Tinnitus Questions ... OT

Re: Tinnitus Questions ... OT

John Veerkamp

learn to live with it.. Sorry

Re: Tinnitus Questions ... OT

fred in ct

I have it bad but only if I think about it, I think the only cure is death.

Re: Tinnitus Questions ... OT

jcousins

I have a friend who has tinnitus very bad and learned that bee venom helps. He was a bee keeper and would hold a bee behind each ear too sting himself. I think he did 3 on each side, but I’m not sure how frequent. Although it did not eliminate the noise he said it was very effective in reducing the intensity. And he did not suffer from other system problems from the stings.

Might want to research bee venom

jerry

Ouch

Lee Schierer in McKean, PA

Probably because the pain and itching were more of a problem than the noise.

Bee venom for medical purposes

John K Jordan

Bee venom is sometimes used to relieve arthritis. Our beekeeping club advised us that we may be approached by people seeking bees for this. The spokesman said it was against the law for beekeepers to distribute bees for medical purposes but there was nothing wrong with giving them a few bees to do what they wanted with them.

They put a bee in a small plastic container with a sponge-tipped plunger and push it into the skin until it stings. I haven't tried this myself but the word on the street is if the area of the proposed sting is iced down first the sting is barely felt.

Those with a known sensitivity to honeybee stings might not want to try this. Notice I said honeybee. Many people think they are "allergic" to bee stings after having a swelling reaction. You are allergic if you get breathing problems. Most reactions are not from honeybees but from wasps and hornets. For example, I often get painful honeybee stings. I get mild local swelling, not a problem. Many people say they were stung by a bee but don't know the difference between honeybees and yellowjackets.

But a yellowjacket sting on my hand caused my entire arm to swell all the way to my shoulder. I am "sensitive" to yellowjacket stings but I am not allergic in that I have never had breathing problems from a sting.

For those who don't like the pain or swelling of stings there is a sure-fire cure - use a Sawyer product called "The Extractor" https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B000AU9PEC

There are many similar products today but this is the one I have experience with and recommend. Also good for mosquitoes, snake bites, etc.

This doesn't treat the symptoms of a sting but actually pulls the venom out of the skin with a suction pump. This really, really works. The last two yellowjacket stings I got left only a small red spot when treated quickly with The Extractor. In most cases the pain is gone instantly. I keep two in the house, one in the shop, one in each vehicle, one on the tractor, one in my honeybee hive kit, give them to parents with small children.

JKJ

Re: Ouch

Barry Irby

If you are screaming from the bee stings you probably can't hear the tinnitus.

I just don't believe the TCB in the Gummies would work, unless you ate enough to get stoned.

Re: Tinnitus Questions ... OT

Jesse Cloud

Just anecdotal, I don't know of any science behind it, but for what its worth....

I've had bad tinnitus since I was a kid. I got a hearing aid a couple of years ago and it helped enormously - much to my surprise. Some hearing aids have a special program for tinnitus, but I'm not using that.

Process was very slow and gradual. I wasn't aware of any change until one day it dawned on me that the ringing in my ears was just barely audible.

Re: Tinnitus Questions ... OT

Jim O'Connor

My experience was similar to Jesse. I don't recall when the tinnitus left or if it was gradual or not but it has gone now that I wear aids most of the time away from the shop. I don't wear them in the shop because I use earmuffs whenever I turn anything on. Should have done that 60 years earlier.

Re: Ouch

John K Jordan

>>>If you are screaming from the bee stings you probably can't hear the tinnitus.

They can detect fear so be afraid, be very afraid. (Just kidding!)

A honeybee sting is a sharp pain, annoying, but hardly a reason for screams. Scratch away any stinger and the pain will subside quickly. However, above all, protect your eyes.

One thing to know if you are around or working around a beehive and fail to properly use the smoker. (Honeybees communicate by pheromones and improperly used smoke can fail to mask their alarm signals.) When the hive is threatened certain bees take it upon themselves to become guard bees and try to chase away the evil giants attacking their home. Even with full bee suit they can be annoying.

There is a simple trick to get them to forget about you and go away - just walk into vegetation, tall and thick, and stand still. In seconds they will give up the chase and go back to the hive.

I understand none of this applies to the so-called killer bees, africanized bees. Fortunately we have none here.

