Improvements in My Tinnitus Using the TinnitusPlay App

I suffered tinnitus worse than I could have imagined in the immediate aftermath of my COVID-19 vaccine - I took the AstraZeneca jab in late May. Things calmed down from that point, but nowhere near back down to the level pre-vaccine.

In my desperation for some relief, I decided to pursue ACRN again. I had previously paid The Tinnitus Clinic in Harley Street £5,000 in 2013 for the treatment, and it hadn't helped a bit. But I recently noted that Professor Peter Tass had recently been appointed at Stanford, and so that gave his work increased credibility in my eyes, so I looked for other ways to implement his work, speculating that it was the implementation that may have been incorrect, rather than the theory.

So, a week ago, I purchased Nuheara IQBuds MAX earbuds, and I'm using the TinnitusPlay app in Neuromodulation mode.

I have been following the ACRN protocol, but instead of doing tinnitus matching, I spent 4 days trying four different frequencies of stimulation, one on each day, and then carefully assessing which one influenced my tinnitus best. After choosing one, I've been doing 6 hours a day listening to the beeps.

The issue with the Tinnitus Clinic's implementation is that it relies on pitch matching, which is incredibly difficult. Why not choose the frequency based on the impact? That's what I am trying to do, in a systematic way.

The reason for purchasing these earbuds, rather than using standard headphones, is that these allow outside noise in, and so I can continue my daily routine without isolating myself.

I expected no improvement at all, but remarkably, it has done something. My tinnitus has calmed down to the baseline that I had before my COVID-19 jab. It's hard to asses, but I think things might actually be better than they were pre-jab. It's early days yet, but this is the first time since getting tinnitus in 2009 that I feel I have actively influenced it (positively!).

It could be co-incidence, because my tinnitus has varied in the past, but I think that that's less likely. I'll post updates on my progress. If I don't post again, assume that it's all gone wrong, and my experiment, like so many before, has failed.

 

Still feeling great. Will post a full update at the weekend.

 

I have woken up today, and I’m still feeling great.

The high pitched squealing sound that I have had for so many years is down to a fraction of what it was. My lower pitched tones have not changed, but I was not targeting those with the choice of central frequency in the neuromodulation. Perhaps I will in the future, but for now they do not bother me anyway.

I am in constant fear that something will go wrong, but right now, I still feel that I have a causal positive impact on my tinnitus, and I’ve gone from being at its mercy to being in control. It’s a wonderful time.

To recap, there’s one key idea; standard ACRN is implemented via pitch matching. This is not the best approach because it is too hard to do. My way forward was to do an empirical match, by which I mean trying different pitches over an extended period, finding the one that works best, and then implementing the remaining standard ACRN protocol.

I will check in again in the coming weeks to update my progress, but so far so good, touch wood!

Wish everyone here well.

 

This is interesting. I feel my tone has settled (I’ve had four tones in the past and now seem to have two) my main and most distracting is around 12,000 Hz (I haven’t properly matched).

Which frequency have you found beneficial?

 

Hi Karen. I’m using 8kHz but my tinnitus tone that annoys me most if way higher. The key is to do the matching empirically. Don’t worry about what your tinnitus tone is. Just try many different frequencies over a period of time and work out the one that works best for you.

Im still feeling great from this. Like I said in my first message, this is the first time I have causally effected my tinnitus.

 

Hey Adam... Glad your system is helping. I use the TinnitusPlay app as well. I found boosting the frequencies where I have the most hearing loss (4 kHz, 6 kHz, 8 kHz) seem to mask and tame it a bit.

Just wondering if the earbuds let you boost the frequencies at all? The most relief I've found is a mix of the different cricket sounds on the app playing in the background while I have my hearing aid in. Seems to work better than just turning up the volume on the app.

 

Hi Josh. To be clear, I’m using the neuromodulation function, combined with Nuheara earbuds, and it’s been a complete game changer for me. Still working great.

 

Hi @Adam0309.

