July 10 — Tinnitus Came Back / As of September 3, Tinnitus Again Almost 90% Gone

@Sam Bridge yes Sam. There are some people with extremely loud tinnitus 24/7. My best friend is a practicing psychiatrist, and he mentioned in the worst case scenarios of T, it's so unbearable some individuals actually commit suicide.

One thing I've been thinking about for the past couple of months is TINNITUS should have more public exposure. I'm perplexed as to why not a lot of research and funding is dedicated to T as of yet. T is very prevalent, with certain statistics currently saying 10% of the USA population suffers from it, and within that group, 2% have severely debilitating T. Another concern I have is for many soldiers coming home from duty, a sizable number of them have noise-induced tinnitus; and it is one of the top reasons our armed men and women seek help.

@Vinnitus

I do agree there is in fact a threshold where hair cells can recover from damage. However, I am uncertain as to the time frame where hair cells recover optimally.

Unlike muscle damage where tissue is destroyed or tissue death occurs, I think the healing of cochlear hairs is much different in regards to the healing process. With muscles, inflammation occurs --> proliferation --> tissue remodeling. In ears, with an abundance of nerves and signals being sent back and forth with the CNS, it's probably safe to assume the healing process may be more intricate and complex.

In regards to Alzheimer's, the prevailing theory is around neurofibrillary tangles and plaques, and also amyloid-beta deposits are responsible for AD. I do agree that some forms of tinnitus can be from brain inflammation, since corticosteroids I think have shown some relief of some individuals. And as you probably know, corticosteroids decrease the inflammatory response of the immune system. However, you might be on to something that an end-toxin or free-radicals released from cochlear hairs may play a role in T. Interesting thought.

Swimming sounds like a great idea. Just be careful since swimming can cause swimmer's ear (otitis externa). Get those endorphins kicking!

Regarding noise-induced Tinnitus, the reason why I feel noise-induced trauma can and will heal over time is primarily because we know the source of when T occurred (auditory trauma). Noise induced T has a culprit, unlike T that comes randomly or T that has been present since childhood (I've read of people talking about how they've had T all their life, and remember it as a kid). That's why I'm a big believer in the body's healing process once inflammation or necrosis occurs.

Regarding my T, it has come to a point where I think of my T maybe 3-4 times daily (I'm beginning to look for it less and less). This past thursday, it was odd but for the whole day (even after taking a shower when I normally have T for a few minutes) I did not have any ringing at all, but instead had a constant hiss the whole day. I'm still happy it was a faint hiss because like I mentioned, it kind of blends in with the background. As of Friday and Saturday, I went the whole evening without any white noise machine, fans on and actually just slept with my window open. Even sleeping on my side (with either ear down directly on my pillow) my mind does not focus on T whatsoever because i don't hear it, and even if I plug my ears, I hear silence; which I'm of course grateful for.

 

Hi @heartohelp

Thanks for the good thread! I'm about a month and a week in to my fight with T. Around the same age as you and I've been feeling down that I'd have to deal with this for the next 50-60 years of my life instead of getting it when I'm old and grey

Anyway, my T is only really audible in silence or when a sound just cut offs completely (watching a movie on TV and hitting the pause button, I can hear it start up).

Not sure how I got mine, never go to clubs or bars- more of a sit at home and edit photos/videos person. My T might be noise induced because I have been guilty of some loud iPod use on occasion over the years, could also be stress or high blood pressure. Maybe a cold as well since I woke up one morning during a bout with the flu and could hear the intermittent TOOOOOTEEEEETOOOOO tone. Anyways, this is getting long haha.

Wanted to ask how you are dealing with sleep and silent rooms? I find that the biggest thing that is getting me at the moment is my sleep has been absolute shit for the past few weeks. I don't hear my tone when I try to sleep, but wake up in the middle of the night sometimes to a party in my left ear.

 

Hey @flimflam

So you got T after getting the flu? I suggest you see your general practitioner ASAP. If you got flu medications, some of them are ototoxic --> the can affect your ear and cause tinnitus!

I'm happy you said though that your T is primarily audible only during moments of silence and you only hear it from time to time (intermittent). If you have seen my previous posts about my T journey, I do talk about it in detail (you can find them via my profile). Your loud noise exposure via your earphones can also over time be a culprit of your T, and other life's stressors could have aggravated your T along with the flu.

