Tinnitus: Behind the Scenes

How the Blog Began
This blog began with me experiencing progressively worsening tinnitus (ringing in both ears) and then noticing average sounds (e.g. lawn equipment) that amplify louder inside of my ears but no one else's (this is called hyperacusis). Not knowing exactly what was going on with my ears was perplexing, vexing, confusing, and frustrating.

Discovering the Tinnitus Rip-Off Industry

I was trying to find real information about tinnitus and instead I kept finding advertisements claiming to cure tinnitus. I was told by a few audiologists that those so-called cures are a rip-off and that there is no cure for tinnitus only temporary relief through treatment (e.g. cognitive behavioral therapy and pain management, medications for sleep, and hearing aids with maskers). 

The Drive to Post

As my tinnitus grew louder so did my desire to find out the scope of what I was dealing with and I wanted answers. I realized that other people may want to read about the answers that I discover. I also have access to a team of medical providers who look at the tinnitus from different perspectives. I often post insights from my medical team.

The Gap

I noticed a huge gap between what the providers do know about tinnitus and what tinnitus patients don't know about tinnitus. The goal of this blog is to be a proverbial bridge and also to provide my thoughts and theories based on current research that may lead researchers to a cure.

Helping Others

At first I was reserved about writing this blog because I was concerned about my medical privacy but then I realized that if I could help one person who is misinformed or perhaps help researchers and medical providers to understand things from a different perspective then it was worth laying my privacy aside. 

Then and Now

I began the blog in 2007, I wish that I could say that my tinnitus is cured or better since then, but it isn't. I have learned to better manage my life to minimize what triggers the tinnitus and to use good  practices for temporary relief (e.g. a healthy diet, light exercise, scuba diving, hearing aids with maskers, moving to a quiet neighborhood and using noise cancelation headphones while at the movie theater, and catching sleep when I can.). Since 2009 about 18,000 viewers from all over the world have reviewed my posts. 

Copy-Cat Blogs

Other Tinnitus123 websites and blogs have been created trying to mimmic my blog with one distinct difference, the copy-cats are trying to sell "cure" pills and gadgets. I'm committed to not selling tinnitus cure pill products or gadgets on this blog. I believe that it is unethical and somewhat inhumane to sell placebos and to fill people with false hope. If I provide a link to a product that I use it is simply me raising awareness. I receive no profit from the products that I mention.

Some people with severe chronic tinnitus lose everything including their jobs, houses, cars, friends and family relationships suffer, and marriages can end as a result of the debilitating effects of tinnitus. The last thing that people with tinnitus need is a hyper-marketed fake cure from a seemingly credible source. There is no cure that I can sell to you. Check back in five to ten years and I'm confident that there will be a cure. Synthetic and stem cell research seems to be the most promising.

The Name

What led me choose tinnitus123 as the name? I tried all kinds of names and they were all taken so I simply added 123 at the end of the word tinnitus. At the time the 123 didn't mean anything. Now, I'd say that it means the three step process to understanding tinnitus.

Steps 1-3:

1. Identify the source of your tinnitus (e.g. auditory nerve, cochlear trauma, brain injury, blood disease,  etc.)

2. Minimize or eliminate what triggers your tinnitus (e.g. alcohol, caffeine, smoking, eye strain, industrial noise, bananas, avocado, tomato, walnuts).

3. Do everything that you can to keep your tinnitus from getting permanently worse. Assemble a medical team to help you to create a tinnitus management plan and ask questions.

Tinnitus: Movie Theater Noise

Is it possible that movie theater noises trigger subjective tinnitus and make it louder? The answer is yes. Hyperacusis and subjective tinnitus can be triggered by special effect sounds in the movie theater. In the theater we have absolutely no control over how loud the movie noise will be played.

Have you ever left a movie theater because the movie was so loud that your ringing got worse? If so, you may have subjective tinnitus that is activated by hyperacusis. 

Have you stopped going to movie theaters altogether because you feel that you need to avoid the noise? 

Solution: Go to the Apple store or visit Amazon.com and look for Bose QuietComfort headphones. They are high priced but worth every penny. I wear them inside of the theater and turn them on. I don't plug them into anything. These headphones block harmful noise. 

If you really want to control the volume of the movie then you may purchase a Zoom Recorder and plug the Bose QuietComfort headphone into the recorder. Use the volume control on the recorder to control the movie theater noise. 

Here is how it works. The QuietComfort headphones block the harmful noise from reaching your eardrums. The noise goes through the recorder and you control the volume at which the noise enters your ears. 

I am not in any way associated with the companies that produce these products. These products work for me and that is why I'm sharing this information with you. 

Tinnitus: Eyelid Twitching?

You may have involuntary eyelid twitches in association with your tinnitus. You may have thought of the eyelid twitching as a separate issue from the tinnitus but the two issues may be a sign of non-cilia generated tinnitus. You likely have damage to some other part of your auditory system besides the cochlea. You may be experiencing hyperacusis.

Getting to the source of your tinnitus is important. The source can help you to determine how best to treat the tinnitus. Complete the following survey (for yourself, don't send your results to me).

