r/TinnitusTalk

I have been taking it for about two years now on a daily basis. Recently I have experts ringing in my ears. I am not directly connecting the two but did note that a small percentage of long term users have experienced this as a side-effect. Has anyone experienced this?

At the onset of Timnitus you MUST visit an ENT who CAN DO OAE (otoacoustic emission test )

BECAUSE depending on that you have to follow opposing strategies

The neuronal cascade of hearing :
OHC IHC auditory nerve DCN auditory cortex

The OAE will tell you whether your OHC s are intact (a “healthy “ auditory profile will NOT tell you )

CASE 1 : OHC damaged / dying : stop reading here and manage your OHCs .

CASE 2 : Neuroma (CT , MRI) : stop reading here and let ENT get rid of it

CASE 3 OHC are fine - which means mostly synapse degeneration and auditory nerve degeneration -ESPECIALLY its part which encodes complex singles like human communication

Here you MUST READ ON AND ACT

1. What You will be fighting : lack of input lets your brain lower its threshold to almost zero and start acting out : glutamate and calcium intense networks of acoustic neurons in the DCN and auditory cortex start firing wildly (the ringing in your head )

This will lead to eventual energy depletion . To prevent cell death (neuronal excitotoxicity ) your brain will manage - it will shift resources to satisfy the INSANE ENERGY NEED and also isolate itself from eventual spread of cell death .

This means other functions will get down regulated. Your life expectancy is fine - but you might get brain fog or worse . Worst case your neurons in your auditory cortex and DCN start dying

2. your task is TWOFOLD - and you have to fight a conundrum (CONTRADICTION)
   A) excite at ringing frequency your ear to let compromised auditory nerve cells GROW , eventually regenerate . They need STIMULATION to switch off cell death by inactivity
   B) do NOT excite at ringing frequency as it will drive your already ringing brain neurons to complete exhaustion and eventual cell death (cell death by over activity )

How to combine A and B?

Play white noise (ONLY if your OHCs are HEALTHY , therefore the OAE test i mentioned at the outset )

Play any noise which includes your ringing frequency . if things go well all other frequencies will excite your brain and the “good” neuronal activity will laterally inhibit your ringing neurons

But this is not all .

You MUST stimulate regeneration of the parts of your auditory nerve which process COMPLEX SIGNALING like human voices (sentences , words )
Those are ones who die first when they don’t get their signals

CONCLUSION :

1. don’t use apps or hearing aids which skip your ringing frequency

2. play any sounds including your ringing frequency, add white noise , add ANYTHING (but keep decibels low of course)

See my post about acoustic boredom : you don’t want this .

3. THE MOST IMPORTANT STEP : listen to human communication (friends , folks , tv ) and THROUGH A BARRIER OF WHITE NOISE

So this is what you have To do : play white noise , cat purr , CLICKS (clicks provide the full power spectrum , you can know by with fast Fourier transformation ) , and at the same time try to identify what soft human voices are TALKING .

This will stimulate your dying auditory nerve portions and synapses - and at the same time annihilate the ringing in your head (—> kill the overexcitement in large swathes of your brain and prevent cell death and energy reshuffling from important tasks to keeping your autoditory cortex cells alive )

May god be with us

This preclinical drug restores connection between the inner ear and the auditory nerve

Hi everyone,

I recently developed tinnitus in my right ear pretty much out of nowhere, and I'm trying to figure out whether anyone has experienced something similar.

The strange thing is that it isn't consistently there. It can get quite loud, then become much quieter or completely disappear for a while. Sometimes lying down or changing position seems to make it disappear, and then it may gradually come back after I sit up. However, the same position doesn't reliably fix it every time.

There are a few other things that make this confusing:

- For several weeks, I've had quite a lot of neck and upper-shoulder tension, particularly on my right side.

- A day before the tinnitus started, I irritated/pulled something in the right side of my neck. It felt much better the next day.

- Clenching/tensing my jaw can change or trigger the ringing.

- My right ear sometimes feels slightly blocked or like it needs to clear/pop.

- If I pinch my nose and blow, I can eventually pop the ear, although I have to apply quite a bit of pressure. The tinnitus/ear sensation can temporarily change afterward.

- I've also had very mild occasional dizziness/imbalance, nothing severe or disabling.

- When I tried putting a couple of ear drops into the right ear, they seemed to just sit there. My hearing became extremely muffled, almost like I was covering the ear, and the drops eventually came back out when I sat upright. The same drops went into my left ear normally without causing that level of muffling.

- Looking into the right ear with a phone light, I can see something pale/white inside that I don't see on the left. I haven't tried touching or removing it.

Because of the blocked sensation and the way the drops behave, I'm wondering whether there could be wax/debris or inflammation in the canal. But because the tinnitus changes with jaw tension, neck tension and sometimes position, I'm also wondering about TMJ/somatic tinnitus or Eustachian tube dysfunction.

I'm planning to have the ear properly examined rather than trying to remove anything myself.

Has anyone here had tinnitus with a similar pattern, especially tinnitus that comes and goes completely, changes with jaw/neck movement or body position, or occurs alongside one-sided neck/shoulder tension?

If yours turned out to be TMJ/neck related, ETD, or an ear blockage, what ultimately helped?

I tried BuSpar (worsened my tinnitus quite a lot) then I tried Wellbutrin … also worsened my tinnitus and actually made my inner ears feel sore? :( Next I’m thinking of trying citalopram. Any tips or recommendations from anyone with a similar experience? TIA