As of now, I can sleep in silent rooms with no problem since my T has resolved (It resolved after 1 year during the initial T in 2008), and now after about 2 months (july 10 - september 5, 2016).

My suggestion for now: rest, eat healthy, drink lots of water (it's imperative you get your body back to normal by increasing your health and wellness).

1) Don't look for your T at night; keep your mind preoccupied with something else
2) If you hear T when you're lying down in bed, try not to sleep with your ears facing down since that might increase the perception of T
3) If you can hear your T at night over ambient sounds (i.e., having your window open so you can hear the outside, crickets, cars passing by etc), I suggest you go to YouTube.com and search for "WHITE NOISE" sounds, usually these tracks just repeat over several hours, producing a static sound that should mask your T. Another thing you can try to do for the time being without paying for anything is turning on your A/C or fan at night.

Let me know if there's anything you have questions about. I hope you recover soon. I'm staying positive for you since you say you only hear it in dead silence and also it seems it comes and goes. Those two factors were what helped me with my initial bout with T.

Best of luck
GP

 

@heartohelp

Hello Gian,

Thank you for your post!

For me my Tinnitus took a turn for the worse this morning. I woke up at 5am with a very loud high-pitched tone, where it formerly was more of a hiss. The tone was so loud I wasn't able to sleep back (normally I have no issues with sleeping, even despite my current Tinnitus). Today my Tinnitus is louder than it was before. I hope it is a temporary spike, because this is quite a different kind of hell...

Regarding your story on the healing process; I don't think the cochlear hair cells itself are able to recover from damage, but I do think the brain is able to adapt to the Tinnitus and ultimately push it back so far, that you won't notice it (even in silence). I think however that this depends on the severity of the damage to the auditory system. The more severe, the more time the brain needs to adapt to this damage. This process might very well take years, decades, the better part of a lifetime or simply your whole life. Due to the time this process takes, some people get impatient and expose themselves to new sounds in the meantime (because you have to live life, right?), furthering their auditory damage and prolonging this process even more, ending up with severe damage that takes decades for the brain to adapt to.

I think back in 2010 I had some light damage to my auditory system by short but intense impulse noise, to which my brain was able to adapt in a few months because I abstained from any new loud noise exposure AND because the initial damage wasn't too severe. Now however, with my concert visit, I have been exposed for 2.5 hours to loud noise. I think I will be in for the long haul now unfortunately...

Whether an inflammatory process is at the core of this or brain adaptation due to less input I'm not entirely sure. However, I read a study about cell death caused by auditory insult, and cell death releases free radicals which in turn start an inflammatory process. This leads me to think Tinnitus might as well be a chronic inflammation of the auditory system. I am trying to add anti-inflammatory food (like ginger, turmeric, omega-3 and others) to my food to see if this does something, but it might be too little to be of effect (I didn't notice a positive effect yet). I do think however, that if it's an inflammation, that doing things to boost the immune system (take rest, exercising like swimming, adjusting diet, meditation, abstaining from new loud noise insults so no new free radicals are released, etc) might help reduce the inflammation. This might explain why some people have reported improvements with these things. Inflammation might also explain why the Tinnitus perception varies in intensity from day to day.

If you're interested in reading a study, of which this one is mainly focused on antioxydants to help fight the inflammatory processes, you can read it here: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1950331/. It mentions about taking Vitamins A, C, E and Magnesium and its effects to reduce noise-induced hearing loss in the first few days. Maybe the inflammatory processes become too widespread after this initial time window to curb it with supplementation alone? Who knows... It shows there is some inflammatory component to all this though.

Unfortunately, I get the impression however that noise-induced Tinnitus is one of the worst ones you could get in terms of being able to totally rid yourself of it. I see very few positive stories on it's total remission when compared to the stories where people just live with it and "just don't care". I guess improvements can be made through the process described above, but that total remission is a rarity due to the extremely long time the process can take and the potential for newly acquired noise insults throughout life. Despite this, I hope improvement will await us all... Because hope is all we have.

All the best,

V.