1. Are one of your eyelids twitching? Y or N

2. Do you sometimes notice a physical tugging sensation inside of your ears? Y or N

3. Do you hear a vrooom sound that moves from one ear to the other? Y or N

4. Do certain sounds (e.g. phone, printer, lawn equipment, high pitch noises) amplify louder than normal, inside of your ears, and trigger your tinnitus? Y or N

5. Are you frustrated that your medical providers are not able to diagnose your condition? Y or N 

6. Does your auditory system seem to react to radio frequency? Y or N

7. Do you experience cricket sounds at random times? Y or N

8. If you experience a tugging sensation, what triggers it? Eye drops? Y or N, Caffiene? Y or N, Fatigue? Y or N

9. Have you ever had a traumatic brain injury? Y or N

10. Have you been overexposed to loud noises such as gunfire, fireworks, lawn equipment, concerts, industrial noise, etc? 

Y or N

If you answered yes to any of questions 1-5, 7 or 8 then you likely are experiencing hyperacusis in tandem with your tinnitus. Hyperacusis can trigger the tinnitus and make it sound even louder. 

If you answered yes to question 6 then you may have electromagnetic sensitivity in association with your tinnitus. It is possible to have all three conditions.

If the hairlike cells inside of your cochlea are not damaged and you don't have some form of brain damage that is driving your tinnitus then you may benefit from surgery. Consult your doctor.

If you answered yes to question 9 then you may have damaged your auditory system as a result of your traumatic brain injury.

If you answered yes to 10 then you likely have broken or bent cilia inside of your cochlea. Only time will tell whether it will be short-term or chronic long-term tinnitus.

If you answered yes to all of the above then you probably have a little of everything, which is rare, but possible. For example, veterans who have experienced explosions and live fire may have been exposed to traumatic brain injury and extremely loud sudden noise at the same time. Police officers, fire fighters and ambulance crews may also experience similar issues for obvious reasons.

I designed this survey to help you to gain a general idea of the source of your tinnitus. Hopefully it may save you years of medical appointments and give you some treatment options to discuss with your medical provider. 

Tinnitus: Herbal Remedies

When first diagnosed with severe chronic tinnitus caused by cilia damage it can be hard to take. Let's face it, no one likes unhappy endings, especially when it is our own unhappy ending. Learning that we will likely never experience a quiet moment again in our lifetime is a difficult pill to swallow.

There is no cure for severe chronic (long-term) tinnitus that is caused by cilia amputation inside of the cochlea. Acute (short-term) tinnitus cures itself. Chronic severe tinnitus caused by cilia damage does not cure itself. Most tinnitus (not all) is typically an amputation of critical hair-like cells inside of the cochlea (cilia) due to noise induced damage.

There are treatments that help people with severe chronic tinnitus to cope. A treatment is not a cure. Some herbal remedy companies that are not approved by the FDA claim to cure tinnitus. They are free to do so. You are free to believe them and try the product. I don't endorse them. When advertisers try to post a link to their site in the comments section of this blog I delete them. Hopefully these advertisers will get the message. They have plenty of space on the internet to sell their products.

If you've stopped at this site to be genuinely informed then you should know that no one has ever cured themselves of chronic tinnitus that is caused by cilia amputation by using an herbal remedy at home. The people who claim a cure occurred are acute tinnitus sufferers who take the herbal remedy and coincidentally their acute tinnitus goes away because the cilia inside of the cochlea have not been amputated and the cilia have stood back up on their own. It had nothing to do with any herbal remedy that the individual was taking at that time. The tinnitus was acute.

Tinnitus can also be caused by other damage besides cilia damage inside of the cochlea. Brain damage, blood pressure issues, auditory nerve damage can all cause the brain to initiate the internal alarm sound of ringing, hissing, crackling, thumping, etc. Consult your doctor as to whether an herbal remedy may help you in that regard. A good treatment team can help you to understand the source of your tinnitus.

Claiming that someone with long-term/chronic severe tinnitus, caused by cochlear cilia amputation, was cured with an herbal remedy is like saying that an amputee grew his or her arm back by taking an herbal remedy. Just because the amputation inside of the auditory system is microscopic doesn't mean that the amputation is any more responsive to herbal remedies than let's say, an arm. We all know that an herbal remedy cannot grow an arm back.

Once gone the cilia do not grow back...period.  If an herbal remedy ever cured anyone it would be someone whose cilia was still intact but had a different source for their tinnitus besides amputated cilia.

Tinnitus: Stem Cells and Synthetic Cells

Researchers and medical providers know that the most common cause of tinnitus is noise. The noise either bends or breaks the cilia inside of the cochlea. If the cilia is bent it may straighten up over time. The tinnitus goes away when the cilia straightens up. If the cilia is broken off then severe chronic tinnitus is typically the result. It will never stop until researchers find a cure.

Theoretically, if a stem cell cilia were planted inside the cochlea where the fallen cilia used to be plugged in then we may have a future breakthrough. If we think of the auditory system from brain to cochlea and back again as a closed circuit then we can imagine how plugging the appropriate stem cilia cell into the appropriate base would lead to a cure for most tinnitus sufferers. Think of this process as analogous to replacing a blown fuse in an electrical panel. We would have to search for that exact one by trial and error by plugging a new bulb into each holder until suddenly the lights would turn on.

