[Trismos]

I have a topic I'd like to ask others about. I'm 51. I'm a life long drummer who's been foolish enough to play without hearing protection for too many years. And I suffer from a pretty good dose of Tinnitus. It's a pretty distressing ailment sometimes, especially when you're trying to enjoy a good piece of music and the Tinnitus acts up.

I'd appreciate it if others out there who suffer from this would chime in a bit.

Regards
Dave

[JoshK]

I don't, but I feel I may in the future....I feel for you.

[Trismos]

Maybe I should rethink my audiophile addiction and pursue ... oh I don't know ... sky diving.

[Russell Dawkins]

I have moderate tinnitus and have been looking at this, but haven't yet tried it:
http://www.treatment2012.com/vitabasebioflav.htm

There is a lot of info on the web, of course, like this:
http://thetinnituscure.net/

[Trismos]

Thx again Russell

I will investigate and get back to you. My wife is a nurse in high places (so lucky me!!). I'll ask her opinion also.

[timind]

Another here with mild symptoms. I've learned to take care with noise. Always have a pair of the spongy earplugs in my pocket and use them frequently.
I saw a specialist about six months ago. He offered little hope. I do find if I avoid noise the symptoms are lessened.

[morganc]

Unfortunately there is little known in tne medical field that will help with tinnitus.  I am an MD and I specialize in difficult to treat conditions and I have found no doctor, vitamin, herb, acupuncturist, homeopath, or anyone else who has had success treating it.  I regularly attend conferences with the best doctors and still no success looking for a cure for this.  I developed mine from taking too much Aleve a few years ago when I had the flu.  Mine gets better when my stress level drops and rises with higher stress!  Having said that, of course some people (a few of my patients) do have success here or there with one product or one treatment, but that same treatment would not help the next 20 people who had tinnitus at all (believe me I've tried on myself and many patients who have the same and wanted to try anything).  Sorry if I sound too pessimistic, but of course if you find a cure please let me know:). 

[abernardi]

     This is a frustrating subject.  Sound has always been important to me.  I'm one of those people that can't stand a blaring TV or radio in the background.  These days when I listen to music I usually sit down, dim the lights and give it my full attention and derive great pleasure from it.  I'm not one to casually listen to the radio.  And I also love the sound of complete silence, maybe even more.  So when I developed tinnitus in the last couple of years, I'm 54, you can imagine I was pretty upset.  I wonder if it was from the Aleve... I was taking a lot of it for chronic headaches for several years.  I didn't know there was a connection.  I've listened to my fair share of loud music and I played drums for a number of years, so I'm not all that surprised.

It's a weird syndrome.  I had my hearing checked and my range was still excellent, even with the tinnitus.  But sometimes it gets really bad and does seem to be stress related.  Most of the time I can distract myself from it.  But as I get deeper into my audiophile addiction I've found times when it has been a problem.

     BTW, how would you guys describe the sound?  Most people I've talked to say it sounds like a high pitched tone.  My experience at first was like somebody turned off the dolby.  Tape hiss.  Now it's tape hiss with a high tone that I'd place at around 18Khz, that's ballpark.  At times it seems really loud.  But even when it's loud, I can still hear real sounds at the softest levels.  Of the five senses, hearing is my favorite, so if anyone has any ideas how to reverse this thing, I'd be very eager to hear it.

[Thirsty]

I've got it bad, both ears constantly ringing, louder at times with what seems no rhyme or reason. I just finished a 10 day course of taking the antibiotic Biaxin which made it worse, hopefully it won't take very long to get the drug out of my system. The worse times for me are when it's quiet, like when trying to go to sleep, or reading a book in silence. I usually turn on the TV, or background music to help get my mind off of the ringing. There is supposed to be a device that will nullify the frequency that the ringing occurs at to aid in sleeping but that means wearing ears buds while you sleep, I haven't quite gotten to that point but may look into it in the future.

Funny thing is that it doesn't bother me much when I listen to music, it's like I have learned to listen through the ringing by concentrating on the music, it's almost theraputic for me.

[mhconley]

I'm 52 and also suffer from tinnitus; it started about 15 years ago.  My father has it, too.  I have a constant ~9.5kHz squeal/tone in both ears, louder in my right than in my left.  I also had Eustachian tube issues my entire life until a CAT scan found a cyst in my sinus in my mid-40's.  I've had no issues since it was removed.  I have some hearing loss in my right ear due to a "friend" firing a 44 magnum next to my right ear when I was in my early 20's.  It's severe enough that I find it difficult to understand voices in that ear.  I've tried many different supposed tinnitus remedies including drops and various minerals/vitamins but none have made any difference.

I enjoy listening to music very much and have learned to tune out the tinnitus.  I find I am very capable of critically listening to sources, components and speakers and am able to hear subtle differences between them.

Martin

[coverto]

I've had tinnitus on and off throughout my life, but it has been particularly intense for the past two years. I'm just about convinced I got it from a particularly intense round of auditioning some Mac and Audio Research tube amps over the course of a few afternoons. A lot of those KT88s and 6550s emit some kind of ultrasonic energy that simply does not agree with my ears.

Hoping that someday, with enough gentle, soothing sounds from my system, it will go away. But an audiologist confirmed to me that modern medicine continues to grope in the dark on this problem.

[timind]

This is actually making me feel better about my tinnitus. The fact people can still enjoy music is very encouraging. When I first started noticing the symptoms I thought my music listening days were numbered. Surprisingly, I can listen with headphones and feel very comfortable, as long as I don't go too loud.

[abernardi]

Yes, I've noticed it's harder to listen to music REALLY loud and there are certain frequencies that I'm more sensitive to and hurt my ears at high levels.

[Trismos]

This is actually making me feel better about my tinnitus. The fact people can still enjoy music is very encouraging. When I first started noticing the symptoms I thought my music listening days were numbered. Surprisingly, I can listen with headphones and feel very comfortable, as long as I don't go too loud.

What bothers me the most about it I suppose is when you are listening to a piece with dynamic swings where there are very quiet parts in the mix, Dire Straits 'Private Investigations' for example. In my day to day routine I don't really notice it. At night I sleep with a small fan going that acts as a white noise generator of sorts and masks it.

[fdottore]

I've had the tape hiss variety of tinnitus for years, can't pick out conversations in a somewhat noisy environment, etc.  One thing I've found is that aspirin (or products containing aspirin-type ingredients) make the ringing much worse.  An example of another product that either contains aspirin or aspirin-like ingredients is Pepto Bismal, it definitely makes my ears ring more.

A grandmother (not mine) told me that in the old days they used to say "you're not taking enough aspirin if your ears aren't ringing" (apparently it even rings the ears of people without tinnitus if you take too much).