 

Hey @Vinnitus

I'm so sorry to hear your T has spiked these past few days? By any chance was there something you experienced recently that you might think contributed to your T spike?

Regard hearing damage, I am amazed by your theory about hair cell death and the inflammatory process. To add something related to what you mentioned above about cell death and free radicals, I think you're on to something there. Why?

One thing I've been thinking about is your stance on inflammation and the release of chemicals after ear cell death. This is something you can apply to other parts of the body, and I'll apply your model to the heart.

The word ischemia means "without oxygen and glucose", so our heart isn't getting the tissue perfusion it needs to remain healthy.

Now once an infarct occurs (heart attack, or myocardial infarction) it means due to prolonged tissue hypoperfusion (long levels of oxygen, glucose and other nutrients) the tissue actually dies. This relates to your theory of free radicals because several cardiac biological markers are released into the blood stream, and we can test to see if they are elevated or not. This is primarily with Troponin I and CK-MB, and myoglobin (although this is not cardiac specific).

Relating to what you said earlier, I too am wondering now if there is some sort of chemical or toxin released in the ear which results in prolonged or chronic inflammation. It would be interesting to see with what our best and brightest in the field of medicine and technology think of within the next few years.

Anyway, I hope all is better now Vinnitus, and I truly wish your spike in T is temporary. Please keep me updated with your overall health and if incorporating exercise, taking herbals, vitamins and foods that aid in the inflammatory response do indeed have a positive effect on your T.

Just some 411, on facebook I keep up to date with T research following a group called "Tinnitus Research Initiative"

Here is an article I found and read recently. Very interesting and promising.

http://surgicalneurologyint.com/sur...nitus-is-there-a-place-for-brain-stimulation/

 

I believe this, from both an intuitive level, and having a background in physiology. You described it well.

I believe there are many things that can be done to "bring down" the inflammation/aberrant functioning that results.

To offer another example, body-related, I developed bicipital tendonitis from overuse of the right shoulder during my college years. Sometimes the flare-ups were so painful that I would have to literally grip and stabilize my right shoulder with my left hand, before I could move, roll over in bed, etc.

I began to eat better, for one thing. This brought about an overall decrease in the shoulder pain as well as various other body aches and pains.

I also began to make environmental adaptations, such as resting the arm from overuse, carrying heavy bags with the left arm for a while, and just generally not allowing weight load strain on the right shoulder.

Now, for DECADES, there has not been a significant flare-up.

While the auditory system and brain neurology are significantly different from an arm, many of the same principles of care and recovery would apply.

Avoiding repeat injury is paramount. No more loud noises. Forget about "normal" concerts and other loud environments, forever. (Unless you choose to expose yourself to them and are willing to bear the risk). Just adapt your life and get on with it. (I personally am in the process of actually changing my work environment due to this. And I am not going to feel sorry for myself about it; one could always go down that fruitless road; better to go down the road of "What new adventures await?").

And diet and exercise and meditation (many ways to do that besides sitting on a pillow! simple breathing and calming techniques, walking meditation, etc.)! These are known to change our bodies (and the brain is in the body!). The difference between knowing something and actually executing it is vital.

DO all this stuff. Make it your new life plan. Accept that even though you didn't want to have to make these changes, they are, perhaps, the universe sending a wake-up call to fine tune yourself!

And you can't go wrong by becoming healthier in mind and body. And you won't know till you really enmesh yourself with this new lifestyle whether it can bring down your overall inflammation and spur a positive change in the tinnitus.

I believe it can.

 

Hello Gian, @heartohelp

I wonder how you are doing these days. Is your Tinnitus still as low or did it go even lower?

For me there is little change. I crossed into my 5th month since onset last September 28th and my Tinnitus makes a sound like I'm clenching my jaws constantly. It gets more noticeable when sitting or lying down, but that seems common... How's yours?

 

Hey @Vinnitus

Just to let everyone know.. I'm still alive and fighting! I will update everyone shortly. Most likely this weekend. Cheers!

 

Hey everyone,

It's good to be back writing on this board (I've emailed and corresponded with several other people over the past few weeks) and discuss/update everyone.

