Introducing My New Book "Living With Tinnitus"

My apologies, it is available in Canada.

Freebie available through Monday so hopefully you still have time to let your group know. Three out of eight, that's a lot!

 

@Cheza I loved your section on cycling tinnitus which is exactly what I have. I also agree that someone with this type of tinnitus is a novel test subject since they can be ultimately tested against themselves.

I have really been researching this in depth and I feel it seems to be linked with cortisol. I'm going to be doing some cortisol testing on myself on high, medium and low days for comparison. Please let me know if you're interested in seeing the results.

 

Yes, I'm interested, definitely. Also please see the section on BDNF (brain derived neurotrophic factor). If you can get tested for that, it might add more clarification. Low BDNF plasma levels are linked to greater tinnitus severity, but I don't know how closely related timewise the levels are to severity.

What product are you using to do the testing?

 

You could simply ask me for peer-reviewed statistics on tinnitus prevalence and I will gladly share my knowledge and provide access to paywalled journals so that you do not have to rely on informal hypothesis testing such as book sales (which ultimately does not confirm anything in the scientific sense).

 

Thanks so much for making this available, Cheza! I downloaded it and look forward to reading it. Good luck with the book!

 

I didn't download because any reading on tinnitus that doesn't help me get closer to a reduction is wasting my time.

 

You're very welcome, and to answer your question about the doxylamine succinate, I have never had any side effects from taking it. I still take only 12.5mg (I'm about 115 pounds), and I take it more often than not. In other words, I never stopped taking it for more than a few days at a time. I tend to work late hours now, and it makes it easier for me to go to sleep instead of thinking about work.

It's never given me any kind of side effects at all, and I'm not on any other medication. I don't take melatonin anymore, but honestly that would probably be a healthier choice and I should think about switching back to that, and to use the doxylamine succinate only when absolutely necessary. The tinnitus really doesn't keep me from falling asleep anymore, and it doesn't wake me up during the night. Mother Nature is responsible for that.

 

Actually there are millions who have tinnitus, but only about 2% of those millions have the severe or debilitating tinnitus. I was one of them, and had to stop working for 9 months while trying to cope with it.

I did not spend two years writing this book with the expectation of profiting from it. I wrote Living With Tinnitus to share what I've learned. I also want to help others avoid going through what I went through, when I felt like there was no hope at all that things could be better.

Amazon allows 5 days in each 3-month period for a free book promotion. This is my way of thanking everyone on Tinnitus Talk for helping me through what was a very difficult time in my life.

 

I think it's actually higher than that, if I look at the ATA page: "Millions of Americans experience tinnitus, often to a debilitating degree, making it one of the most common health conditions in the country. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control estimates that nearly 15% of the general public — over 50 million Americans — experience some form of tinnitus. Roughly 20 million people struggle with burdensome chronic tinnitus, while 2 million have extreme and debilitating cases."

2 million of extreme/debilitating cases out of either 50 million or 20 million (depending on whether you think that "experiencing some form of tinnitus" qualifies as being a T sufferer or "having T" as you put it). At any rate, it makes the percentage be between 4% and 10%. It's quite significant.

 

@Cheza BDNF as you mention above should always be considered with tinnitus. I think that this subject matter with continued research to sensory input which finally gets transmitted to the hippocampus is important.

The hippocampal volume decreases with decreasing plasma levels of BDNF. BDNF is needed in developmental stages and is a long term process per aging as it's also a long-term inhibitor of pain sensitivity. Exercise is important either every day or every other day. Some guidelines say 30 minutes. Many links promote sunshine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brain-derived_neurotrophic_factor

 

I was going by memory and trying to be conservative in the estimate, but I agree with your assessment.

 

Nice work @Cheza. I downloaded it and looking forward to learning from the book so I can be more informed about the different aspects of this tinnitus ailment. Thank you for the generosity of sharing it to the members here.

I especially like your introduction which mention Tinnitus Talk. Hopefully this will bring people who need more interactive help to this forum and will hopefully speed up their recovery.

