Cause and Triggers Suggestions — Please Add Yours

I had one of the worse nights ever with T last night. It screamed and stopped me sleeping. I finally gave in at 3am and got up.

My reaction to it these days is different from the beginning - I still hate it but there's a kind of 'acceptance' so I tend not to panic too much. But last night it was as loud as at the start & it is SO annoying at that level.

From 3am until 6am it still screamed. At 6am I opened the windows and the back door - no noise outside... same noises inside (Jim's water sounds - thanks Jim.. wish you were still posting!) as always. And bang - the T volume dropped down to a tiny tinkle. It was so sudden that it scared me.

I know that we don't all have 'variable' T but many do as they have said that they have good days & bad days or that it gets worse in the evenings or screams in the mornings. The fact that mine has varied so much since the start just serves to confuse me and I've had long periods when it's gone altogether (however much I listen to it.. and I can't help but listen!). I've given up searching frantically for a cure (I do it more leisurely now ) but I can't help but think that eliminating or changing something may get it down to a permanently quiet level or get rid of it altogether.

With this in mind, for those of us who have variable T, could you post what you think affects it or caused it in the first instance please?

I'll start by saying:

Main cause suspects:
3 weeks of sleeping in silence or
2 rubs of ibuprofen (topical application on knee) or
an allergy of some kind to something in my new environment or
air pressure change (after living for 3 weeks at a higher altitude with higher humidity in Cornwall) or
two 7 day courses of doxycyclin 4 & 5 months before onset.

Main loudness/spiking trigger suspects:
bending neck forward or sleeping without neck support,
MSG in chinese sauces (only tried it once!),
weather fluctuations - air pressure/barometric pressure,
humidity,
increase in dust in air (discovered when I put the central heating on),
computer screens / CPU,
superhub router / modem.

I'm not sure about any of these - as someone else said 'it's the blind leading the blind' and there are just so many variables that it's hard to conclude anything - especially with screaming or buzzing in your head but I'd really like a list from as many people as possible so that I can review my own and try to eliminate or discover possible causes /triggers.

Thanks!

 

Only one thing I can confirm - alcohol does make it louder. I'm not a big drinker but yesterday we celebrated some special anniversary. Boy it was loud right after and today in the morning...

I suspected MSG too actually but after avoiding it for some time I still had loud spikes so I don't think it is related.

By the way, sleeping in silence won't cause tinnitus. I mean, really? How? Having closed eyes for 3 weeks won't make you blind either.

 

Hi Fish - thanks for posting a reply. One theory is that silence can cause T. I went from noise at night (quite a lot of it) to silence at night. T started 3 weeks into the silence. If caused by silence the Jastreboff theory is that the 'perception' of the sound of T isn't there until the silence exists.

 

I'm with Fish on the silence theory. For the last 30 years I've slept in complete silence as I wear earplugs every night. They are industrial strength 32db protection ones. Never had T from that.

 

The Tinnitus and Hyperacusis Centre in London follows the Jastreboff TRT and it does say on their website that T begins for some people when they change to a silent environment (I'm just quoting... I know nothing ). I remember reading through the readers' emails on that site and one was asking whether wearing ear plugs could have caused it - the reply was 'yes'. It's a pretty basic site but I found that they made more sense than many others which was why I purchased their TRT book.

The theory is that we become more sensitive to internal (tinnitus) & external sounds (hyperacusis) when we have not been exposed to 'normal sound'.

The H&B experiment obviously only showed the temporary emergence of T whilst in the silent room but the last sentence below is one of the quotes saying that silence, hearing loss or exposure to loud noise are all causes for T to start - referred to as 'compensation'... the detection of the electrical activity in the nerve cells.. ie. Tinnitus.

"The meaning of tinnitus sounds...

In 1953 Heller and Bergman performed an simple and classic experiment. They placed 80 tinnitus free individuals (university members) in a sound proofed room for 5 minutes each, asking them to report on any sounds that might be heard. The subjects thought they might be undergoing a hearing test, but actually experienced 5 minutes of total silence. 93% reported hearing buzzing, pulsing, whistling sounds in the head or ears identical to those reported by tinnitus sufferers. This simple experiment shows almost anyone can detect background electrical activity present in every living nerve cell in the hearing pathways as a sound. Although some areas of the auditory system may be more active than others, every neurone will contribute to some extent to the final perception of tinnitus.

These electrical signals are not evidence of damage, but compensatory activity that occurs all the time in the auditory system of each one of us.

Compensation can occur as a response to changes in our sound environment (e.g. silence) to hearing loss which may be a natural part of ageing, or to exposure to sudden noise."

Their site is at:

http://www.tinnitus.org/home/frame/THC1.htm

 

I'm also in agreement with Fish and Louise, I used to have annual hearing tests at school in a soundproof room and would sometimes be allowed to stay in there while some of my friends were having their done. I heard absolutely nothing but silence. I could be in that room for a lot longer then 5 minutes so I do not agree with that study at all.

Before my Tinnitus also I slept in silence and studied in silence and would relax in total silence. Never heard any noise at all.

There are so many flaws with the H+B experiment that never seem to get mentioned. Wasn't it done like 60 or 70 years ago and hasn't been repeated since. Also what about the 7% that heard nothing in that silent room? I think it should have been important to look at them more closely.

 

Yes - it was done way back in the fifties and their theories could easily be wrong - I agree. Trouble is.. I thought that Jastreboff was considered an expert in the field of T. Maybe there are no experts!

 

lol click I personally think that the word 'expert' is used far too easily to describe certain medical professionals. In my experience and opinion these experts in the field of Tinnitus are anything but.

If you go back to the early 20th century you will find that 'experts' say smoking isn't harmfull to health!!!