So since my last post about how drastic changes came around early September, I can say my T has at a slower rate healed and the volume and duration has indeed gone down. As of the past 3-4 weeks, I don't have to sleep with any sort of natural masker such as having my window open, and that also goes for any ambient noise generator such as a fan, outlets or white noise. I remember the first few weeks during July when my T resurfaced I had to sleep with a fan on and also I was afraid to sleep on my ears, since I felt like the t volume was more noticeable. It's probably safe to say the was not a very good thing to do since I felt so tense I would wake up with a sore and stiff neck.

Despite that, like I mentioned earlier, my T volume when I do hear it is probably 0.3 in volume-Cricket sounds mask it so well I don't hear it. If you all remember also, there are still times when I hear T for several minutes a day. They are:

1. After I shower
2. After I work out or play sports (I play badminton)
3. If I extend/flex my neck or I clench my teeth

Regarding after I shower, I noticed from July to September the T was perhaps a 1 or a 2 in volume but it was transient and would disappear after several minutes. For the past couple of days, I have indeed noticed that my T after showering has drastically gone down in volume, and sometimes I don't hear it at all, even if I'm "looking" for it.

I still have T sounds and a feeling of rushing/fullness after I play badminton. This T is primarily present once I enter my car and sit there for a couple of minutes. Here is something interesting though. I wanted to try an experiment and see if I could "wait" it out until my T post playing with actually disappear (why do I say that? Normally, when I'm down playing, I do a quick 30 second check to see if my T is there-it is, despite that, once I get home, it's gone). So this past Wednesday, I did something to see if my T would be aggravated. After playing badminton, I had dinner with a couple of friends around midnight. I drank a lot of caffeine and had little water. Once I entered my car, I notice the volume of my T was more pronounced (2-2.5). Despite this, I continued to sit in my car, and i actually focused on the t sound itself (it was roaring also and it felt like blood was both rushing; I also had a humming background noise).

I decided to do deep-breathing exercises and relaxation since I could feel my heart thumping and I knew my anxiety was increasing. When I say I have anxiety, YES I do still have a little bit of it because I think my body has grown accustomed to "expecting to hear my T" during specific times. For about 4-5 minutes, I began to get scared because concentrating on my T did in fact make me feel more anxious and uneasy. However, upon taking slow and deep breathes, my T gradually subsided. The volume of the ringing in my left side decreased steadily over about a minute and a half; what's more, although the feeling of fullness remained, the humming and rushing also in fact did disappear. This is why I'm more at ease and feel generally more confident that I can in fact get things back to normal. As of me writing this now, I have no T at all-no rushing, fullness, humming or any high pitched ringing.

Also, I have gotten off of Ginkgo Biloba for the past couple of weeks (I have ordered my second batch) since I have not received my new shipment. Although I have spoken about how I personally feel that Ginkgo did in fact have positive benefits for me, I have maintained a pretty good diet so far. That includes eating about 1 meal a day of salad with no dressing. I also have been drinking about 128 fl oz of water per day and I still generally drink all fruit/vegetable smoothies or cold pressed beverages 2-3 a week.

Other than that, I maintain active by playing sports 12-16 hours per week, sleep 7-7.5 at night and literally try to implement other tactics such as being more self-aware and self-conscious if I am getting upset or stressed out. To put it simply, as I was 90% healed in September, as of now, I feel I am closer to 95%+ healed. At this point, eating a unhealthy meal or drinking a lot of coffee has had no significant impact on my T whatsoever, and the other day, while sitting in my friends car, he did play his music at a considerably loud volume (60% of max volume), and although I had T resurface, it did in fact go away and i hardly noticed it was there (I obviously still don't listen with headphones/earphones on or play loud music, but I was indeed testing the waters).

Anyway, I hope all of you are doing better; please keep me updated on your recovery process and journey with T. I'm always open to discussion and I do enjoy interacting with every single one of you.

Regards
Gian C. Penola

 

@heartohelp Thank you, Gian! I always enjoy your posts and you are doing a great service here by being so specific and informative, and you are very kind and friendly. It's appreciated!

 

Hello Gian, @heartohelp

Good to hear from you and to see you are doing well! It seems your Tinnitus keeps improving and might one day vanish to the point of being unnoticeable, which is good news! When your Tinnitus is low, do you attribute it to some form of habituation or are you actually not able to detect any Tinnitus at all (even when plugging the ears)?