Thanks again and salute you for a great job well done. Cheers.

 

Hi Cheza, thanks again for getting back about your Doxylamine Succinate experiences and yes it sounds like the best alternative out there for sleep based on what I've read so far and also from posts on the BENZO forum, especially the post where someone found it as “effective as Remeron” and that’s great to hear as I was thinking about asking for Remeron when I visit an ENT this week.

And it took more that 2 weeks to finally get an appt with an ENT, probably because of the flu epidemic, but I'm not expecting much based on what I've read on posts about ENT visits, but I’m also going to be seeing an Audiologist in the same appt and maybe i can help determining what my T Hz level/s are as I’m having a time trying to determine the exact range, sometimes it sounds like in the 5k+ Hz range and other times in the 7k+- Hz range. And so once I have that I will be able to generate an Audio Notch wav file.

And also many thanks for detailing step by step instructions on how to create a Audio Notch file as I haven’t found anything out there that details how to do it from top to bottom, excellent!

You’re a caring and courageous person Cheza and I wish you all the best with your book and your own suffering as well!

BENSO posts:
I too am delighted I discovered doxy. I “find it as effective as remeron”, and I have not taken any remeron since.

You know the funny thing is that when there is an OTC med like doxy available, that would appear to be fairly safe to take on a semi-regular basis, why on earth are benzos prescribed for sleep? I wish I had known about doxy 2 years ago. Then I would never have touched valium.

I agree with you -- why on earth do drs want to prescribe benzos for sleep when these OTC products seem to work for a lot of people? They ought to at least suggest that their insomniac patients give them a try. My pdoc did suggest camomille tea, which is helpful, but also wanted to prescribe a cocktail of xanax and ambien. It was only after I came to the BB that I found about Unisom.

 

Thanks very much for offering this book for free! I've downloaded it and look forward to reading it!

 

Just wanted to drop in and thank you for your generosity and this wonderful book!

 

@Cheza I missed the deadline... ah well... I chose to buy the paperback. I would have done this anyways. You deserve something for your work. Thank you and I look forward to reading.

 

Oh my Gosh! That's wonderful. Thank you VERY much @Cheza. God Bless You.

 

Book is still available today (Monday) through midnight Pacific Time. I do appreciate you buying the paperback, but if you want to cancel it and get the free ebook, there's probably still time.

 

You're welcome!

 

How to create audio notch and ACRN confused me so much at the beginning, that I put off using those therapies because I couldn't understand how to do it. I figured others might have the same problem, and definitely wanted to include them in the book because studies back up their effectiveness.

Just remember, it takes a l-o-n-g time, probably 6 weeks to notice a slight difference, and then maybe a year or more to notice a definite difference, but it's worth it. (It doesn't work for everybody, though, unfortunately.)

 

That means a lot to me, coming from you. There probably isn't much in the book you don't already know. You're one of the sources of wisdom on this forum, and have given a lot of comfort to others when they need it most.

Definitely I want to draw more people to this forum. I wonder if I would have survived without it, and I know there are many others on here who feel the same way.

 

HI Cheza, I’ve been able to create several audio notch files for different Hz ranges just for practice and can now create one in about 5 minutes using your step by step instructions, so I will continue creating test files until I think I’ve found the closest Hz value or can get a reading from my ENT this week.

And I think this notched therapy makes a lot of sense because it sounds like when using a notched masking noise, the good ear cells adjacent to the bad tinnitus cells also get activated and the good cells may try to synchronize with the adjacent bad tinnitus cells. And I think I noticed a similar effect the other day when I had a mind bending screeching sound in my left ear and used a higher toned masking noise that I created from the Dr Pigeon site and that screeching sound seem to subside to a tolerable level!

