I’ve had tinnitus since I had my first COVID vaccine (in addition to vertigo). I’m not anti Vax at all, just sadly in the small percentage of people who had a reaction. When I lie down to sleep at night my ears sound like I was at a rock concert all night. That said, if I do an audio test, but hearing is actually fine. There is just an annoying background noise now that mostly just is noticeable at night. So in short, you get used to it.
Awful sad to read so many folks have this problem. If no one has mentioned this yet, I recommend getting a sleep study if at all possible. In the 3½ years that I've been using a CPAP nightly, mine is much less frequent as well as somewhat quieter when it comes.
Cheers
Cheers
Going over some of my back threads, I did mention Mirapex and my Noise-Induced-Hearing-Loss search. When I find and clean up my scribbles, I'll attach them. My left ear's response drops off precipitously above 5 kHz. Maybe I should try eating more of those San Francisco Chirps Chips, made from cricket flour.
I also have slight tinnitus in my left ear since an infection about 20 years ago. It is a very high pitched slightly broadband noise (or maybe better: a noisy tone). I am fortunate that it doesn't disturb during normal daily life and it doesn't keep me awake at night either. But I encounter some kind of distortion of higher-pitched frequencies at loud levels. And it is not possible to listen to absolute silence - which is one of the nicest "sounds" in existence - anymore.
I will try this the next time I start up Sigma Studio to fiddle around with my digital crossover.
Regards
Charles
I read about a therapy that does the contrary: They make you listen to music whose frequency ranges where the problem occurs are notchced out. The theory behind this is that it avoids the stimulation of the tinnitus. It is important to apply the same filtering to both channels for stereophony to work properly.
I will try this the next time I start up Sigma Studio to fiddle around with my digital crossover.
Regards
Charles
I can't recommend this, as the potential for damaging the cilia of the inner ear is grave. However, with very careful use of volume with great care to keep the max volume well within the comfort range of the most sensitive frequencies, it may be possible for benefits to exceed risks.
This is what a friend did and you could try if you are fully aware of the risks:
1. identify the freq where you have tinnitus
2. one way is to use Foobar with its sweep function
3. do one side at a time using the stereo balance DSP
4. you are looking for a small freq band where your hearing is poor and the freq matches the tinnitus
5. play the sweep for a few minutes
6. use a visual analogue scale to quantify the pre post tinnitus magnitude
The theory is some tinnitus may be hypothesised to arise from damage to cilia in discreet audio bands causing an up regulation of sensitivity of the associated auditory processing neurons in the primary auditory cortex leading to spontaneous discharge i.e. tinnitus. By stimulating the damaged cilia the neurons can be down regulated. The evidence for this is marginal, to be generous.
The clear danger is further damaging the already shredded cilia, leading to further hearing damage and increased tinnitus.
However, when done carefully, the reduction in tinnitus can manifest after just a few minutes. Expect it to wear off rapidly. But with repeat stimulation eg QID the benefits should accumulate with long term neuroplastic resetting.
The other way to go is to identify the frequency bands with the sweep technique and then use a parameter equaliser to boost that band so whenever you listen to music you treat your tinnitus.
Be careful and learn to love the tinnitus 🙂
Hi Kazap. Thanks. Your advice is well taken. This is the online tone generator I use: https://www.szynalski.com/tone-generator/
After a few days the predominant frequency range of my tinnitus has diminished 80%. However a much higher frequency range has replaced it. It was always there also but has become a bit louder. It is in the 11-13,000hz range. That's the limit of my hearing so how do I identify any contributing frequencies above that? Or does it matter?
After a few days the predominant frequency range of my tinnitus has diminished 80%. However a much higher frequency range has replaced it. It was always there also but has become a bit louder. It is in the 11-13,000hz range. That's the limit of my hearing so how do I identify any contributing frequencies above that? Or does it matter?
Had an episode a few years back, coinciding with a period of great disease. It was bad and worrying, since I do audio in various forms, including music, mixing, etc... It went away after several days, thankfully, and I don't think I've lost anything but I could be wrong. Also had an episode when I was studying - local rave night and they apparently thought it a good thing to max out the amplifiers. Went away after a couple of days but I must have lost some of my hearing from that but not much since my hearing still seems to be better than most people.
Best relief I get is sleeping with window open hearing crickets cherp all night and birds singing at dawn hits the correct Fq's to mask it to the point I forget I ever had it - that is until the next flair-up!
Id still recommend the Foobar sweep as it is highly configurable, eg you can dial in a sweep of say 7000-7160Hz over say 22secs ; then with a stereo DSP target the affected side.
Thats outstanding.
It probably doesnt matter. The cilia and/or associated neurons are probably nonfunctional ie destroyed above your hearing freq threshold.
With the Foobar sweep you can just go +1kHz above your hearing range to be sure its covered, but be very careful with the volume. Dont go above a volume comfortable in the midrange or your upper hearing range might rapidly decrease.
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Do you have a link for it compatible with MacOS Monterey 12.6? Thanks for the visual. So are those cilia living tissue?
https://www.foobar2000.org/mac
Foobar > File > Add Location > sweep://3600-5000,20
Define living. Bone is one of the most dynamic transformative organs. Cilia are largely actin microtubules and have limited turnover. Once they are gone they dont regrow usually. Some “creative” profit driven research has been attempting a heroic regenerative process but are finding miracles are a bit slow to manifest, despite the hype.
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I mean is it living in terms of any other requiring nutritional maintenance as opposed to hair for example.
Auditory hairs do have a turn over of the actin, so theres some living process, but its not like a brain cell that gobbles glucose and oxygen and suffers in only minutes if the blood supply is cut off. It would be cool if the hair cells could be treated to regrow. Maybe one day. Maybe not.
Knock yourself out: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6104712/pdf/icy064.pdf