal blood-pressure levels.
In fairness, I have been having some mild ear-buzzings for as long as I can remember:
1. before going to sleep, when the room was quiet, I used to sometimes become aware of a high-pitched buzzing in my head, which to me, at least in childhood, somehow represented "the sound of silence". That noise's "spectral composition" seemed similar to what I hear now, and was also in both ears, but was definitely not as loud as what I hear now, AND it was only evident before sleeping, i.e. I would forget of it by the next morning
2. once in a while (once every couple of weeks or so), I get a loud, single-pitch (still high-pitched) sinusoidal tone in the left ear, that fades away quickly (5 seconds)
However, none of these two previous manifestations were a real annoyance, let alone a concern. Problem 1. is now "drowned" in the noise that has now replaced it on a permanent basis, and problem 2. still appears, just as rarely.
Although my tinnitus is loud enough that I hear it even with normal environmental noises around me, my hearing does not seem, so far, affected. The ear-nose-throat specialist concluded that my audiogram (attached) looks largely normal, and that there is no local infection. He recommended I do a head MRI, which I will do soon. For now, he prescribed Pentoxifylline to increase blood flow to the ear - although reading that medicine's description, it doesn't seem fit for this purpose at all. I know that tinnitus is hard/impossible to treat permanently, but as a first attempt at a symptomatic relief, I would rather be inclined to first try taking some Ginkgo Biloba, which I read has been suggested to provide (temporary?) tinnitus relief.
If anyone's tinnitus experience seems similar to what I describe, and would like to share what has worked / not worked for them, I would be very grateful - thanks in advance!
[apologies for what has turned out to be a rather long post to describe my symptoms - thanks in advance to anyone having the patience to read it]
I began having tinnitus a month or so ago. While it has been varying slightly from day to day (some days are better), on most days I hear a buzzing in both ears which is constant for the duration of the day. I would describe the buzzing as an "electrical noise", which does not have a single pitch but multiple high-frequency components in its spectrum - I measured two identifiable components at 1500 and 2000 Hz for instance (or possibly some octaves higher), although again the noise is far from having a single-pitch perceptual footprint.
I don't see any evident causes that might have triggered this. I have suffered no ear trauma, nor been exposed to any loud noises. I don't suffer from any allergies apart from a mild pollen allergy. For the past few months I've been listening to podcasts while cycling, with an earphone in right ear only, but not too loud, and not for longer than ~30mins at a time; also, giving this habbit up for the past week hasn't changed my symptoms. Other unlikely links include lower-back pain, that I get after periods of standing/walking, and a slight nasal-septum deviation (that gives no symptoms).
The only likely causal link I can think of is that for the past half a year or so, my sleep has been rather disturbed (namely, I feel dizzy and half-awake for the latter stage of sleep, early in the morning about 1h before waking up). This problem is ongoing and tends to make me irritable during the day, despite otherwise thankfully not having major stress in my life.
Another suspicion that I had is related to blood-circulation, since the internal noise I am hearing feels somehow like an intense "high-voltage" in my head. However, a complete cardiology check-up that I had made recently all came out OK, including normal blood-pressure levels.
In fairness, I have been having some mild ear-buzzings for as long as I can remember:
1. before going to sleep, when the room was quiet, I used to sometimes become aware of a high-pitched buzzing in my head, which to me, at least in childhood, somehow represented "the sound of silence". That noise's "spectral composition" seemed similar to what I hear now, and was also in both ears, but was definitely not as loud as what I hear now, AND it was only evident before sleeping, i.e. I would forget of it by the next morning
2. once in a while (once every couple of weeks or so), I get a loud, single-pitch (still high-pitched) sinusoidal tone in the left ear, that fades away quickly (5 seconds)
However, none of these two previous manifestations were a real annoyance, let alone a concern. Problem 1. is now "drowned" in the noise that has now replaced it on a permanent basis, and problem 2. still appears, just as rarely.
Although my tinnitus is loud enough that I hear it even with normal environmental noises around me, my hearing does not seem, so far, affected. The ear-nose-throat specialist concluded that my audiogram (attached) looks largely normal, and that there is no local infection. He recommended I do a head MRI, which I will do soon. For now, he prescribed Pentoxifylline to increase blood flow to the ear - although reading that medicine's description, it doesn't seem fit for this purpose at all. I know that tinnitus is hard/impossible to treat permanently, but as a first attempt at a symptomatic relief, I would rather be inclined to first try taking some Ginkgo Biloba, which I read has been suggested to provide (temporary?) tinnitus relief.
If anyone's tinnitus experience seems similar to what I describe, and would like to share what has worked / not worked for them, I would be very grateful - thanks in advance!
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