Hacker News Reader

Comment by n8henrie | Hacker News Reader

I'm a physician with lifelong bilateral tinnitus. Multiple pitches, quite loud, and acutely worse on the right side for the last 1.5 years or so (with some slight hearing loss).

I've spent a lot of time on PubMed, but so far I've not found anything that helps mine, even partially or temporarily. I've consulted with close friends that have significant expertise is relevant fields, which has not been fruitful.

Thankfully it's just part of existence as I've always known it, and so it's usually not too difficult, but can really be maddening when trying to fall asleep.

View on HN

> but can really be maddening when trying to fall asleep

does white noise help?..

Not the same user, but I've found the most relief from pink noise like rain or a waterfall played through decent speakers. I find it to be easier on the ears and less distracting than white noise.

I'd recommend anyone suffering play around with the generators on myNoise. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say they kept me going when I was first adjusting to the ringing.

https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/rainNoiseGenerator.php

I also listen to pink noise or rain sounds on headphones throughout my work day. I worry about the side effects of listening to random noise for so long, but I continue (not loudly) because it effectively masks my tinnitus (and helps with my task focus).

I can't sleep with any colour of noise from a speaker, but a physical fan in the corner of the room does wonders.

Again a different person but my tinnitus souds like white noise - but at a different pitch so not much use.

Unless I put the white noise very loud to drwon out tinnitus which is not a good thing to do.

You can modulate the white noise very effectively. I dabble with analog synthesizers which let you use low/high pass filters on white noise to get very interesting sounds. I wonder if you carefully matched it, it might alleviate the discomfort. Worth trying I suppose.

It masks it slightly. At the volumes required to compete with the loudness of the tinnitus, the white noise itself is problematic.

Any history of neck injuries?

I had rapid onset tinnitus (8/10 volume, both ears) a week after sustaining a mild neck injury. After a couple weeks the right ear resolved itself, but the left ear remained at 4/10. In reading the literature about whiplash, it appears that upwards of 75% of people that have whiplash develop some form of tinnitus, hearing loss, and/or vertigo in the weeks or months following the injury.

I went to a CFMT-certified physical therapist who noticed that two of my vertebrae were counter-rotated and sheared in addition to my left first rib being elevated and stiff creating an almost thoracic-outlet syndrome type of issue.

My PT addressed the neck vertebrae issue and the elevated first rib over the course of a couple of sessions and my tinnitus dropped to a 0-1/10 in the left ear. If I'm careless when lifting weights it can cause the tinnitus to flare to a 2-3/10 for a couple of days.

Red wine also creates some sort of inflammation that causes my tinnitus to flare up, but alcohol (excessive alcohol in particular) in general causes that and it precedes my neck injury.

> Any history of neck injuries?

Nope. Had it since my earliest memories, no known trauma as a child.

Might be worth looking into neck/shoulder structure (with a PT that's CFMT certified) just to rule out it being an issue with a compressed/tension nerve due to how your neck/shoulder physiology developed.

I saw two different physiatrists, a neurologist, two ENTs, an audiologist, and my GP about the sudden onset tinnitus and they all just shrugged it off. I had a hunch something was going on with my neck because I could modulate the tinnitus a bit with the position of my neck and jaw--I shared this with all of them and they said I was being neurotic. It wasn't until I saw a good PT (she was the third different one I saw) that I was able to get this addressed.

Have you talked about the Lenire device with your colleagues at all? It got FDA approval and is slowly rolling out as they train audiologists.

There’s a Lenire provider where I live (Austin) and I’m on the fence about scheduling an appointment to get one.

$5000[1] (minimum) for something with no proof it works and no “trial period”. No thank you. That’s like the exact definition of snake oil.

[1] https://treblehealth.com/lenire-tinnitus-review/

The FDA submission [1] says it they have provided reasonable assurances of the effectiveness of the device.

Your link lists all kinds of information about the effectiveness like:

> 80% of participants reported a reduction in tinnitus symptoms

That doesn't sound like snake oil to me...

I'd love to hear from somebody who has tried it. If they say it helped at all, I'd write a $5000 check today.

[1]: https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/cdrh_docs/pdf21/DEN210033.pdf

Yea but you can massage data in a way that it makes something look better than it otherwise would. For example, if you asked people right after a treatment if their tinnitus was a lot better, moderately better, a little better, or no change, then you have framed things in a way that many people might say "a little better" even if it's no change. Or you can disqualify all people for whom there was no change or for whom it became worse as "not suitable for treatment." There are lots of games that can and do get played with these sorts of numbers.

I've looked at similar devices which had promising smaller trials but failed to show effectiveness in larger trials / systematic reviews. Will keep my eye out, but would probably wait for better research.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35773272/

> Several of the authors have competing interests. BC, CH, EM, SLL, COC, SH, HHL are employees, consultants and/or shareholders of Neuromod Devices. BL, SV, DAH serve on the clinical advisory board of Neuromod Devices and receive monetary compensation for their contribution.

I don't have tinnitus, but i put my head into ice cold water everyday for an hour. I would be very surprised if ice cold water for an hour, does not treat tinnitus successfully in a week.

Mind you, ice cold water, not just cold water.

Wait, what? Why? So you just come up every minute for breath or something?

It sounds interesting! Not as a tinnitus relief, just the practice of doing this.

Well, lying down on a bed or a sofa, and putting a big bowl of ice water on the side. Then immersing the head slowly at first, into the ice water. The nose, is facing the sky. Then alternate between the two ears, putting them as deep as possible into the water. There is no problem in breathing, because the nose is always out of the water.

The first days of doing that, you will go right to sleep after the cold water and you gonna wake up with a heavy head, like drinking whisky the previous night. After some days it won't be like that, and the body will get used to it.

Oh, haha, I was really imagining it wrong :')

Thanks!

The reason i am doing it, is to smooth out any wrinkles on my face. Not that i have many, one or two, but the ice cold water completes smooths out the skin.

I found out accidentally, that it treated a very mild case of inflammation in the ear i had, for over a year.

I probably had the same inflammation 6 years back, and i was in a lot of pain. I went to see a doctor, and he didn't want to prescribe any antibiotics, because the antibiotics for the ear are the strongest of all, due to poor blood circulation around the ear. Anyway, i convinced him for the contrary and he prescribed the antibiotics, 3 days later my ears were working properly again.

The last year however, a similar inflammation on the same spot appeared, but very mild. Almost no pain at all. Just a very small discomfort in the area sometimes. Well the ice cold water for an hour, it treats it completely every time.

The reason i am doing it however, is to smooth out the skin. That's a lot more important.

have you tried a wet towel with ice inside for a simpler solution...

For what reason do you do this?

I replied to a sibling comment. Among other reasons, it treated a very mild inflammation of the ear i had. The inflammation disappears, but it comes back after 5 to 10 days. I don't want to take antibiotics again for that reason, let alone that the doctor won't prescribe it anyway, which is correct in my opinion. We want antibiotics to be prescribed only when absolutely necessary. That mild inflammation is almost irrelevant, i feel nothing most of the time. The ice cold water it treats it very well, so that's good.

It also clears up the nasal pathways. Not absolutely, but it is one of the better ways i have found so far.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com