Somatic Tinnitus GONE / CURED

I posted a video in a support group and asked members, if they wanted, to try it and let everyone know how it affected their tinnitus (if at all). Because it was one that affects mine a lot. Group exercise.

Anyway...

There was a member who had had tinnitus for 3 years, I believe they thought it was noise-induced.
They knew they had an issue with their neck as well and a heart problem.

They did the exercises in this video consistently, 3 times a day, for 3 days.
They also took 3mg of melatonin (but on it's own this did nothing, they'd been taking it for months to sleep)
They woke up on day 4 with no tinnitus and it's been a week now without any at all.

It causes mine to change tone completely and do all kinds of weird things, overall mine has been improving.
I do this + physio for my neck twice a week + some simple TMJ stretches throughout the day.

PLEASE NOTE: In some members of the group following this video, it has caused big flare-ups.
So be prepared that if you follow it things may get temporarily worse, so you'll want to ease in slowly.
Don't overwork the muscles or your body, there's no rush.

Would love for people on here to document how they get on with trying this video, just like we do in my group.

This is the video they followed:

10 Best Cervical Herniated Disc Exercises...

 

Curious: what type of heart problem? My tinnitus reduced a lot with similar stretches, but I also have a (really minor and still undiagnosed) heart thing that caused my heart rate to increase maniacally three times in my life. I highly doubt it would be related in any way, but the specific mentioning in your post triggers my interest.

 

I just remember them mentioning that their neck needed surgery but the doctor said their heart wasn't up to it.
I don't know if it's relevant to their tinnitus but... I included everything I could remember

 

Then it's clearly unrelated. Thanks for the info!

 

Interesting, I have a neck injury which I did physio for and can't look up much so my neck would be on agony if I did this exercise.

 

I am always encouraged to read about success stories for somatic tinnitus. I don’t come across many of these, but I am hopeful that my neck movement induced Tinnitus, which is 3 weeks old from a single chiropractic neck adjustment, will eventually resolve. I am pursuing physiotherapy, dry needling and acupuncture.

 

Sounds like something has got pinched when they're yanked your neck.
I would be confident that it should go back, if you can I would find someone to MRI your neck and see if there is a pinched nerve or something there.

 

Thank you @AnnawithaT! An ortho did perform an MRI on my neck. I have a slight leftward bulge at C4/5 and C5/6, but ortho says it is unlikely that my nerves are pinched. He did tell me to do an MRA though to check the blood flow as I seem to have some pulsatile tinnitus, which irked me a little because he should have carried out the MRI and MRA at the same time. I am nonetheless hoping that my somatic tinnitus was due to pinched nerves as in this case, there is a good chance the irritation will subside with time and I will eventually feel better.

 

Hi AnnawithaT,

I came across your post and started doing these exercises yesterday. My tinnitus quieted down right after doing them and then came back with a vengeance a few hours late, but when I woke up this morning, my ears seemed quieter. Did your ears do the same after trying the exercises? I largely suspect my tinnitus is the result of neck/tmg. I’m going to keep doing them and see where it goes. Thank you for sharing the video.

Renee

 

Hi @AnnawithaT
I had raised this question previously on another thread, as I will soon be starting physiotherapy with a new therapist and anticipate that he or she will be me bringing me through these exercises, but would you happen to know if one should be stretching the muscles so as to provoke the somatic tinnitus? I'm thinking that if the somatic tinnitus is caused by tense muscles, then stretching the muscles to relax them may be good. But would constant provocation of the somatic tinnitus eventually lead to damage of any nerves leading to permanent tinnitus?

 

@AnnawithaT

Curiously, I'm actually envious of people who had developed tinnitus as a result of a cold / Eustachian Tube Dysfunction. Seems to me that such problems with most certain resolve, and the tinnitus will definitely go away. There are many examples of complete recovery under such circumstances.

However, with our Somatic type tinnitus that are provided by certain muscle contractions, we seem to be in a big black hole with many possible theories. I still cannot for the life of me figure out what is going on, and I think the doctors don't know either.

