Got Tinnitus from a Noisy Bar — I Was Blissfully Unaware Noise Exposure Can Have Consequences

So I am a 22-year-old male. About 3 weeks ago I went to a noisy bar with friends to celebrate the end of the school year, and also recently being vaccinated for COVID-19. I normally am not really much of a bar guy and I rarely drink if ever or anything like that but this was an occasion. Being a dumb college student like myself I was blissfully unaware that there could be consequences to loud noise exposure. Why would I bring earplugs to a bar? I never have even heard of someone doing that or even seen anyone do it before and most of my peers are out every weekend with loud music so going out once can't be that bad, right? I could not have been more wrong and 3 weeks later I still have tinnitus and mild hyperacusis while naturally none of my friends had any issues. I went to the doctor and he wasn't very helpful and referred me to an ENT so I am hoping that yields something.

Here are the steps I have taken. I am generally pretty healthy and already took Cysteine for workout purposes which is what NAC is derived from so it's pretty much the same thing but without the side effects of NAC from what I can tell feel free to correct me if I am wrong on that. I also started taking a Magnesium supplement and a multivitamin that includes vitamin B12 and Zinc pretty quickly after it happened. I also wear earmuffs to reduce the noise in the gym to a tolerable level when I go to lift and also wear earmuffs at school where I am currently working on a summer research project since one of my majors is chemistry and the fume hoods and whatnot I am around get kinda noisy sometimes. I have also started taking reusable earplugs everywhere and started monitoring dB with my phone so that I know if I should remove myself or put ear protection in. I also tried acupuncture which was somewhat helpful at least with the hyperacusis I can finally have conversations at normal talking volume without it hurting my ears.

I felt a bit better after I discovered that I had one or two friends I was close with who had the same issue around my age but never talked about it.

I have a few questions too. So for one I really enjoy participating in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu but have taken time off to try and resolve this issue to the best of my abilities and make sure it won't aggravate my tinnitus. Does anyone have any experience with how that affects tinnitus?

Also why does it seem like barley anyone gets it with the whole party culture in colleges? Is it caused by genetic predispositions or something?

And why does it seem like barely anyone knows about tinnitus or even talks about it? I would have been way more careful and conscious about it if I had been educated on the topic like I have with every other area of my health. I really wish I didn't have to learn this the hard way.

For what it's worth, I had a bunch of ear infections when I was younger, could this have contributed to this happening to me?

 

You can try for two weeks at most (with tapering):

• Steroids
• Xanax
• Zopiclone

Mask the tinnitus to keep yourself from going crazy.

Then you've got what you've got, and being your first time it'll likely fade over the coming months.

You will likely have it disappear on the drugs, but this does NOT mean it's gone and in fact you're very vulnerable to getting worse if there's loud noise around. When off drugs, expect it to come back (perhaps a bit less). Do NOT do another course. It is too risky. NO loud sounds while on the drugs or otherwise. Set hard limits (55-60 dBish). If it happens again, you won't recover as well.

Get good sleep, it helps the most.

Fume hoods are loud and broadnoise like, but musician's earplugs would be far more discrete in other situations.

Too much ear protection will contribute to the tinnitus & hyperacusis if it's mild (in broadband loud noise I would use ear protection though above 60 dB).

Earplugs at night, or minimal masking white noise (like 20-30 dB at most) if you must to sleep well.

You will very likely get better by Christmas.

Supplements are hit and miss, you likely won't get worse trying them.

Loud noise is what did it, as well as your nerves being unconditioned to loud noise, not your childhood ear infections.

Taking megadoses of antioxidants (Vitamin C, E) as well as limiting firing/inflammation (short course of benzos/Gabapentin/steroids or Turmeric) likely would help the moment it happens. The antioxidants when it happened likely helped a lot.

 

Firstly, I'm sorry to hear of your symptoms. It's no fun, and yea it's crazy how rapidly it can set in from something that seems perfectly safe, like being in a bar once in a while. My situation is similar... I blew a mouth-whistle a number of times at a gathering and walked away with tinnitus that's been an issue for almost 5 months now. It's just bizarre.

