Suffering Lower Back Twitching Brought on by Tinnitus

Hi everyone. I've been suffering from tinnitus since I was about 10 years old. I have a history of several severe bouts of otitis media, with both eardrums rupturing in early childhood. I have no hearing loss as measured by an ENT, but I have reduced ability to screen background noise, say in a crowded restaurant, because I'm trying to hear through a constant auditory haze of ringing sound.

I can live with that, it's been decades. What is really diminishing my quality of life now, though, is a long term muscle spasm in my right lumbar musculature, I would guess the iliocostalis. You know how when someone scratches their fingernails down a chalkboard or makes styrofoam squeak how many people will have an involuntary muscle twitch like they'll shudder or turn away from the sound? I get that feeling in my inferior thoracic to inferior lumbar spine. It's a feeling almost like I'm being tickled or tapped along the right side of my spine but in the muscular, fatty part of the back.

If I press on that area with my hand it offers some relief kind of like how hot water in a big bite will relieve the itching for the duration of the soak. But just like an itchy bug bite, as soon as I remove pressure from my hand, the tingling discomfort returns.

This is 100% triggered by tinnitus. I'm okay if I sleep on my back because my lower back is pressed against the bed. But if I sleep on my left side, the sheets brush against my back and exacerbate the sensation. If I sleep on my right side, the ear with tinnitus is pressed right against my pillow and it's the only thing I hear and my back goes nuts with twitching. I can sort of was pillows up to support my neck but leave my ear off the pillow, but it's not comfortable and is messing up my neck.

Over the years I've looked and looked for information about back pain or myoclonus in the back associated with tinnitus, but my searches have been fruitless.

I'm hoping either the doctor here will have some experience having seen this before or some other sufferer will have had the same experience and solved it somehow. At the very least, it would be nice to know I'm not alone or medically unique.

 

Greetings @DoseInvictus -

I dealt with something similar when I was first developed tinnitus last summer; though, I am not sure if it was triggered by my tinnitus. In my case, I had developed a pretty bad case of swayback posture with offset (higher right hip). I would describe the sensation I felt as a tingling sensation right about the T10-T12 vertebrae in my back. The lumbar spine and lumbar-thoracic junction are held in place and stabilized by the glute muscles in the back and lower abs in the front along with the obliques and internal and external rotators of the hips on the sides. Weakness in the glutes and/or lower abs will cause you to overstretch and develop laxity in the lumbar spine and muscle imbalances in the obliques/external/internal rotators could rotate and elevate one side of the pelvis relative to the other. If these issues are allowed to propagate upward the chest will start to sink and thoracic kyphosis and forward head posture can develop which decrease the space between the vertebrae in the back. There are a lot of nerves and other structures passing around and between vertebrae that could be getting irritated or pinched and also blood vessels that could be compressed (which would explained being able to feel my pulse in my back at the same time I had the tingling sensation. Similarly, if the rotation is not fixed, your torso can eventually counter-rotate relative to the pelvis, the neck relative to the torso, etc...

The iliocostalis muscle traverses the entire back from the sacrum to where it inserts in the neck. If you have any of what is discussed above, this muscle may be hyperactive and extremely tight in places and elongated and weak in others. Where these areas met for me was around the lumbar-thoracic junction thus driving the tingling and pulsing sensations in my lower jack. What you discovered when applying pressure to the area in question is the effect of compression which helps realign the area and restore blood flow to help the area heal or at least alleviate the pain temporarily. Since you have difficulty sleeping on one or both sides of the bed at night, this may be indicative of SI joint issues or larger misalignment issues you may be unaware of such as pelvic-thoracic counter-rotation and/or functional scoliosis discussed above. Static line and chair stretches done when sitting up straight in a chair stretches the iliocostalis muscle and also provides a smaller degree of spinal decompression by opening up the spaces between the vertebrae as well. I would suggest looking up these stretches and trying them GENTLY and if -

(1) This should be a gentle stretch. If it requires a lot of force to perform this stretch on your part, you likely have thoracic kyphosis or some other postural issue that is compressing vertebral spaces that needs to be addressed.

2) If you hear some crunching-like noises in your lower back when trying to perform the stretch, part of your spine might be rotated and jammed up.

Correct the rotation, and then re-balance. release, stretch and strengthen muscles around the spine to hold it in its proper position. If you have developed laxity anywhere in the ligaments of your spine, there is a little recourse except for strengthening local muscles and reestablishing proper neuromuscular control over these regions. Schedule an appointment with your primary care doctor to review your symptoms to make sure they are not signs of a more serious issue such as a neurological issue or auto-immune disorder. Then I would recommend physical therapy and considering visiting a chiropractor. Prioritize sleep; I prepped a thread on sleep before you may find useful - https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/tinnitus-from-musculoskeletal-misalignment-imbalances-—-achieving-better-sleep.39047/. If you are sleeping on your side incorrectly, then you are only worsening your situation. Pillows should be high enough to cover the distance between your shoulder and your ear for side sleepers. Also, get the right mattress, the one I slept on early on when I developed tinnitus was really worn out which I think made my situation worse in the short-term. Consider purchasing an SI joint belt which provides some compression on the hips, sacrum, and lower back and wearing it while you sleep. This was a conservative, short-term treatment that helped me early on while I was in my sheer bloody panic stage after developing tinnitus. Finally, I purchased a far infrared heating pad from Thermotex - https://www.thermotex.com/product/thermotex-platinum/. I use it in the morning when I wake and before going to bed at night to relax and manage the little muscle pain I now get. The good news is it is possible to recover but it will take time and sticking to an adequate treatment plan for months and possibly years. My pain is mostly gone now and my tinnitus, whether the result of bad posture or not, it is now just a minor annoyance to me at this point.

Happy to discuss further once you know some more about what is going on with you. Good luck.

All the best,

-Oceanofsound26