Tinnitus improved after travelling?

My T always improved after travelling. It happened every time.
Especially my last trip where before i went T has spiked for few days.
On the second day of my trip my T improved significantly to very low.
I'm still trying to figure out what's the reason...
Anyone has similar experience?

 

Sounds logical -> travelling occupies your mind -> T goes away

 

You might be allergic (airborne inhalant) to something in your home?

 

So far I've only had one travel experience since my "invasive" T started, in early May. This new T came along with a bad allergy reaction and possible sinus infection. In late May we drove to New Mexico and stayed for 10 days in the high desert -- 5000 ft., very dry climate (the opposite of Austin Tx). My sinuses opened, as did my ears, and the low frequency T that has been so distressing went away completely. Stayed that way until we got back to Van Horn, Texas. I got out of the car at a hotel and realized that both ears were fluttering horribly. Since then I've had what feels like a sinus headache every single day (despite a ct scan showing clear sinuses), and the sound/vibration of a large truck motor going in my head. I asked my ENT if the trip experience was totally coincidence, and he said "not necessarily." Tomorrow I have an MRI (to rule out a tumor), and he's running tests for autoimmune inner ear disease and allergic inner ear disease, neither of which I'd ever heard of. My husband & I are planning to drive out to the high desert of southern California in a couple of weeks, and I'm curious to see if anything changes. I'll let you know.

 

I had a major spike after concert 2 -3 years ago ..again it was a mega T for 4 months !
I took 6 hours flight and it was gone next day !!i had posted my experience few months back .

 

That's T went into background but what i experience is a real significant reduce of volume. Like you go into a quiet room, try hard to listen to your T and find it barely audible.

 

Yes this is one of the reason i suspect too.

 

Interesting! Very dry climate means there will be no dust mites at all. Could it be that!?
Allergic and autoimmune inner ear disease seems to be very rare and so far i haven't seen anyone proven to have T due to that.

Please keep us updated. Thanks.

 

You mean the spike is gone or your T has totally gone after the flight?

 

See an allergist and get tested asap.

 

I was tested and found to be mild to moderate allergy to pollens, dust mites & etc when my T started. I met two allergist and both of them don't think that it cause T and they have never come across someone who has T due to allergy. Though i do know someone who has her T reduced significantly after receiving allergy shots for long period. I tried steroids and anti histamines and none of them has any effect to my T. So looks like if i believe allergy affects my T the only option for me now would be taking allergy shots for long period...

 

Yes I tested the same: tree pollen, dust mites, mold, etc... I had an allergic reaction to tree pollen this year and got an upper respiratory sinus congestion with possibly a mild infection. After about two weeks it cleared up, then two days later my T volume and awareness went from quiet room to panic room.

I'm interested in shots to and this is the first time I've heard or read anything that shots can possibly be beneficial for people with T and allergies.

Do you know or can you get more info from that person about how long before her shots became effective overall?

 

Hi Jay, seems like it's quite obvious that allergy affected your T. According to these articles,
http://blog.eardoctor.org/hear_notes/2013/10/tinnitus-a-link-with-allergies-and-tmj.html
http://www.hearinglosshelp.com/articles/aied.htm

Allergy could actually affect our ears and T.
She took the shots for few months consecutively before she notice her T reduced.
I did some research for allergy and found that now there is a new drug called Omalizumab/Xolair that could reduce allergy dramatically with just few shots. The drug is not indicated for T though but since you're diagnosed to be allergic and has sinus problem before so I guess doctor could give you the drug.

 

Very interesting info! My ENT must be thinking this way, because in addition to testing me for autoimmune and allergic inner ear disease (apparently they look for certain proteins in the blood as well as antibodies), he told me to go back to my allergist, get re-tested, and start allergy shots asap.

 

It is probably due to the fact that you feel more relax and there are more fun things to distract the brain from monitoring T. Also, when you are more outdoor, T does not seem to sound as dominant as when you are in a quiet environment indoor. It happened to me in my first travel to Hawaii. That led me to believe that a switch to more positive thinking may actually help my T journey. Why? Because when you are more positive, you have less stress and you can go out more to enjoy life which can relax you and distract from paying attention to T.

 

Initially, i thought about stress when i first experience this but after travelling for the sixth time since my T and that my T reduced significantly every time after that i don't think stress or positive thinking plays a big part.
And prior to each of my travelling i'm not in any kind of high stress moment, probably not even slightest of stress.

What you described is more like T going into background. My T went from 7/10 to 0.5/10 in a quiet room after travelling.

 

I think you have a pretty good ENT doctor there. Most doctor will just tell us to go back and live with it without any kind of thorough investigation. Keep us updated with your testing

 

Yeah, the first ENT I saw was like that: he said it could all be due to stress and anxiety. I'm all for positive thinking, but I believe attributing everything to stress without doing a thorough investigation (and without knowing your patient's history) is just a pseudo-doctor being arrogant and lazy. I'm way too old for that game, so I told him exactly what I thought, and found another ENT!