You raise great questions about why it isn't talked about. I bet you've heard the phrase "if the music is too loud, you're too old". Well, unfortunately most people don't take health seriously until prevention is no longer an option. I don't know, it's gotta be the macho vibe of the commercialized culture we live in. On that note, I know a number of people who themselves have tinnitus and yet they look at me like a weirdo for protecting my ears. Maybe that's just how people feel about self-care, by and large.

I wish you a speedy recovery.

Cheers,
e

 

Hey, mate.

Tinnitus can be one hell of an unpredictable symptom, and much of the medical community don't know for sure why certain people are pre-disposed or why others with more noise exposure never get tinnitus at all. I'm sorry you ended up in this situation and believe me, I know how shitty it feels during the early stages, so I'll do what I can to quell your worries.

My tinnitus started 7 months ago from an ear infection - never had tinnitus before, and I don't have a history of loud noise exposure, so it was a total surprise. Initially it was a brutal experience; it was distracting, annoying, and noticeable everywhere, but with time, it did improve and start to fade down. (After treating the ear infection initially.)

I don't partake in Brazillian Jiu-Jitsu personally, so I can't speak for if that'll effect your tinnitus, nor can I speak about your hyperacusis as I don't experience it. (Though I can say, protecting your ears with earmuffs and earplugs and staying away from noise exposure is a good call - you're healing from an 'injury' and you need to be careful.)

Unfortunately, doctors and ENTs aren't normally helpful for most tinnitus cases, although going to them is still valuable in case there's any other underlying issues contributing to the situation. Don't be disheartened if they can't do much to help you since that's common with most tinnitus cases, especially tinnitus from noise exposure.

As for why barely anyone knows about tinnitus in modern society, it's a classic case of 'you don't know about it until it happens to you' - Tinnitus is unfortunately one of many hidden conditions that doesn't have nearly enough exposure in modern society and the medical world, hence, there's a lot of misinformation and unknowns about the nature of the symptom itself which leads to medical practitioners/therapists/etc often giving inadequate care to sufferers due to ignorance about the seriousness of the condition and its impact on a person.

In the vast majority of cases, people improve tremendously. So don't feel hopeless, because chances are, what you're dealing with now will become much better in the months to come - if it doesn't go away entirely, you'll more than likely adjust to it and cope well.

That being said, tinnitus by and large is a case-by-case condition, everything is highly individual and at the end of the day, advice given by anyone here may or may not work the same, and may work differently for your individual case, so with anything on this forum YMMV.

 

Yeah, I have noticed that I have been pretty paranoid about my health since I had a nasty over-use injury in high school from sports that required surgery. But as you can probably tell from this post neglected my hearing health. I hope to be able to bring more awareness to this condition in my social circle at least although I really doubt anyone my age will listen until its to late.

Man, it sounds like you have worse luck than me. Did you have hyperacusis too at first by any chance? Has it quieted down at all in those months? I am hopeful that mine will go away if I am very careful and continue to be after it goes away, if it does but from what I understand it will take longer than a month maybe up to a year or more.

Funnily enough that you mention the people with tinnitus not caring one of the friends I talked to who is only 21 and got it from listening to music too loud in her car had the attitude that "Well the ear is already ringing I'm going to continue to listen to loud music since I can't do much about it now". And my other friend who had it from similar circumstances as me and is 23 still goes to noisy bars without ear protection which baffles me after essentially getting rid of his after a year and a half. Like, I understand wanting to go to bars still but I feel like an outlier trying to be more aware of the issue and actively preventing it.

I suppose even if there ever is a cure for hearing loss it'd continually be profitable since people will do what people do which makes me feel like it's more likely to happen.

 

How long will the first 3 things you mentioned be good to try out after the onset? I couldn't really get my GP to prescribe anything that might help despite insisting and I won't get to see an ENT for a bit yet.

Could you elaborate more on the nerves being unconditioned or link a research paper? I am just kinda curious about that because I have never heard of that being a thing before.

I appreciate the warning that pharmaceuticals might make me more vulnerable.

 

What is your history with loud sounds? Do you use headphones a lot? You play any musical instruments? Shoot guns? Use power tools?

Seems odd you would incur so much damage from a single bar event at such a young age. I beat the hell out of my ears and didn't have problems until the age of 36. I mean I would be at such loud shows that I would lose my hearing for days and then bounce back.