JKJ

Re: Tinnitus Questions ... OT

Mike Squire

For what it's worth, I've had the same experience as Jesse and Jim. After I started using hearing aids, I stopped noticing the ringing. I have an appointment with the audiologist tomorrow. I'll try to remember to ask if there's some basis for it.

Re: Tinnitus Questions ... OT

Derek Cohen (in Perth, Australia)

I am also assuming other people here may also have the same problem for similar reasons. What I want to know is does anyone know of anything that actually works.

Barry, I have had Tinnitus for around 15 years. Probably due to a diet of loud concerts and loud parties when young, and unprotected power tools for a number of years after these.

There are two forms of Tinnitus - one cause by medication, and the other by noise. The latter form of Tinnitus is forever ... but ...

When this started, it caused me a great deal of distress. The acute loss of control was overwhelming. Tinnitus is a cause of depression for many and suicide for some. I had some dark thoughts for while.

The first step for many, and myself included, is to go off to an audiologist. This confirmed that I had significant hearing loss, and was prescribed (expensive!) hearing aids. Also an expensive sound therapy program (which involved listening to music at a particular frequency to "train" the hearing area involved.

I did this religiously for about 12 months. With no gains. Finally I decided that, since I was a professional psychologist, it was time to think like one.

What hearing aids do is change the scale of what you hear. It is all about foreground and background noise. My biggest struggle (and this is common as we age) is to deal with background noise: conversations in restaurants and even cars if there is significant road noise. What hearing aids do is raise the background levels to mask the Tinnitus noise. One can get a similar effect by introducing a white noise generator, such as flowing water sounds, rain, etc.

However, there is an issue with hearing aids which ended my use of them: the fact that one needs them is a constant reminder that one has something (Tinnitus) to deal with. Right now, because I am thinking about Tinnitus, I am aware it is there.

So, I resolved to use the fore ground-back ground feature to deal with this. This is an area of Gestalt Psychology ... in simple terms, how we perceive and experience objects. What I did was throw away the hearing aids and sound therapy machine. I resolved to let nature take its course, that is, that force the fore ground (Tinnitus) to fade into the back ground. I believed that this would do so if I stopped thinking about it.

It took about 3 or 4 months for this to occur. Importantly, I also stopped having an emotional reaction to the Tinnitus when I did become aware of it. It was as though I created a dissociation (deliberately), and could now observe it dispassionately. So the Tinnitus remains, but fades into the background and I forget about it. It is only times like this that it comes up, or some days it is quite loud but, as I mention, it does not intrude emotionally.

One memory I will mention is of an incident that took place 3 months after I had tossed away the appliances: I was at a woodworking store and idly joined a conversation between two salesmen. They both had just taken possession of hearing aids for their newly-diagnosed Tinnitus, and were so grateful for them. I did not have the heart to tell them my experience, and that the hearing aids were to become a prison. The truth is that I needed the hearing aids and the sound therapy at the time I did it. I needed to believe that there was a way out. This early period is the hardest to navigate. Why I am writing this is to give suffers strength that it will pass - not the noise, but the discomfort and preoccupation.

Regards from Perth

Derek

Thank you Derek....

Barry Irby

That was an interesting read...

Wonder what medications cause or influence tinnitus? I take allopurinol to avoid gout. And a BP med. I will look into those.

Your psychology approach is interesting. I notice it bothers me less in the shop and was wondering if it's the ambient air cleaner that is masking it? The nearly inaudible sound of my refrigerator running seems to help as does the heat or AC running. White noise? At night I sleep with the TV on and turned down low and that probably serves as a distraction.

Sorting this stuff out is tough. I had radiation therapy for prostate cancer and trying to figure out what the after effects are and the tinnitus along with aging if a chore. I don't think they have a treatment for aging.

Re: Tinnitus Questions ... OT

jergle

I have no personal experience with this, but an OTC supplement called lipoflavanoid is helpful for some people. It is marketed for tinnitus. The only other effective treatment I know of (I'm a family doc) is hearing aids as mentioned above.

Thanks, very interesting approach 

Ditto on the "Extractor"

Tim Greif - West of Chicago

I've used one for years and it's standard gear on my Harley for road trips. I've hit the north end of a southbound hornet too many times to recall, and this little tool is very effective. The key is to use it immediately. For most, a bee or hornet sting feels very similar to a cigarette or fire ash burn. The Extractor sucks the venom out and instantly eliminates the burning pain sensation. For me, what remains is a minor itch at the sting site. I've not tried it on mosquito bites, but may now.