For me, things are still highly variable. I noticed an increase in "good days" though when viewed over a longer period of time. Currently it is very noticeable, but during the good days I can just about barely find it (even when plugging the ears). Most annoying are still the sensations of aural fullness. For me, that doesn't really seem to go away so far.

Like you mentioned, I also noticed that the pitch of the Tinnitus changed by changing jaw or neck position. Unfortunately, there are only ways to consistently make it louder, not lower. I see you also mention you took up exercising. I should pick this up again as well, as I didn't really put much effort into it since my last holiday in December 2015. Did you notice any improvements you can relate to taking up exercising?

I hope you will continue to improve! By all means, please keep us updated. I always enjoy reading your posts. It gives much needed hope to many here.

 

Hello there I also had noise induced T...this was 1 week and 2 days ago (I originally thought it was 2 weeks but it's actually just a week and 2 days!), and I am almost virtually cured of it. When I plug my ears I can hear that super quiet sound that one hears when everything is dead silent and they can hear their own thoughts (if that makes sense). It's so quiet I am unsure if I am just imagining it or not. So I scratch it up to paranoia and live my life normally.

The moment I had T my doctor placed me on steroids immediately...this helped immensely I think. Hopefully if it is 99% cured It will stay that way forever. Good luck to you hon.

 

Gian,
Thanks for that information. How old were you when you got T from noise?

 

Hey @Angelo P

I got T initially in 2008 when I was 22 years old. It was due to loud noise exposure (even though I don't normally, I went out and stood by the speakers for several hours). That T was the worst one of the two (I had T resurface in July of this year, but it is around 95%+ cured at the moment).

The 2008 bout with T lasted more than 1 year, but after 1 year, it had subsided enough that it became intermittent and the volume was much, much lower than initially. My T was basically cured from the last half of 2009 - July of 2016.

Unlike other people who have mentioned (like @coffee_girl) they took steroids to decrease the inflammatory response, I was unaware of the drug treatments at the time [and my HCP didn't mention them] so I embarked on a 1 year journey of implementing lifestyle changes which had a significant impact on my quality of life as well as helping tremendously during my recovery and healing phase with T.

 

I can almost guarantee you that 4 months is not near enough time for your ears to heal after 2-3 hours at a concert. I had a very loud exposure for only 45 minutes and my ears were screeching loud ring. The good news is it went completely away, the bad news is it took 12-14 months, but it will go away.

 

Hello @jjflyman

So you're saying your Tinnitus went away completely over the course of 12-14 months after a loud noise exposure for 45 minutes? You should definitely write a success story (how it happened, how you noticed improvement, how it went away, etc.) in the "Success stories" section of this forum, because people are badly in need for some hope here and I am sure it will be appreciated!

I do hope you are right, and the Tinnitus might still subside after a longer period of time. Currently my outlook is grim, as in fact some new symptoms showed up in addition to the Tinnitus; equilibrium disturbances and increased aural fullness. Personally I do not believe ears heal at all, when they are damaged it will remain that way. This Tinnitus however, might be caused by nerve/synaptic damage rather than permanent damage to the ears. We don't really seem to know the prognosis for auditory nerve or synaptic damage, so maybe there is some hope. Still, for a lot of people (as you can see on this forum) the Tinnitus never really seems to subside or improve.

Your reaction seems to imply the duration of a Tinnitus experience might be related to the time you have been exposed to noise. I have been thinking about this as well. Maybe the cases where people have Tinnitus permanently, are the cases where the Tinnitus-patient becomes impatient and exposes him- or herself to new noise (effectively prolonging the Tinnitus experience due to increased nerve damage). Maybe if we don't do that, the Tinnitus can still go after a long period of time... Who knows. It is hard not to be exposed to loud noises though in our current society...

Did you currently have a new exposure and is that the reason you are here on this forum? How did it happen?

Thank you for your encouraging post however, we NEED more stories of people who recovered from Tinnitus after a longer period of time since noise exposure. Please post your story in the "Success stories" section of this forum, it will be valuable!