I'll be trying out a high quality inflatable neck collar (Dr. Disk C300) on sale at a rehab shop in Singapore. Hopefully this helps. Also meeting up with a few physios this week to see if anyone of them might have the relevant knowledge to help me.

 

When I first started physio mine did this. Really quiet for an hour or two afterwards and then back with a vengeance later. Then the next day it would either be really bad or really up and down.

Now mine just spikes and/or changes tones during and after the exercises, then it settles down.
The more physio I've done the lower it's got and the more controlled it has got.

Best of luck to you.

 

I wish I had more answers for you.

Follow the advice of physiotherapists, beware of those claiming to cure your tinnitus and capitalise on your distress.
Most physiotherapists probably won't claim to help, somatic tinnitus is not well enough understood and they may not know about it or want to get involved in the minefield of tinnitus treatment.
Doesn't mean their treatment will not work.

Start slow and gentle and build it up.
You may have spikes afterwards, from what I have seen those are only temporary.

I recommend you assume it is a symptom of a problem from a neck or TMJ issue and work with medical professionals from there.
I'm not medically trained so I can't be specific about what is best.

Physiotherapy is generally recommended for both those things though.
It may take weeks to see any difference at all from physiotherapy.

 

Hi @Wheella -- I don't know if I've posted to you previously, but I've had lifelong neck issues for many years. During this time, I've tried many different things to help myself with various self-help measures, and from professional health care practitioners. I sometimes learned things from them, and then incorporated certain techniques into my self-help repertoire. In the end, as much as I got a LOT of help from practitioners, I think I helped myself even more.

There's so much I feel I could share with you, but the things that helped me the most are what would be considered "out of the mainstream", and some people just aren't comfortable with that. For now I'll post THIS LINK to a post I made where people had gotten some tinnitus relief from a neck therapy technique called altasprofilax, sometimes known as AtlasPROfilax. If you have any questions, after watching the video, I'd be happy to answer them. You could also do a search for atlasprofilax under my username, and find a lot of other posts I've made. -- Just to mention, I've learned how to do this (massaging) technique on myself with good benefit.

 

Hi AnnawithaT,

Thank you for your response. How long of doing the exercises did it take until your tinnitus started to settle down?

 

HI @Renee W

I have received your latest PM message. Unfortunately I have tried replying to your previous message before this but every time I have tried I get an ERROR prompt. I will be able to correspond with you. Please can you send me an email: Michael_lee83@yahoo.com

Thanks
Michael

 

@Lane I am based in Singapore and unfortunately Atlasprofilax isn’t available here. Do you know where I can get such treatment in Asia?

 

I've been trying this routine for a few days now. No improvement yet, but I do have some weird response to one of the stretches. As a precaution I've stopped doing it for now.

My outer ear goes numb and has a tingling sensation when doing the stretch where you are supposed to hold your collar bone. I posted about it here https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/outer-ear-and-ear-pain-when-stretching-neck.40339/

Did anyone in your group who tried the routine experience something like that?

 

Hi there,

I think I may be experiencing something similar to you, with physiotherapy. I started around 2 weeks ago and have had 3 sessions as of yet. I was told that I might feel unwell/experience a flare up in my tinnitus (which should only be temporary) as it is a sign of the body responding to the treatment.

After the third session my tinnitus got louder, and has been like this for around 2 days now. It kind of worries me, and I just wanted to ask how long it took for your tinnitus to go back down again after a session?

 

I would love an update on this --- and also from anyone else that recovered post treatment?

 

Try this exercise at 5:10 into the video:

13 Best Postural Exercises for Forward Head...

I have tinnitus from neck/jaw and couldn't look up either. I did this "cobra" like exercise 3 weeks ago and now I almost have full range of motion looking in every direction...

Maybe you should get a posture corrector and work up to wearing it 3-5 hours a day if you can.

 

What do you do if the nerves are pinched?

Is there a procedure?

 

@Renee W, any update on how the exercises went for you? I've decided to take them up since my tinnitus is somatic as well.