I think if you just give it some time, don't go to any bars or use headphones, you will heal. Maybe you will retain a little bit of a ring, but it won't be anything that will bother you. I would take it easy for at least the next 6 months.

 

I used headphones a lot before I acquired tinnitus, but at low volumes like 25% or less.

I have been to probably 3 bars in my life plus one concert when I was younger. I partied a little bit freshmen year of college but not too excessively. I have shot guns a fair amount and used power tools but always with pretty heavy ear protection when doing those things. I have also done a little bit of ATV riding and roller coaster riding in my younger years. Most of the time when listening to music in my car it's been pretty low too. There isn't really anything that has been excessive or more damaging than any other average kid I knew.

I am hoping you're right. I am going to be very careful about this from now on and take it very easy for the next while now that I am aware of this.

 

You are in the early stages of tinnitus. There is a good chance to recover after a few months.

Some people have tinnitus caused by COVID-19 vaccination.

Do you see any connection to the COVID-19 vaccine?

Could you share where do you buy the Cysteine from? And how long have you been taking it?

 

I get it in the form of bioactive cysteine which is a dimer form of the amino acid cysteine and it is in the protein powder I use (Dynamic Whey Protein). It's a little more on the expensive side but it's high quality at .55g per serving and I usually take 1-2 servings per day depending on if I lifted that day or not. I have been taking it for probably the past 5 months or so. In all honesty I lucked out that that was in my system (If the studies showing NAC are accurate which I believe it is a helpful component) when I had my noise exposure since cysteine supposedly has the same mechanisms as NAC without some of the side effects.

It is possible that the COVID-19 vaccine caused it since it was roughly a month or maybe less since I got it and that is within the 6 week time frame. I may be experiencing some of the unwanted side effects from that but there are other more prominent variables like noise exposure that make it hard to say.

I am really hoping that's the case.

 

The theory behind NAC is to replenish Glutathione levels but that's pretty difficult in the ear. Moreover, if by dimer you mean disulphide bridge, then that form is already oxidized and can't really assist in reductions.

You're probably better off with lipophilic antioxidants and plain old vitamin C. Some come with lipoflavonoids which also claim to help. If you "lift" a lot it's possible you have baseline low levels of Glutathione, hence a bit more vulnerable to radical damage such as from noise.

 

Hey, a fellow BJJ practitioner here.

Besides messing up my neck over close to a decade, I can tell it hasn't made my tinnitus worse. However, I'm on a hiatus since last November, and since March my tinnitus went from mild to severe. Not sure if noise related, but probably.

For me now even to think I could go back to my noisy club (constant music and the high pitched round-timer) would destroy me and hyperacusis.

I wouldn't even think about rolling with earplugs. But maybe that's the only solution.

I haven't been vaccinated and as far as I know didn't get the virus either.

So yeah, BJJ and motorcycle riding, the two things I enjoyed the most, are out the window for me. At least for now.

I wouldn't count the vaccination out as the culprit for your tinnitus.

About your last question, it is almost absolutely certain genetics play a huge part who gets tinnitus and who doesn't.

 

Yeah I do mean Disulfide bridge. From what I understand that still should increase the Glutathione levels if it is bioactive and not denatured which is what the big thing about how the mechanism works. it's been a minute since I took biochem though so I could be wrong.

By lipophilic you mean things like vitamin A and E right?

You seem to have a strong biochem background, did you take a lot of that in college?

Lifting is something that could have contributed. I do lift around 4-5 times a week .I was not aware that would drop my Glutathione levels all that significantly. I guess I should have guessed. Makes me wonder how none of the football players I know have it if that's the case.

 

That's good to know. I really want to get back into it because I have a ton of fun doing it but I was going to wait until the hyperacusis heals before I started showing up again. I am a bit more hopeful of that happening than the ringing stopping.

At least if the tinnitus is due to genetics, gene therapy is another possible avenue to treating it.

 

It has quieted down in the past 5 months for me. Most noticeably, when I talk to people now, I don't notice it at all unless they have super loud abrasive sounding voices (lol I sound judgmental). In the first 3 months or so I was distressed by distorted sounds accompanying everyone's voice. That was probably the worst part of this for me.