 

@Vinnitus

I'm so sad to read your post V. i thought your T had reached a baseline and had stayed there. Is there anything you can think of in particular that made your T symptoms worse? (stress, work, diet, environmental exposure, mindset).
Regarding thee post of @jjflyman, I would also love to hear a recovery/success story!

I do however disagree with the time frame it takes for t to completely heal or heal to an extent it is not considered bothersome or you lose sleep over it. I was exposed to loud sounds for several hours, stood next to the speaker and had alcohol in my system at the same time. My time line of healing was roughly 12 months.

In your case V, I feel like because you were reintroduced to T, it will take a longer time in the recovery period in comparison to your first bout with T; but I do think it will heal for you in the long run because it's noise induced.

 

I thought so too at first, Gian. My Tinnitus has been reasonably quiet for some time, but just when I thought things were going in the right direction it flared up again effortlessly. For the last few days new symptoms have been added, like equilibrium disturbances. I've seen equilibrium disturbances are also a symptom of eustachian tube dysfunction, so I'm currently looking into that. My ear feels clogged all the time, with lots of popping and pressure changes, so ETD might be a thing too.

Yes, the time frame maybe has nothing to do with it. It has just been a random thought in my search for clues, patterns and answers like we all do. I can only hope you are right regarding your last statement. From what I read here, noise-induced Tinnitus seems one of the harder variants to get rid of. I know it can happen, it did to me before... Just not after such a long time.

 

Yes, I will tell my story and post it in the success story area.
First, don't give up hope, if your "T" was caused by an exposure to noise like a loud concert, power equipment, gunshot...ect. There is almost a 100% chance your Tinnitus will go completely away, not just to the point where you get used to it, I mean totally away .The only "bad" news is it takes a long time. Even after a whole year, it will still fade. The only permanent cases are usually ones that involve noise exposure over long periods of time (years), or maybe an injury (car accident?) or some medical reason.
Short time noise exposure, even for several hours (like a concert) will not cause permanent Tinnitus.
When my first Tinnitus hit me, (I'm currently battling a second, more mild case from another exposure, that, by the way, is fading after 2 months) I was devastated, The noise was piercingly loud, my ears hurt, and felt full. I would have never believed they would heal, but nerves take forever to heal. It was over a year, but they completely healed.
Try to stay positive, keep a journal on your progress, and be aware your improvements will not be able to be measured in day's or weeks, but month to month. Yes, it is very slow, but it will go away.

 

Hello @jjflyman,

Those are encouraging words you speak here and I do hope you are right. I noticed there are cases on this forum though, where people were pretty much plagued by the noise for years and years. I read this story today https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/noise-induced-tinnitus.2623/ where Tinnitus seems to still go strong 7 years after gun shooting. It seems like a draw of cards, some get lucky, others get the bad cards.

Currently I'm optimising my chances for recovery. I avoided loud environments for almost 6 months now (October 28th will be my 6 months of Tinnitus), yet improvements still have to happen. Even more disturbing is the added sensation of equilibrium disturbance. Maybe it has something to do with the 8th cranial nerve, as both balance information and auditory information are transmitted to the brain there. I will take up exercise soon to make sure it's not some kind of muscle issue.

Anyway, I hope things will keep improving for you, as your Tinnitus is fading like you said. May you soon experience blissful silence again! I'm looking forward to reading your success story here!

All the best!

 

Those really are encouraging words and I wish that this is the case. I have T now for nearly 12 months and I am really starting to lose hope. Please post your success story, this hope is highly needed! I really would like to know how my case would have developed if I would have strictly avoided any further exposure to noise. I do think that my situation would be way better than it is now.. but most people probably just start to expose themselves to noises again cause it is just pretty difficult to avoid that for years.

 

Emmi:
have you had any improvement over the 12 months? What was the noise you were exposed to? For how long were you exposed? Is this your first time with T? Can you function day to day tasks ?
Even after 12 months, my T continued to fade. I say 12-14 months was my recovery, but I do think it continued to fade after that, until it was totally gone. Has yours gotten better at all? Tone changed? Better in morning than at night? Please let me know these details.