And yes this notched approach sounds like the approach that Dr. Shore may be using in her Michigan trials along with applying an electrical stimulus, possibly to know acupuncture points, and when the electrical stimulus merges with the physical vibrations from the masking noise, maybe some kind of chemical rewiring takes place, because the results she’s gotten so far sound very hopeful
https://labblog.uofmhealth.org/lab-report/first-test-specially-timed-signals-ease-tinnitus-symptoms

And your link to an earlier study also appears to have gotten good results as well, so I think I’m going to continue to be practically optimistic and hopeful!
https://www.hindawi.com/journals/bmri/2015/569052/

And also thanks for mentioning the Salicylates foods as I’m now on an almost zero Salicylate diet and definitely notice a reduction of the intensity in the screeching sounds in my left ear, excellent research Cheza, you’re a God send for us all!

 

Thank you so much! I have been reading a few chapters and you're amazing! I am so grateful you have taken so much time and dedication to write this book and it feels great to read your thoughts and all the information you have gathered. Thank you again!

 

I actually had doubts about whether to include the salicylate info or not because the odds of it contributing to tinnitus were so small. Now I'm glad I did, because it seems there may be more to it after all. Thanks for letting me know.

 

You are very welcome! I read your review, and want to thank you for your touching words. It almost brought tears to my eyes. You have no idea how much it means to me that people are being helped by what I've written. It makes it all worthwhile.

 

I think I can speak for all that we are greatly thankful for you taking all this effort and time to help others both here on TT and by the book. I hope you have great success with the book and that you'll keep doing great (in terms of health) and with anything else you set your mind to! You surely have proven that with the book! ❤

 

Laura Cole’s book
“Living With Tinnitus,”
is a veritable compendium of collected wisdom, approaches, treatments, experiences, personal stories, and much more.
I have read many books on Tinnitus, which have without fail, left me disappointed.
I read this particular excerpt in Laura’s terrific book; which is a ‘gem.’
The item is referred to as Dr Hubbard’s Story.

• “Rather than give up, I decided to make tinnitus sounds themselves the object of mindfulness. I used the same approach I'd learned to help my patients soften their experience of depression, stress and anxiety to soften my experience of tinnitus. I practiced listening to tinnitus sounds, and feeling tinnitus sensations with open, accepting attention, allowing them to exist as part of my new soundscape. As you can imagine, the first weeks of mindfully listening to tinnitus were extremely challenging. But through patient, persistent effort, it got easier, and I believe, greatly accelerated my recovery.”
• This is also my own approach.
• Instead of actively wishing to reduce my Tinnitus noise, or trying not to hear it, or attempting to develop a mental avoidance technique, I have adopted this same method.

From the first opportunity each morning, I expose myself willingly to its noise.
I allow it to be there.
I accept it.
I do twenty minutes meditation, and I start off by listening to the noise, until I drift off into a peaceful state.
Then I get up and get on with my day.
Many times I am unaware of it, and many times I am aware of it, but I don’t attempt to join battle.
Since adopting this approach there are times when I perceive it to be quieter; perhaps it is, and perhaps it isn’t.
I seem to have escaped from despair, and am well into toleration.
Who knows, perhaps habituation will come next.
Already, it feels like a wise choice, and a good way forward.
Incidentally, I would not be without this book.
Part of its provenance is that it was compiled and written by a genuine Tinnitus sufferer,
just like you and I.

Jazzer

 

I follow a somewhat opposite approach, in that I don't deliberately listen to it. Instead I do my best to follow the four "don'ts" of the Back to Silence method:
1 - Don't measure it
2 - Don't monitor it
3 - Don't describe it
4 - Don't compare it
I truly believe people need to choose a method which resonates with their own attitudes and beliefs and lifestyle. That's why this forum is such a great resource, because a lot of folks participate with their own viewpoints and experiences.

I like that you've found a way to cope with your tinnitus. It also sounds like you're on a path to where it will recede into the background of your awareness and you'll seldom notice it at all.

 

@Cheza - thank you for coming back.
This excellent book is so choc full of different ideas, methods, and suggestions, that I feel we can experiment with them, obviously over a period of time.
Currently this is my preferred flavour.
I’ll let you know how I get on.
Very best wishes
Jazzer xx

 

If it works for you, stick with the program. Tinnitus is as much a mind thing as it is a brain thing.

Thanks for the compliment!