Re: Ouch

Lee Schierer in McKean, PA

You can mow the grass in front of a beehive or a group of beehives with a power mower. However, wait 20 minutes or more before making a second pass in front of the same hives. DAMHIKT.

I kept bees for over 30 years.

Lee

Re: Tinnitus Questions ... OT

TomD

I had tinnitus for a while after a plane crash I was in. I had problems with my jaw, probably related to whiplash, or maybe stress from generalized pain. It went of for years. I finally cured the jaw problems by inserting the ends of two tongue depressors under my rear molars and biting down. It took a while to take, but provided instant release from pain. After that the tinnitus subsided also, apparently stress in the jaw can cause it. Obviously mine was not caused by nerve damage. I always wear hearing protection for everything, mowing the lawn, using a hammer (same peak noise level as a 22 lr rifle.

I periodically hear of various new technologies that are said to help, but since I don't have the problem any more I just hope they are helping others.

---------------------------

I started to hear reports (ha ha) that people who were at the range suffered serious ear damage from a single visit. Obviously while the victim was wearing muffs. This was often the result of being next to a guy with a magnum rifle, where the rifle was fitted with a muzzle break (redirects blast noise to the shooter, or people next to him). Sometimes made worse by the low height of an overhead roof. This led me to consider what the decibel range is for rifles. I had always heard 160. Turns out it can be way higher than 160. For years I had heard 160. So I looked into it. Turns out that as with other measurement equipment there are ranges, and typically the db meter scale maxes out at 160, not the noise. Every 3 db doubles the energetic effect of sound, and the maximum attenuation of the noise by muffs is around 30db So you don't need to go much above 160 to be back at the 140 range that can cause a loss of hearing from a single exposure.

Interestingly from the psycho-acoustic perspective, one observes a doubling of the volume of sound when the sound increases by 10db. So a perception of how loud something is, is not always the best guide as to damage that may occur.

Shooters have available, though I have never seen them in the flesh, little foam wedges that seal around eye glasses. Another option is to use headset mounted eye protection, like visors, and integrated helmet systems. If you shove your glasses under your muffs, you loose a lot of efficiency.

-----------------------------------

I was interested in measuring decibels when my daughter was in band. Her teacher lost hearing in one year of teaching band. My daughter wore hearing protectors while in band, and she also wore them on the school bus. You can get a DB meter relatively cheaply these days. DB meters allow you to tell when sounds that one considers reasonable in volume are not. Hammers being an interesting example, as they have peak effects that are short in duration, even though they are damaging. For chisel work, I moved from my beloved laminated Japanese hammers to a rubber mallet, because the noise was excessive when working with the steel hammer.

All this does leave the question of how it is that anyone can run a machinegun as my grandfather did in WWI, and function at all afterwards.

Re: Tinnitus Questions ... OT

Dave Bair

A very sophisticated sound level app from NIOSH is available free for smart phones.

Re: Tinnitus Questions ... OT

H Bruce McCrory

So, I resolved to use the fore ground-back ground feature to deal with this. This is an area of Gestalt Psychology ... in simple terms, how we perceive and experience objects. What I did was throw away the hearing aids and sound therapy machine. I resolved to let nature take its course, that is, that force the fore ground (Tinnitus) to fade into the back ground. I believed that this would do so if I stopped thinking about it.

White noise serves a similar function to mask surrounding noise. Your comment convinces me to continue in my current program...

Tinnitus is a likely fallout from a childhood of ear infections--my excuse. We didn't get tubes back then. I resist hearing aides now for much of the similar reasons you mention, Derek. With an added caveat.

I know my hearing is better in several ranges than that of other members of my household. She hates it, but my wife has the perfect range of voice to compete with my ability to fade out tinnitus. I don't hear words while she mumbles, but I can hear her.

Having better hearing in certain ranges, permits me to pick up voices in other rooms, even through headphones. Over forty plus years Kris got used to getting my attention from other ends of the house. All I need to do is ignore her voice better, and she should finally come to me. But, that also has complications.

In the interim, your self diagnosis should support me in future discussion involving hearing aides.