Supposedly 40% of people experience some relief if they take niacin every day. It doesn’t work for me, but my dad says it helps him to a degree.
I don’t really think there is any cure, though. It seems to be less irritating to those of us who have always had it (okay, not literally always, but I’ve had it since I was a toddler, likely due to chronic ear infection) rather than acquired it after being old enough to remember life without it, but maybe you’ll get used to it too.
Thanks elfkin477 for your reply. I understand what you are saying that it’s not that distracting/Etc since you have basically always had the ringing. Where as mine just started which is very distracting when I an trying to sleep.
My G/P Dr has told me to just ignore the ring but that is not easy when it has flexed higher.
I have friends that say they can ignore the ringing caused by past work and military flight lines.
I was told if it’s caused from noise vs sinus matters it could be temporary.
A hearing specialist said she could give me some relief if needed by masking the ring. I have heard to sleep with low music on.
Right now there isn’t really anything that works. Trust me, I’ve tried just about everything that wasn’t obvious quackery and/or outrageously expensive. Things are looking hopeful in the future with several companies developing hearing restoration drugs and vagus nerve stimulation so I’m trying to just not go crazy in the meantime.
In my case, it turned out to be high blood pressure. When I started taking medication to lower my blood pressure, it also stopped the ringing in my ears I often experienced.
For me, this. I know there’s a clear correlation between my blood pressure and the intensity of my tinnitus. I was very stressed a few years ago and was almost hospitalised for extremely high blood pressure - that was a bad phase for my tinnitus as well. Since then, it’s almost back to normal and the ringing is nearly gone.
Exercise, eating healthily and more sleep all helped too. The other thing I found that aggravated it was listening to music on headphones for extended periods (not over-loud, just listening - I was always careful with the volume) so I’ve drastically cut down on that. It’s not all bad - I read much more on my commute, and listen to a lot less music.
Good luck with getting it under control, OP. I feel your pain, because it’s incredibly frustrating to have to live with this.
Even without tinnitus therapy mode, hearing aids can sometimes suppress tinnitus. I know I experience less tinnitus with my hearing aids than without.
The only other thing that works for me is to ignore it. I couldn’t do it for about four weeks after it started, but at some point I just got so frustrated from constantly thinking about it that I just stopped.
This site has a testimonial (yes, I know: anecdote != data) from someone who says that cannabis has given him/her relief. If I had to guess, they probably still had tinnitus, they just didn’t care. But either way, there’s no real downside, so go for it.
These are some good points shared that I will investigate.
#1 is stress related to body and back pain due to an accident that elevated with the winter weather. The lack of activity allows the ringing to be noticed more. Hopefully, physical therapy for the pains will allow me to increase my activities (that usually mask the ringing).
#2 is blood pressure that flexes high norm to normal is 140/80 w/med. 120/70 in a bed rest mode and 140/ 90 before meds were started at mid 50s age and now mid 60s…
#3 Is the ringing associated with aging? I doubt my neighbor has been exposed to the noise I want to associate my ringing with due to past/present work w/o proper protection. At early 80s she describes her ringing and hearing as a larger problem than mine at mid – late 60s. Even though she feel as if her body is shutting down I d/n see that as normal for those that have been active and continue to be. Exercise wise, she just became active about 06 (walking a dist 5 days for exercise in the past 40 years).
I suspect that this is the case, if only because the older we get the more time we have had for things to go south.
I my case, I mentioned the annoying ringing in my ears to my doctor maybe seven or eight years ago. (I’m 66 now, so this would have been i my late 50s). He referred me to an ear specialist who gave me a battery of tests, described the common causes of Tinnitus to me (*), and verified that I did indeed have some hearing loss.
Then she told me that she wanted me to return once a year or so for more tests. I asked her what the tests would be for, and she told me they were so that she could accurately track the progression of my Tinnitus. Then I asked her what we were going to do about that progression, and she cheerfully said “Oh, there’s nothing we can do about it. But this way we’ll be able to track it quite closely”.
I never went back. And yes, my Tinnitus is progressing nicely.
(*) Attended loud concerts? I listened to folk songs, for crying out loud. Sure, Dave Van Ronk could be kind of irritating, but he wasn’t** loud**!
I only noticed mine a year ago when I was trying to play some music in my head while trying to go to sleep, and realized I couldn’t because it sounded like a 60’s era TV had turned on in the other room.
I just chalk it up to the many very light problems caused by my brain lesions.
However it doesn’t really bother me and I still have excellent hearing.
Interestingly enough and as a counterpoint to that article - some medications actually increase tinnitus. So OP, you may want to consider what medications you might be taking, if any.
I also have it and it’s not that bothersome. Worse with age (I’m 56), like many things.
Wax build-up can also make it worse, again from personal experience. Won’t hurt to rule that out.