Tinnitus and Cervical Spondylosis

[Oliveira]

I'm 44 yo RF Engineers and since I was about 40 I used to hear a sound close to 14 KHz with noise at night.

I have a TV set close to my bad in my room and sometimes I heard that sound at very low level.

Since it had not disturbed myself I never worried about it. "It must be TV set" I used to think.

But 4 months ago I started to wake up in the early morning at 3 a.m. "Why am I having insomnia?". At that time, I did not associated insomnia to any tinnitus. After 3 weeks, I started to wake up at 3 a.m. and fill synthons of panic. I felt like something really bad was happening to me. One night, 2 months ago, I woke up again at 3 a.m. hearing tinnitus at higher volume. I thank again it was my TV set. So I unplugged it. For my surprise, I still heard that sound. I went to the room of my children and turned off computer, TV, etc. But even so I hear it. At that point I felt like monkey man discovering fire. I realized that it was nothing external! It's myself!! Well, from time point on, I starting trying to discover the reason for tinnitus. (I think everyone should list what happened to their life 6 months before tinnitus started). 1) I bought a motorcycle 6 months ago to ride to the office. 2) Tinnitus was louder at working days. 3) I used to run but I have been lazy and also filling pain in both calves. So I took a Jacuzzi and put the water gun at my back. I heard similar sound at my brain.

Then I visited the otolaryngologist and she said there was nothing wrong with my ears. Then I downloaded App for frequency sound generation. Then I started a meditation and I don't know why I felt the sound coming from my neck. I visited a neurologist (D Weberman) and he requested magnetic resonance of my skull, my ears and my cervical spine. The result showed that it was everything right with my Skull and my ears. The result for cervical showed arthrosis at C5-C6 and C6-C7. And... stenosis. That is the source of my tinnitus. It can be heard with a stethoscope. Resonance result reveal all symptoms I used to have. So I starting again to remember what I have done in recent months.

1) I bought a Motorcycle and always used a helmet. That my force my cervical. 2) I used to fill worse at work. Probably because my wrong posture at computer all the day. And I ride to the office. Finally, I fill that Tinnitus is not our enemy. It is just a signal that something is wrong with us.

 

[glynis]

A warm welcome to tinnitus talk .
I have just read your story .
Neck problems can cause tinnitus for some people .
A neck pillow at night might help you .
Keep posting in the main forums for support....lots of love glynis

 

[Joe from Kokomo]

I should make a joke here about the DISH network satellite receiver, which always does a drive boot at exactly 3 am, and makes a high pitched sound, but unless you have one, you wont getbthe joke. In any case, my tinnitus started at about the same age as yours, and paralleled my diagnosis with cervical spondylosis (aka cervical arthtitis, degenerative disc disease). Mine was further complicated by not one, but two whiplash injuries. So, I have "military neck" from the whiplash injuries, which means no normal curvature. Fast forward 12 years and I no longer work as a call center supervisor at a Desktop PC, because I got to where the arthritis became worse and I cant.

Your post is fascinating to me, as until recently, I had not connected the dots between my ever-worsening tinnitus and my ever-worsening cervical arthritis, like yours primarily at C5-C6 (the most common place for it to start).
The reason I did not put them together was because I figured the high frequency tinnitus was caused by being a bass player in a rock band off and on, going to concerts, and working in construction. But my older brother has played lead guitar every day, year after year, and does not have anywhere near as much tinnitus trouble as I do. And he has diabetes and high BP, too.

I can trace the start of my tinnitus to using a compressed air sand blaster system in an enclosed basement. It did not seem loud, and I am careful to wear hearing protection when mowing, weed eating, chain sawing, or at concerts, but thought nothing of the high pitched sand blaster. Woke up the next day with high pitched tinnitus in my right ear primarily (Im right handed), and it never really went away after that. Three years later, I had to buy hearing aids due to this problem, as I was working in Sales and could not hear well enough making cell calls, which are notoriously poor in sound quality anyway. So, I bought Audibel Anthem 8 channel digital RIC style H/As, which really arent that noticeable, and work well.

But in the last few weeks, its gotten worse and Ive noticed that its related to the arthritis and that when my neck joints are flared up, my tinnitus is too. Some days I have mild to moderate tinnitus, and other days I feel like I have cotton stuffed in one ear or both. But, and this is key, if I put my pinky finger in my ear canal and wiggl my ear canal, the tinnitus improves and my ear "clears" temporarily.

So, I am seeing a strong connection between my tinnitus and my cervical arthritis. Some info online indicates that cervical bone spurs, formed during the progression of cervical arthritis, may change or reduce cervical arterial blood flow, probably by pressure on the superior cervical ganglion, a nerve cluster located at the C2 level.
This would suggest that regular chiropractic or accupuncture therapy might be helpful. I got regular accupuncture for my cervical arthritis pain at C5-6, but not for tinnitus, but I do know that accupuncture works well.
The latest alternative therapy for both cervical arthritis and tinnitus is low level laser therapy. There is even a company that sells a handheld green laser device for tinnitus specifically. Many report that their tnnitus is improved by LLLT, so I am researching it now.

I have tried very supplement product available, and only high quality pycnogenol and/or ginkgo biloba seem to work. This may merely be due to the fact that both supplements improve blood flow, which may indirectly improve tinnitus.

In your case, I can only suggest protecting your hearing as best you can. If you're a music lover like me, that can be hard to do, but my hearing gets worse from the NSAIDS as well, as most of th meds for cervical arthritis cause hearing loss over time, including ibuprofen, aspirin, naproxen, meloxicam, toradol, celebrex, gabapentin, as well as most blood pressure medicines. Tylenol is the only arthritis med that is not ototoxic. I wish I had none this years ago, but most doctors are not knowledgable about the ototoxcity of the meds they recommend.

Sorry for the uber-long post. Hope something I wrote is helpful.