I was extremely stressed and irritated this afternoon, my tinnitus was annoying but I was also stressed about a lot of other things. Even though I didn't feel like it, I knew I needed to exercise more.
I hadn't exercised on the treadmill in a long time and when I did, it was fairly mild...usually around 3.5 mph with zero incline. This time, I increased the speed to around 4.4 mph (a vigorous walk for me, but maybe not for others...I'm not used to walking really fast or running) for a while and got my heart rate up to around 150. Someone else's pulse may be different at that speed. I went that way for a while, my leg muscles were hurting so I stopped, cooled them down with water, and got back on the treadmill and was able to go much further. I messed around with the incline for a bit too. Now, during this whole time, I'm still feeling irritable and stress and I'm sure the exercise wasn't helping at the time because it puts a "stress" on my body. However, around 20 minutes later, I started to get more relaxed and the tinnitus seemed to drop.
It definitely wasn't a placebo effect because I wasn't even expecting it. If it didn't actually go down but it's all in my mind because I got more relaxed, whatever - it seems lower to me so that's an improvement. I think it has something to do with the sympathetic nervous system being more active when I am stressed and the parasympathetic nervous system active when I am relaxed.
Not sure what would happen though if I was just "sad and depressed" and the tinnitus was loud but I wanted to share that with you all.
I hadn't exercised on the treadmill in a long time and when I did, it was fairly mild...usually around 3.5 mph with zero incline. This time, I increased the speed to around 4.4 mph (a vigorous walk for me, but maybe not for others...I'm not used to walking really fast or running) for a while and got my heart rate up to around 150. Someone else's pulse may be different at that speed. I went that way for a while, my leg muscles were hurting so I stopped, cooled them down with water, and got back on the treadmill and was able to go much further. I messed around with the incline for a bit too. Now, during this whole time, I'm still feeling irritable and stress and I'm sure the exercise wasn't helping at the time because it puts a "stress" on my body. However, around 20 minutes later, I started to get more relaxed and the tinnitus seemed to drop.
It definitely wasn't a placebo effect because I wasn't even expecting it. If it didn't actually go down but it's all in my mind because I got more relaxed, whatever - it seems lower to me so that's an improvement. I think it has something to do with the sympathetic nervous system being more active when I am stressed and the parasympathetic nervous system active when I am relaxed.
Not sure what would happen though if I was just "sad and depressed" and the tinnitus was loud but I wanted to share that with you all.
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