I also had and still have some sound sensitivity and I wear earplugs anytime I'm around sounds that could be louder than 80'ish decibels. No pain ever accompanied the hyperacusis symptoms I experience... loud things just seem unnaturally loud, and I am repelled by them for fear of causing more damage.

I've read a hell of a lot about these conditions over the past 5 months, and talked with friends about their experience with this too, and from all that information I still have plenty of hope that things will continue to get better. The trick for me (which I fail at almost daily) is to not think about it, yet protect against further injury to the ears. It's tricky, but truly when I don't think about it, it's almost a non-issue. I strongly believe in the power of our brain to focus itself on what we tell the brain is important, so I'm leaning into that concept.

All the best,
E

 

If you look up risks of tinnitus, you'll see working out, loud music, and nighttime being the most vulnerable scenarios for hearing damage. Guess how I got mine (trifecta plus bonus drug related).

So basically lifting to loud music in the evening is the worst thing you can do for hearing apparently.

Mostly vitamin E as it isn't the fun kind of liver toxic that A is.

I think your stomach would have to break those bridges anyway as part of digestion. They aren't iron clad like C-F or P-O bonds.

I've done enough of Biochem for another life yes. Majored in Chem though. Had to ditch my Master's once I got this.

 

I would avoid straining and of course don’t get hit in the head from sports...

Also you could try sleeping with elevated head.

 

Well that makes me a little more hopeful especially with the hyperacusis part. I feel I don't have the obnoxiously loud intrusive tone that was there in the first week but it hasn't really decreased at all since that disappeared and it is a bit reactive although I have found the non intrusive tone is easy to ignore when I am doing something I enjoy like lifting or chemistry.

I am thankful I don't have the distortions, the hyperacusis alone is bad enough. I can't really tell if it's pain or loudness hyperacusis, although I had the unfortunate experience of someone setting off a fire work in my normally quiet neighborhood that actually hurt even though it didn't explode right next to me by any means (that's illegal here and I never saw it coming). I definitely also repel from loud situations and get super uncomfortable around them as well as certain frequencies although for me anything above 65 or 70 decibels seems unbearably loud. I certainly feel paranoid now that I know about how bad it could get if I am not careful.

 

Oh man, I hope you don't mean I should avoid lifting because that it's been one of the things keeping me sane during this experience. I'll definitely try not to.

What would sleeping with an elevated head do? Would it be something like decreasing the blood flow to the ears?

 

A healthy dose of paranoia, or rather caution, is certainly warranted. As soon as paranoia leads to anxiety, however, the complicated brain chemistry that appears to be involved in these symptoms seems to run amok. As tough as this sounds, it's best to not let this dominate you and your life. The more I read and hear about these symptoms, the more it appears that paying attention to them exacerbates them. And with that, I'm committing to not visiting this site for at least the next 2 weeks.

All the best on your healing journey! May the journey be brief and successful!

 

Oh man, I always lift in the evening. Although my music isn't too loud, the gym gets noisy sometimes so maybe that contributed.

I sure hope so. I really want to be getting my Cysteine right now. Another bonus would be it has Methionine in it which is also needed for Glutathione.

It's cool to meet a fellow chemist here although under unfortunate circumstances. I am sorry to hear that! I am definitely hoping that I don't have to ditch my Master's especially since I want to end up in pharmaceutical research from an organic/inorganic chemistry and chem engineering aspect and that would probably help push progress forward for these sorts of conditions even if only a little.

 

Since you got tinnitus from noise, I strongly suggest taking a 2 month break from the gym because of the music there and people clanking weights.

If you have earmuffs on and bend down to tie your shoes, does your tinnitus increase? If yes, it’s a good idea to try not doing stuff like that for a while.

Also when my tinnitus spread to my good ear I went to the couch and laid there almost sitting 45 degrees from hips and up. A little extreme but I felt it helped. Until I was exposed to a loud noise outside at month 5 without hearing protection.

I suggest small muscle group training, not compound exercises for some weeks/months. And no push-ups or anything else which keeps the blood flowing to your ears. Just my suggestion, others will disapprove but what you got to lose?

