I hear a permanent and constant low-volume very high pitch "squeal" in my ears at all times,
I was never a big loud music listener, and I have always brought ear-plugs to loud events - and have had no big ear-rupturing moments (such as a gun firing close to my head without protection etc...
In the spirit of "there's a forum for everything," you can get help programming them yourself here:
But, I also enjoy being in silence.
Silence arrested by tinnitus.
I would enjoy a more meditative state... yet, tinnitus.
(Yes, I have tried "meditating it away")
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Aside: I love you.
Manganese could also play a part because its the most abundant metal in hair samples which might translate to the hairs in the ear. However to get it there, you'll need to increase your cysteine intake, but we dont absorb it easily through the gut so we have to use N Acetyl Cysteine...
SO many chemical variables....
Acetaminophen doesn't have the same problem for me so I'm assuming it's not just that I'm clenching my jaw without noticing.
The only tip I can give you is to always have some kind of background sound that you can focus on rather than the buzzing in your own head.
Also, avoid earplugs and headphones, they just create a wierd feedback loop.
A couple of the things I used to tell myself when it troubled me more than it does now:
- There's nothing you can do about this, so just forget about it.
- We all accumulate damage as we age. None of us are going into the grave in prime condition and if we do, that's a mark of a life not well-lived.
- The fact I can hear this noise means I'm alive: "I hear ringing, therefore I am".
These may not be helpful to you, so invent your own!
The other thing I would recommend is getting a hearing test. If it turns out you have hearing loss, then treatment for that (e.g. hearing aids) may reduce your tinnitus (one theory is that tinnitus is caused by your brain "turning up the gain" on your "audio inputs", so that when you have a hearing aid, your brain no longer needs to do that, and your tinnitus diminishes).
If it turns out you don't have hearing loss, then you can reassure yourself that your tinnitus is not a sign of any damage. I had always assumed my tinnitus was the result of damage due to a lot of music events but it turns out I have excellent hearing, which helps me ignore my tinnitus, because I no longer view it as proof that I hurt myself.
You may also notice that certain things make your tinnitus worse. For instance, if I have a few drinks, mine gets noticeably louder. But because I know the alcohol will wear off, I just ignore it because it's temporary.
I personally think this is great advice. I just imagine that the noise is the firing of my synapses.
With that said, my advice to you is, don’t do that. ;) Maybe you have it, maybe you don’t, so probably best to just ignore it, because it’s not a problem unless you start paying attention to it.
Interestingly, having this conversation on HN has made mine more noticeable, so, I better move on too!
It depends. My friend had a bad tinitus for years. He thought it was from clubbing and the jet noise in the military.
He just has bad hearing and with his hearing aids, the tinitus is gone.
You might want to experiment with changing your diet, drinking more water, etc.
I do eat a lot of sodium, but here is an interesting anecdote:
A friend's husband had Lyme Disease - and had very bad veritgo from it which was exacerbated by a high sodium intake (I assume the ear works on the sodium potassium pump in some manner?)
but she used to have to make a very careful diet for him so as to remove sodium as much as possible, which would prevent his vertigo.
"Where an inflammatory component is suspected in bilateral Ménière’s disease, short courses of systemic glucocorticoids may be appropriate. It recently has been shown that glucocorticoids not only influence inflammatory process in Ménière’s disease, but also alter fluid dynamics via an interaction with the sodium pumps in the semicircular canals (Ponduglula et al 2004). Intra-tympanic application of corticosteroids appears to have only temporary effects (Dodson 2004) and is probably not recommended"