The problem lies in producing and replicating cells at the microscopic level and then having the tools to plug them in. As for the cells, I would guess that Craig Venter is on to something with synthetic cells development.

To my knowledge cilia cell replication has never been accomplished. But Venter et al. could soon figure out the code for cilia cell DNA and generate synthetic cilia cells.

This research is in its infancy but Harvard University is also experimenting with creating microscopic objects that are smaller than a human hair. They've achieved some success in creating microscopic flowers.

If these researchers could somehow create cilia cells (using our own stem cells from skin samples or creating synthetic cilia cells) and if they could invent instruments to perform the surgery necessary to plug in the new cilia cells most cases of severe chronic subjective tinnitus due to noise damage would likely be cured. This is very promising research.

Here is more information on the topic:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/pictureshow/2013/05/20/185509508/nanogardens-sprout-up-on-the-surface-of-a-penny?ft=1&f=1007&utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=nprscience

Tinnitus: Significant Discovery May Help to Cure Tinnitus

A recent study by Dr. Baraniuk of Georgetown University showed physical damage to axons in the frontal lobe of the brain that cause pain sensations and a multitude of chronic illnesses for Gulf War Era veterans, especially veterans that were deployed in the region.

I've mentioned before on this site that pain is pain regardless of whether it is perceived and interpreted in the brain or not. It is not imaginary just because damage to the brain is causing it. The damage is real. The location of the pain may not be accurate. A damaged brain can accidentally launch pain signals that really feel like the pain is in the lower back, yet there is no damage in the low back...the physical damage is in the brain.

Recently, Dr. Baraniuk and his team of researchers at Georgetown University, published findings that correlate damaged brain axons as a source of many veteran's complaints of pain from Gulf War Illness (GWI).

Tinnitus is like pain. Could damaged axons inside of the brain be causing internal ringing, hissing, popping, or thumping sounds inside of the ears of Gulf War veterans?

Since tinnitus is the number one issue that the Department of Veterans Affairs deals with we have to consider that Dr. Baraniuk may have inadvertently stumbled upon a source of the severe chronic tinnitus that many veterans suffer from. If there is a correlation between his findings and tinnitus it means that ear plugs and/or headsets really would not have helped prevent the axon damage.

So what is the source of this damage. The article suggests a number of chemical and biological exposure possibilities. What it doesn't consider is the possibility of electromagnetic and/or radio frequency radiation overexposure due to radar leakage and radar refraction that may cause charged particles to pass through the brains of service members and flip the switches in the human brain and forever alter the pain receptors. The service member/veteran may experience acute symptoms and heal or slowly debilitate over time. Dr. Baraniuk mentions that the veterans that spearheaded the Gulf War Illness movement 10 years ago are now walking with canes!

If Dr. Baraniuk begins to map the damaged axons to the actual pain areas of the body then researchers, in the future, may be able to isolate and shut off or repair the axons responsible for generating the pain or internal sound generated by the brain thus curing many people. That is my hope.

Here is the article that may lead to a Gulf War Illness or tinnitus cure one day: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0058493

Tinnitus: Hyperacusis

Hyperacusis occurs when a person is hypersensitive to certain noises that would typically not bother someone else (e.g. gunfire, sirens, automobile brakes, movie theater sounds, engine noises, laser printers, MRI, etc.).

Tinnitus occurs when a person hears a constant sound that is generated by the brain to signal auditory system damage. The damage is real. The sound is an indicator that damage exists. Most people with tinnitus have damage inside of the cochlea. It is typically either bent or broken cilia. Bent cilia will likely recover. Broken cilia does not regenerate.

Some people with tinnitus also have hyperacusis. I'm one of those people. The conditions are so unpredictable that every day is different.

I've had the tinnitus for a long time. It started getting louder in recent years and in 2007 I began to notice that I was hypersensitive to the noise of a shared laser printer on my desk at work. To make matters worse, the city rerouted a bus station to right below my office window. The hydraulic brakes would trigger my hyperacusis which would aggravate my tinnitus. I began losing sleep, isolating myself, and even started slurring my words because of sheer exhaustion.

I'm sharing this information with you so that you can get ahead of the issue if you suspect that you may have both conditions. You may find that you need to educate your providers about your conditions. Some medical providers just don't know about hyperacusis or tinnitus (much less both). Print this out. Show it to your medical providers. It may help you to explain what I couldn't when I first noticed the symptoms of hyperacusis.

Also, if you have hyperacusis with your tinnitus, you may not be able to use certain treatments for your tinnitus because these treatments may activate your hyperacusis which can make your tinnitus sound louder and more annoying. For example, some treatments use music to pull the brains focus away from the tinnitus sound. The problem is that the music sometimes involves sounds that trigger the hyperacusis  (e.g. wind chimes, horns, violins, etc.) You can try it out but if you notice a reaction I recommend you stop the treatment. Consult your provider before you stop.