My incident outside has made me so fatigued that I haven’t touched a dumbbell this year... :/

 

Assuming I followed this advice, how would I know if I am ready to do compound movements again? Is the idea behind preventing blood flow to the ears to decrease inflammation? I would assume more blood flow to the ears would promote healing somewhat if there was not inflammation there.

Does it make a difference that I have been wearing earmuffs to the gym do reduce the noise to what feels comfy or is there some other mechanism at play that would damage my ears in there that I am unaware of? When I measured the decibels in there when it was not busy, it got to only around 50 dB, maybe 55 dB, and not really any louder spikes to be heard. Although it gets to around 70 dB-75dB if it's crowded, with louder spikes up to 80 dB when people drop weights.

I know exercise makes tinnitus better and promotes healing so I don't think it would be wise to eliminate it completely and I personally rely heavily on being fit to keep old injuries from flaring up.

 

I assumed more blood to the head would be good too the first 2 months. Then I woke up with noise in both ears and my head going around my head to the point of making me dizzy... I Googled some more in here and decided to try couch sleeping elevated; it did help first few weeks at least but this disease is a mean B...

After 2 months with a sore back and a new tone in my bad ear, I gave up but still sleep with 2 pillows because my good ear goes nuts if I sleep more flat or god forbid with the good ear down.

Do you feel something when bending down? Then I would try to avoid that. Have your neighbour tie your shoes.

I agree with you that exercise might possibly help! If you’re the type walking in the streets without protection then I say you’re much safer at the gym with muffs than during the rest of your day. I find it hard to believe that gym accidents only get up to 80 dB.

But if you have muffs on, go at quiet times to the gym, avoid hitting your muffs with dumbbells, perhaps also avoiding running with muffs on (occlusion effect), then okay perhaps the gym will be fine. It’s however some more exposure around people you can’t trust. For me, with pain hyperacusis, it’s not worth the risks.

You can search this forum for Jason C, a gym rat success story with ear plugs. But he also drank red wine so who knows Then also some people here having accidents at the gym and getting more tones.

Another one, no accident, but he believes his tinnitus got reactive from heavy lifting. I’m not against compound but the strain. If you have discipline to only lift half of your maximum capacity, then you should be able to without straining?

I agree getting exercise in the kitchen is difficult, so follow your gut instinct. 80 dB clanks with muffs should be fine but always some idiots are out to get us people with ear problems.

Since you’re new and already have some improvements I’d say do your best a couple of months more and see how it evolves. You will learn as time goes on and find out what’s best for you. Until then taking some extra precautions is smart.

I recommend some low background music when you’re home to avoid silence and more hyperacusis. Find something calm and turn down the bass and the shrill stuff. Perhaps let it play away from your ears.

The jury’s still out on whether sleeping in silence is bad or good. Try and follow your gut instinct.

I wish you good luck and improvements

One more thing, when I sprint, my ears will scream afterwards until my pulse calms down, if I just jog then nothing. You?

 

I actually walk the streets with protection if they are busy but I am fine if they are not. The 80 dB thing is partially because I am at least 20 feet away from the people dropping weights like I usually am since I know who drops weights and the weights aren't metal they are rubber so they aren't quite as loud as metal ones.

When I bend down the tone changes frequencies but that might be because of sinus pressure I have right now due to seasonal allergies too that gets worse when I bend down.

I actually found that post you were talking about where the dude got worse from heavy lifting so it seems I really shouldn't be pushing my limits to much. I wonder if that happened because he put to much pressure on the ears using the Valsalva maneuver, I know you can burst blood vessels if you're going super hard with it just look at Eddie Hall when he set the previous world deadlift record.

Yeah I have definitely had some small improvement but man is it slow I think my biggest improvement was being able to ignore the tinnitus while my mind was occupied.

When I sprint it seems to be a more constant tone and gets slightly louder because one of the ones I have is like a sin wave sort of like it goes up and down very slightly and is high pitched and my heart beat is actually loud enough to block it out temporarily if I do something like sprint, it settles down afterwards to a bit quieter it seems than before I worked out after it settles but then goes back up to baseline. I hope that made sense. The other tone I have is pretty constant and sounds kind of like fluttering doesn't really change all that much.

I am still trying to learn with this thing and If I am lucky enough to heal from this I will certainly continue better habits for hearing health. Also honestly if the tinnitus didn't get any worse I feel I could live a pretty happy life even with it although obviously I would prefer it gone but the hyperacusis is the real devil.