In answer to your original question on this thread I find sugar can spike my Tinnitus. The more I avoid it the less spikes I have it seems.

 

click - I think this is just a misunderstanding. I believe his point was that you might have tinnitus and not even know it until you move to a quiet environment. Then you hear your T for the first time and it might give you an impression that it was caused by "silence", while in reality you had it already for some other reasons...

EDIT: one more thing i noticed - staying up late working will ALWAYS cause one, specific T tone for me. It is a hollow, roaring sound that somehow isn't very disturbing and it is gone the next morning.

 

Here are some questions. We all here tinnitus is caused by a number of things.
What is everyone’s opinion on the best thing we could do to live with this condition?
I mean they say asprin, food, medications, stress, can cause tinnitus????

Here I was told by a lady ENT that it was a buildup of fluid around your ears.
So watch your salt intake. Well I think if it is fluid around the ear take a water pill.
But it is said that if you take a diuretic pill it can cause tinnitus. It seems to me that would help matters??? Anybody with any opinions on this?

 

Loud noise, sugar those are the things so far Im sure triggers my spikes...Actually was exposed to fire alarms last Sept 19 its been 4 1/2 days of spike...the cricket sounds I can bear it's the shrill high pitched that I'm having difficulty adjusting right now. I actually downloaded a App on my Iphone called Tinnitus measurer and my high pitch shrill is measured at 7100 khz...I'm worried this is my first time My T is spiking for more than 4 days...

 

Everyone has their different philosophies, but if you spend enough time on this forum, you will soon believe that *everything* causes T. This does not help with positive thinking and instilling a belief that things will improve. Let me be clear on what I mean by "things": I mean your everyday life, your quality of life. So, if you're looking for the one thing we should all do to live with this condition, it's simply to deny it the attention it demands.

For me (and again, we're all different), this means to stop researching the condition, looking for cures, and limiting the amount of time I spend thinking about it (which also means limiting time spent on this forum). This is all easier said than done when gripped with anxiety and despair.

 

hi Fish , Louise & Molan,

I've still got an open mind about this but I've re-read the clinic's site (because I could have easily misinterpreted what they said as I read most of it whilst overly anxious during the first few weeks of T & my brain was pretty muffled at the time) and I still believe that they are saying that one cause can be silence.

I'm using the word 'cause' as 'causing us to hear it for the first time' as, if T is us being able to hear the 'activity' in our brain, then obviously it's the 'beginning of perception' that's the problem.

They call it 'perception caused by 'over compensation by the auditory system to weak natural signals coming from the brain' and 'amplification of the music of the brain and the creation of an aversive response'.

As I said, I'm keeping an open mind as to whether their views are accurate but here is a quote from their site:

"In nature, there is a continuous background of nature sounds. Silence is a warning signal, usually indicating the arrival of a predator. In modern society, we have constructed solid buildings, which exclude sound, and are often double-glazed to reduce heat-loss. This means that the rooms we live and work in can have very low levels of natural back ground noise, particularly at night.

In many countries, especially in the west, there is a tendency for smaller social units, with more people, particularly older people, living alone in very quiet surroundings. The ready availability of earplugs means that they are often used, not just to protect the ear from damage, but also to avoid hearing any sounds, particularly at night. With an increasing number of older people in our populations, there are many more with varying degrees of hearing loss. Proper use of hearing aids is far below what is needed, and this has the effect of imposing a ‘relative silence’.

One feature of our western culture is the way in which silence is imposed in childhood. We are told be quiet when we go to bed / do your homework etc. It is during these times that childhood tinnitus and misophonia emerges, as well as the development of behavioural patterns for seeking silence in adult life. We even have the saying ‘Silence is golden;’ - it is NOT!

The Heller and Berman (quiet room) experiment tells us that tinnitus emergence (the first experience of tinnitus) is experienced by anyone who listens carefully in a quiet room for 5 minutes. Most of us do this every night of our life when we retire to a quiet study, lounge or bedroom. It is perhaps surprising that we can do this for so many years without having any experience of tinnitus. Animal experiments have shown us that the auditory system itself increases in sensitivity when background noise drops below a certain level, resulting in increased gain, or amplification, of external sounds. This is the mechanism of hyperacusis. This means that there is more chance of picking up very weak sounds (e.g. predators!) in silence, rather than in enriched environments.

When these sounds come from normal nerve cell activity in the brain, tinnitus emerges."

 

Dez - you are so right. It was only when I stopped looking every day at everything written on T across the net that I began to relax (a little!). I still look but not in the way that I used to. Part of the anxiety is caused by having no definite cause or cure. Acceptance of this must help. Not saying that I have accepted it though

 

It's an interesting theory Click but I don't buy it at all. Silence is not always a warning signal in nature there are plenty of scenarios where animals are in silence but there is no immediate threat to them.

Seriously I had to laugh at the part talking about how silence imposed in childhood as somehow 100% negative and a cause for Tinnitus and misophonia. I was frequently told to be quiet and was taught to study in silence growing up and I never heard a thing. My Tinnitus came on at the exactly the same time as my severe ear infection not from being exposed to silence.

My Grandma lives alone, likes to read in silence and does not have Tinnitus. No-one in my family has Tinnitus apart from me nor any of my friends. I just don't buy this theory at all. I do not believe for one second that what we are hearing are normal sounds. Like I said in my earlier comment I have been on a soundproof room on a number of occasions when I was younger and for longer then 5 minutes and I never heard a thing.

 

Ah well - there are many theories. I still think that Jastreboff has got closer than most but only because his theories make sense to me (I don't think that everyone in silence will get T though - I think they mean that it can cause it in certain individuals). But who knows