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Hi, Having a right testicular cancer operation in August 2007 (and a relapse in 2009 where a 1 cm node popped into my para-aortic region of my lymph system) was a piece of cake compared to tinnitis that started in Jan 2007.
I am a tinnitus sufferer (right ear ringing at 3716 Hz with negative 40 Db loss). I have pounded my ears for 35 years playing drums, guitar, bass, listening at blistering volumes (with my volumes I even set a PMC studio speakers on fire)(the 1000W sound system in my car is also a contributor)...really all nothing to be proud of, but it has been a loud and fun time with my ears up to 2007. I was tracking a tune in my studio with headsets and after a few hours voila TINNITUS that just wouldn’t go away - it was driving me nuts. So I started to research, and decided to apply a multi-faceted approach to find a solution (if at least manage). So here is what I have done and found so far. (what I have done has made it somewhat better so far…)
1. HERE IS WHAT IS REALLY HELPING – LOW FREQUENCY SOUND THERAPY. I found some free software to create the tones. NCH Tone Generator.
http://nch.com.au/tonegen/index.html
All night when I sleep I listen (with quality headphones) to a soothing Sine wav of 40 Hz in left ear and 39.73 Hz in the right.
I just tried a new approach at setting a Sine tone (eg 3394 Hz) to be lower than my tinnitus (3716 Hz) and then the tone itself seems to increase over the loudness of the tinnitus. I then keep setting the intensity of the external tone lower until both are imperceptible
The result is that the Tinnitus goes way down (better results during the day). During the nights the results have varied. But overall, the sound therapy is helping me maintain my sanity so far.
I will update my findings further as I experiment further.
PLEASE REMEMBER WHAT WORKS FOR ME MAY NOT WORK FOR YOU. PLEASE EXERCISE CAUTION WITH ANY THERAPY.
2. I am a regular with a Chinese doctor and she has prescribed me Chinese herbs and we are doing acupuncture twice a week. Sometimes 14 needles, the worst is the 2" needle in around the jaw bone...feels like an ice-pick in the ear. This has helped as you feel good for about 4-6 hours after, however the Tinnitus symptoms generally come back.
3. Doing Zinc, Ginko Biloba, St John's Wort, multi-vitamins is hopefully helping
4. Using the backside of a sonic toothbrush to massage the muscles and bones around (but not in) the ear. This helped in the first few days, but once I discovered low frequency shound therapy then I stop the sonic tooth brush.
CHEERS!
Beitrag geändert von rvares (13-08-2012 01:02:26)
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Hi rvares,
Welcome to the forum.
I personally couldn't say that sound therapy worked for me (in my case the occasional painkiller (Paracetamol or Aspirin) and also alcohol-free beer did a better job), but for some people it might obviously bring relief. So thank you for the tip.
I also would like to mention again two other sound programs, Atmosphere and Aire Freshener. Both contain mostly natural sound backgrounds and they are free (whereas the one you suggested appears to be Shareware, although it can be used free for a limited time).
Thomas
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are you a PMC user? which ones do you use?
regarding your improvements, the question is whether it is because of or despite the measures you have chosen to take.
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also would the improvements be permanent or temporary?
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Hi,
I would say that some improvements are temporary, others permanent. Clearly the tinnitus is less, and my hearing better. However, there are times when the sound therapy doesn't work, specifically last night...I set the volume of the tone too low and woke up at 2 AM with tinnitus again (mind you not as bad as say 2-3 weeks ago), but enough to wake you up. No problem, I have my laptop by my bed, I raised the volume of the therapy tone slightly louder than the tinnitus and went back to sleep. Woke up at 8 AM, it is 9:45 AM now and I have minimal tinnitus (1 would say it is 10% of what is was 2-3 weeks ago).
At this stage, I would conclude that that therapy has reduced the tinnitus, but it has not gone away. The most important thing for me is that I feel in control of it, I decide when to make it go away.
Cheers,
RV
Beitrag geändert von rvares (15-02-2009 14:58:29)
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Hi,
As an addendum to my last post...During the entire day (8 AM - Midnight) yesterday I was able to be without sound therapy and the tinnitus was so far back that you could hardly hear it. For sleeping, I put on the tone therapy again and woke up feeling great. Now as I write, I can hardly tell the tinnitus from the whinny hard drive of my old clunky computer.
Cheers,
RV
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Wow rvares, really interesting to hear that. I hope you'll share your newest experencies with us!
Greetings from Vienna,
Hannes
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Hi All,
I cannot stress to you all how helpful sound therapy can be to maintain/improve tinnitus FOR ME. Please note that what works for me, may not work for you at all. Please exercise caution. I have heard in some instances that some therapies can make things worse before they get better.
Cheers,
Rein
Beitrag geändert von rvares (01-06-2008 22:59:17)
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Thank your very much for your information. Your ears “seem to be ok” means that the tinnitus is gone? That would be too good to be true.
Anyway, that really reminds me on the “MIDI off” problem when using synthesizers (musicians will know what I am talking about). For all those who do not have the “technical background”: When you are playing several notes on a keyboard (which corresponds to the ear), the information is send to the synthesizer (the brain) which is then playing the sounds. But sometimes, when there is too much information (loud music in a club), some notes get stuck and even if you stop to play the note the sound is sill there because the necessary “note off”-command never arrived at the “brain”.
Maybe the tinnitus is similar to that, especially when it was caused by loud music. The brain never gets the information that the sound is off and is still thinking that you are hearing something.
A possible solution (like in the technical world) could be to find the frequency that caused the problem. Through playing the “right” sound on and on again the brain will hopefully get the necessary “note off”-command one day, although it won’t be so simple as to play keyboard :-)
I know that this is not very scientific, but I think you get the point.
By the way: Excuse my bad English. I always had the worst marks in school hehe.
Beitrag geändert von Hannes (20-02-2008 03:13:34)
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rvares,
I just downloaded the tone generator program. I am very interested in testing out the sound therapy method you suggested. Can you please give me a step by step method on how you developed the right tone? I'm new to using the program. My tinnitus is mainly perceivable when I go to sleep, so how loud should i make the tone? Thanks.
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