Do I Even Have Hyperacusis?

I've been sitting with some friends (who just naturally speak really loudly) for a few hours and I'm my ears 'feel' annoyed? My heart rate went up and so did my T a little bit. My brain just wants some quiet at the moment and it's really weird. Could I have hyperacusis do you guys think? When I go to my doctor on monday should I ask about this or is it just my stress from the T acting up?

 

My experience with hyperacusis was that certain sounds caused pain in my ears. It wasn't anxiety or anything psychological it was quite painfull. Even today after many years have passed certain sounds still cause pain. I would say you don't have hyperacusis but you are anxious about the volume of sounds, voices etc.... which is natural. Ask your friends to talk a bit quieter if they bother you.

 

Tell them there's no need to shout when they speak, they're the ones going deaf not you

 

Hyperacusis = "pain" in the ear from certain sounds and/or loud sounds. It doesn't sound like you have hyperacusis from what you describe. If you had it, you would know it, so to speak...

Tinnitus, pressure-in-the-ear, hyperacusis, and dysacusis are all symptoms of overstrain of the inner ear. Usually.

The same approach in treatment - during the acute phase - applies to all of them: resting the ears completely for several weeks/months. When ears are allowed to rest sufficiently, the cells in the inner ear will start to function better, and some/all of the symptoms will start to improve. This is true during the acute phase only.

The "scientific" explanation behind it, you can find here:

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/questions.4553/#post-44799

Take care.

 

@attheedgeofscience could you elaborate on "resting ears completely" ??

 

There is no official agreement as to what "resting our ears completely" means - because the medical community is not capable of understanding the matter!

All I can do is share the extensive knowledge of Dr. Wilden whom I saw last summer for an eight week period - here are a couple of quotes from those visits:

"...the more you use earplugs, the more you will start to appreciate them."

"...if your audiogram is good, then all you need to do is rest your ears for a period of time." (implication being, use earplugs)

"...in +90% of all tinnitus cases, the cause is damage to the inner ear - even if the audiogram looks normal."

Here's what my take on "resting your ears completely" means:

1) Use earplugs when you leave your house, take them out when you come back (= everyday noise in a modern society is well above the noise level that our ears were intended to be exposed to - from an evolutionary standpoint...).
2) Use earplugs when travelling by car, train, or airplane (specifically)
3) Use earplugs for everyday situations such as when using electric shavers, hairdryers, and so on; those devices get really close to the ear - which is not good for acute inner ear overstrain.
4) Never go to a concert - with or without earplugs - not now, or ever again...

 

@attheedgeofscience

Interesting. So this Dr Wilden supports using protection for Hyperacusis ? or is this specifically for Tinnitus? the general medical outlook is to NOT wear protection for hyperacusis, at least in normal everyday environment. In other words if a person with normal ears won't be damaged, neither will we..this is what I have learned.

 

"...the more you use earplugs, the more you will start to appreciate them."


That's contrary to mainstream medical opinion that overusing earplugs is unwise and may inhibit recovery from hyperacusis.

 

I am going to answer your question in the following way:

Hyperacusis, tinnitus, and pressure-in-the-ear, are all symptoms of prolonged inner ear overstrain. Usually. In situations such as this, the nerve cells in the inner ear will be deficient in energy (because they use more energy than they are able to generate for themselves = disequilibrium).

Skin cells - as an example - can regenerate in the following three ways:
1) Absorb energy through chemical processes, and/or
2) Absorb energy through (visible) light processes, and/or
3) Be replaced (with new cells)

Nerve cells, specifically, cannot be replaced - and without access to sunlight, that leaves only one way of regeneration: chemical processes. Furthermore, if our ears are continually working at full speed because they are not given the chance to rest, then energy disequilibrium will continue to exist (and no regeneration will take place - for sure; this is a fundamental fact of the laws of physics and chemistry). The only way to break the disequilibrium cycle is to rest the ears, or...

Dr. Wilden's therapy makes use of the fact that red and infrared light can travel through body tissue relatively unhindered. Because of this, nerve cells in the inner ear are given a second artificial way of regenerating using energy supplied by cold laser therapy (the equivalent to the source of energy as in bullet point #2, above). This changes the (dis)-equilibrium state, and healing takes place. When healing takes place, some/all of the symptoms will start to improve.

You (and others) will probably be surprised at how responsive our body cells are to regeneration when allowed to regenerate.

Here's my latest (and recent) audiogram:



I will be getting a second audiogram done at the same clinic in about 2 weeks (after just 3-4 weeks of very high dosage LLLT). I will post it for those who are interested.

And look where that advice got you...

Using earplugs in a modern (noisy) society brings the noise-levels we are exposed to in-line with the noise levels our ears were originally designed for. It takes more than a couple of centuries for evolution to catch up...

The next time someone advises you on hyperacusis or tinnitus, why don't you ask them to account for their advice? They will almost certainly not have a clue about how to explain their "theories" in any meaningful scientific way. You know why? Because tinnitus and hyperacusis are poorly understood by health professionals. And when people don't understand something, they start to brew up their own little theories - health professionals included. That's why...!

If you want to know more about what Dr. Wilden recommends - why don't you ask him? He will be happy to advise you.

Take care.

 

Why has there never been double blind placebo clinical trials for Dr Wildens treatment? Seems weird that nobody has invested in him or anything, that he's one guy with one clinic.. :S

 

Dr Wilden's protoge Michael Zazzio did a study in Sweden and got it published in pubmed. But that study has been very critizised by swedish doctors. You can read about it here in swedish, which I guess is no problem since your norwegian

http://www.lakartidningen.se/Functions/OldArticleView.aspx?articleId=15637

 

In the comments they say the guy who published the mini-article is selling laser devices lol...

 

Yeah, I know Erlend. But he actually seems pretty legit. He was a patient of Zazzio himself before he got into that business. Been reading some reports on a swedish T forum where people got better from his treatment. And a lot of people on that forum also think it is a scam so I don'te really know what to believe. Maybe a last resort option or something.

 

Mr Cross? He seems legit and nice, but he's a scientologist and loses all credibility imo

 

No, Anders Haglund. I don't know who Mr Cross is.

 

Dangerous thread.

Stephen Nagler

 

Yes I agree Dr. Nagler

 

Could you elaborate on that? Neither me or Erlend are promoting laser treatment if that's what you think.