I'm encouraged by the benefit you got from TinnitusPlay's neuromodulation feature in 2021.

I'm considering trying it, but I don't have an Apple device.

To help me decide whether to buy an iPod in order to use TinnitusPlay, I'd like to ask a few questions:

Q1) Has the initial improvement been sustained?

Q2) During the first few weeks, how many hours a day were you listening to the neuromodulation sounds?

If you are still using TinnitusPlay's neuromodulation:

Q3) Has your tinnitus (a) improved further with sustained use, or (b) stabilised at the level it got to after a few weeks of neuromodulation?

Q4) How many hours a day are you using it?

If you have stopped using it:

Q5) Why did you stop?

It would be great to have answers to these questions, and to read any advice you may have relating to use of the TinnitusPlay app / neuromodulation.

Thanks in advance.

 

Unfortunately TinnitusPlay has stopped helping me. I had a really good 4 months after I started doing this, but perhaps it was just natural variation I’m now finding no benefit from it, although I use it on occasion for masking.

Sorry I don’t have better news.

 

Thanks for getting back to me, and for your honesty. Better for me to know that it didn't work for you in the long run.

 

Hi all.

I used the TinnitusPlay app two times and I played one tone in my tinnitus ear for a few seconds (not even perfectly matched via "Match and Sound") and my ringing stopped (I still hear sounds that sound like waves though, but still!) twice.

This is crazy and makes me kind of afraid! I have silence for about a minute - can someone explain to me how it works and how I should work with it in order to have more lasting effects (likely)?

I'd be thankful for any information. Also, how likely is it that I make my tinnitus worse?

 

Wish I could give TinnitusPlay a shot, but it's an Apple Store exclusive. I don't think I want to spend 500-1000 euros on the hopes that it might help. It's quite unfortunate since it has been 3 years since the app first released with the hopes of releasing an Android version in the future and still no updates on the Android version.

 

Does AudioNotch work in the same way as TinnitusPlay? Or is AudioNotch just to match your tinnitus tone and it will not help with cancelling the tinnitus out for a few seconds?

 

Thank you for clearing this up. I appreciate it.

I'm probably just going to try and save some money and buy a really dated iPhone. It seems that even a iPhone 5 should work since their iOS version can go up to 10 and that's the version you need to use TinnitusPlay. This means that it won't be as expensive as I originally had thought.

 

I am guessing the iOS version is written in Swift? Was there a technical reason it couldn't have been done with something like React Native which would have ran on both iOS and Android using web technologies?

 

Tracfone has inexpensive iPhones. They are new but may be an older version. I got one recently to use my with my Widex Moment hearing aid/masker.

 

Having being written in Swift is a huge advantage over React Native. Swift supports background playback, even when other media stream are playing.

So you can watch video or blend in rain from a different app without it stopping playback.

This is impossible to do non-natively.

 

First time posting. I downloaded the TinnitusPlay app and didn't know what to expect. After poking around... I found the cricket sound mixer. Dialed in every number and found "5" completely wipes out the tinnitus in my left ear (still have some in the right) but I'll take it. I've been using it at night to sleep, too. It's a bit much at a "loud" level; however, if I dial it down super low - it helps with sleep.

I wonder if someone can explain how the neuromodulator works?

 

I think I may have figured it out. You have to use it first thing as soon as you wake up - for me tinnitus is raging at that point. I am then able to get the positive effect that I mentioned in my original post on this. If I use it later in the day or afternoon, then there is no impact.

Perhaps the brain is more susceptible at that time in the day? Who knows. All I know is I am grateful to be able to function comfortably again.

My protocol is to use TinnitusPlay without headphones and play white noise in the background on a speaker as soon as I wake up, for about one hour. It has been working well so far.

 

Sounds like residual inhibition to me.

 

Still working well, thankfully.

 

Many thanks for posting an update and advice. Immediately after waking up is a tough time for me, because like you, my tinnitus is raging then. Your success with ACRN, when used for an hour as soon as you wake, gives me hope.