 

Hi @jjflyman,

thank you for your quick response! I was exposed a couple of hours to loud music in a club. I did have temporary ringing in the ears after clubbing previously already, but not too often and it always went away after sleeping. I can function day to day tasks, my mood is just really crappy since this is affecting my life big time. I did have a change in tone though, it was quite tonal in the beginning and now it's more of a hiss. And in the morning it is as well better than in the evening. In general throughout the day it's quite constant though.. so it does not fluctuate a lot or cycle. I really, really hope it does still improve a bit. In the beginning I was not avoiding loud noises, but since 5 months or so I am strictly doing that. I just fear it's too late now and this should have been my immediate reaction.

 

It sounds a lot like my first exposure to Tinnitus. Yours has gotten better, but your'e still not quite where you want it. I would say after 12 months. mine still had a hiss that I could hear, especially in quiet areas. I think you are still healing, but will still need time for the "hiss" to fade. I truly think it will. I think one day(might even take 6 months from now) you will be doing something and realize you don't hear the hiss anymore, because it's gone!

 

That would be so great, I truly hope you are right. Was your T on both sides or only on one side? I do wonder why T from noise exposure goes away sometimes after such a long time. I tend to think that it's not the ears that heal, but your brain that is slowly understanding that the hearing loss is not there anymore. I somewhere read an experiment where they artificially simulated hearing loss with earplugs (cut out high frequencies) and people got T after some time, when they removed the earplugs.. T persisted for 14 more days, although the "hearing loss" was reversed already. So it seems that the cochlea and the brain are involved and even though when the damage on the cochlea has healed the brain can keep the hyperactivity. So maybe it just takes a very long time until the hyperactivity is gone.. and if you continue to expose yourself to loud noise and cause further damage the decreased auditory input will thus result in keeping up the hyperactivity?

 

@Emmi I think your assessment is pretty accurate. It may be why some people get tinnitus and many don't. Those who don't get tinnitus may have in their brains a properly functioning inhibitory mechanism which stops the perception of the brain-generated tinnitus. Those who get tinnitus have brains that don't inhibit its perception. (I'm not making this as a scientific statement; it's just what I've come to think after some reading online ).

And so yes, I believe that the hyperactive component may settle over time, even if the ear damage persists, and that the hyperactive component is the brain-based part involved in the perception of the ringing sound.

This is what gives me more hope than anything else. I believe that in at least some cases, the strong possibility is that with time and other influences, the tinnitus can settle, diminish, or drift away altogether.

Also, for ever and ever and ever, the person needs to be mindful of their susceptibility to tinnitus, and avoid the noise exposures, etc. And ... it is WORTH it.

 

Not to be negative but there is nothing that supports this comment. Its an opinion ,but not really supported by any evidence , in fact the evidence points to the opposite.

 

I believe there is no solid evidence to believe the opposite either. As far as I know, there are no scientific long-term follow-ups apart from a certain study following military conscripts. In that study, a great deal of the conscripts had improved after some years.

I don't think Tinnitus has to be "permanent", but certainly it can be long-term.

The study I mentioned:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12006740

 

Thats a bold statement with no proof. Starting to sound like a Tinnitus terminator ad.
Not that I would not love to believe that , its just that i have no room personally for fantastic claims.

You might be right that there is no evidence to believe the opposite ,Its hard to know that .
I know lots of people with T tinnitus, most of them have had it forever, one friend got rid of it after 3 years.
I would say that the consensus at this point it that its more likely to be permanent then not.

 

I have been thinking about this as well. Something sustains this hyperactivity. There are studies which say that malfunctioning potassium channels cause the neurons to stay in a hyperactive state. The restoration of potassium channel function will consequently calm down the neurons possibly resulting in reducing Tinnitus (this explains the effectiveness of Retigabine for some). Considering the brain is subject to plasticity and hence always changing, perhaps this situation can resolve by itself after some (longer) time when potassium balance has been restored, resulting in reduction or disappearance of Tinnitus. Re-exposure to loud sound might prolong this recovery process where at a certain point the recovery-time exceeds the average lifetime of a person (effectively making the condition "permanent").

However, I am not sure about this and have so far not read any research about restoration of potassium channels by itself. So take my blathering with a grain of salt.

Here's a study which concludes that potassium reduces hyperactivity in the case of Epilepsy. We all know Tinnitus and Epilepsy seem closely related, so this might be of interest.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24299204