As far as I can tell I believe the hyperacusis is loudness hyperacusis because everything seems unnaturally loud although certain sounds if they are loud enough (fire work in my normally quiet neighborhood is the only example I have) and I am caught off guard give a sharp pain and make my ears ring louder. May I ask how you knew you had pain hyperacusis? Also is it pretty typical to have achy ears with this thing? More achy if you have been exposed to more noise than you are used too as well?

 

I sure hope you're right on this. I am actually visiting an ENT and audiologist in about 3 weeks. It seemed impossible to get an appointment in the near future, just to make sure nothing is seriously wrong and to see if I have hearing loss.

I would definitely have been one to take those warnings seriously if this was talked about in school at all. This is why I avoided certain things in my life since I knew the risks. In retrospect even in middle school and high school they always had school dances where you would have to yell to talk to each other over the music so I doubt many people were cognizant of consequences like this even in education.

Did you have hyperacusis that resolved by any chance?

 

It sounds like you have some sort of control on things and a better gym situation than most places. I would say you’re safer in the gym with muffs on than on the so-called quiet streets...

But the balance between overprotecting and under protecting is very very difficult.
As some say on here, every time you go outside without some protection, you set your future health at risk.

I’d say go ahead at the gym, but perhaps it’s time to rethink what to do outside. I’m no fan of ear plugs but many here use them as they give some protection and still let you get an ear massage outside

At least have your muffs at hand outside. Even though things that are most painful to me are the sudden loud instant stuff like bangs. They’re over before you get muffs onto ears.

Yes, very common with ear ache/pain even for those who don't have noise induced tinnitus. I’d say those aches are potential setbacks and not just something to shrug of in half an hour... I got ear pain for an hour after my permanent setback one year ago.
A kid with a skateboard did that.

To be an complete arse I’m also gonna say you should think through what tests you will allow at the ENT or audiologist. Tympanometry is loud.

Also, you can tell the audiologist to give you beeps from low to high volume because they like to do the opposite. If you go low you can just tell them to stop if you get uncomfortable with the loudest.

At your own risk, you might consider over-ear headphones instead of muffs for so called quiet streets

 

I prefer earmuffs but occasionally wear earplugs while trying to be discreet.

I am taking your advice about always keeping earmuffs on me though the people at college usually just assume they're some Bluetooth headphones so that's pretty cool.

Man it seems like setbacks are impossible to avoid no matter what with this crazy modern world although I feel as long as I avoid any major ones I should have net improvement. This Fourth of July should be fun

I was aware of some that might be loud I definitely plan on avoiding some I know of are the acoustic reflex and tympanometry test but I haven't heard of any others to avoid.

 

Update:

I went to see an audiologist today and got a full audiogram and apparently my hearing is better than average and the audiologist told me she would almost expect some sort of hyperacusis with hearing like mine and actually gave me the advice of protecting my ears at places like the grocery store or gym or freeway and to slowly wean off of ear protection in normal spaces if I could. She was pretty honest and said that only time would tell if the hyperacusis fades or gets worse and nice about making sure I didn't have to deal with any loud tests. She also didn't try to sell me anything which was nice and said the only treatment that was available was TRT which only helped some people. She also told the University of Minnesota might have more options since they're well known for researching this sort of stuff and it might be worth talking to them. I felt like I had a good experience there.

I also encountered a kid throwing a crazy tantrum at the doctors but had my earmuffs with me just in case I had to deal with something like that and it made me not want to have kids due to the ear troubles I never realized they could be so loud and even got caught off guard but it only caused a medium spike in tinnitus that seems to have dissipated at this point so I don't believe it was a setback.

I also saw an ENT who was pretty arrogant but glad I did because apparently I also have a raging case of textbook TMJ disorder which may not be the cause of everything but is likely a generous contributor to some of my symptoms like aching and burning ear pain without any obvious inflammation and possibly even my hyperacusis and tinnitus. That would certainly explain the headaches and face pain I have been getting too. I would certainly love a reduction in symptoms even if it may not fix the issue completely.

 

Was the ear protection advice for tinnitus or hyperacusis?