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Hi there! No, I have not had my gallbladder removed (and I believe, if memory serves, my ejection-fraction was in the very high teens when I had my first real gall bladder crisis). I still have palpitations every day when I lay down, but if I don;'t eat anything after 2 pm, I don't. Not a...

Awesome, Joy. Exercise is really good for your overall health, as you know. Tinnitus requires several things in order to be established and perpetuated: Hearing loss, including "undetectable" hearing loss. Sleep deprivation (and deprivation of REM). Anxiety, or emotional stress. Memory loss...

If you are able to stop or change your Tinnitus through external stimulus to your ear, as you describe, you may have a curable condition called a myoclonus. Go to a specialist ASAP. They can help verify if what you are experiencing is subjective or objective.

Christopher, I am so sorry that this has happened to you. I wish I could promise you that it is going to go away; during the first 2-12 weeks, there is always a chance of a spontaneous remission. However, almost all Tinnitus is permanent. The good news is: it definitely gets better...

I completely understand your terrible frustration, @Guest48938493. On the one hand, you started out venting your frustrations by accusing everyone on this forum of being delusional, about all of the "cures" being non-cures. But then, when confronted with the truth that this is permanent and...

@Guest48938493 - I agree with @GregCA and @billie48 entirely. But all of that said, it's very simple: Tinnitus has no cure. And it is almost always permanent. And guess what? That's fine, because pretty much almost everyone who has it habituates. You won't find most of the people who have...

I completely agree with everything that Karen has said above. If your pulsatile tinnitus is part of a somatosensory pulsatile disorder, like many of us who suffer from muscular spasms, then the primary ways to reduce the "intensity" of the Tinnitus all have to do with sleep, lowering...

Definitely do not give up, ever. This is a process for everyone. You will encounter victories, approach understanding, and re-discover silence in new and subtle ways. You mentioned you are suicidal, highly stressed, and deeply depressed. Addressing those issues, as unimportant as they sound...

I think everyone has to go through their own process of understanding and evaluating their tinnitus. It took me months of research and trial and error to understand that my condition is somatosensory pulsatile tinnitus, and that there are ways I can deal with it and take the edge off given what...

I, for one, really appreciate your backstory. If it's any consolation at all, I myself am a very analytical individual, an evidence-based business executive that solves problems for large enterprise customers, government agencies, and organizations. For me, any problem is solvable, so...

Thanks! Yes, I figured that I had essentially engaged in self-led CBT using a lot of the techniques described by the methodology. However, I wasn't sure if there were other added neurological benefits; it sounds like there might not be, and it's just designed to address the anxiety, which I've...

Real ototoxicity is exceedingly rare; it only strikes 1 in 15,000,000 people. In other words, you'd have a better chance of winning the lottery than actually accidentally being exposed to an ototoxic drug. That said, there is enough anecdotal data that suggests that some anti-anxiety...

Just to tie this together -- this right here should give you a sense of what the root cause of your Tinnitus was. For many of us, living highly stressful existences in the weeks and months leading up to our attacks was a common factor. Can you tell us more about what you were going through?

The good news is, yes. Spikes in Tinnitus are almost always temporary; and even when they are not, because you have previously habituated to Tinnitus, your neural elasticity will help you acclimate much more quickly. You will definitely be able to pull yourself out of this. Try and focus on...

This feeling of despair is really common. So, too, is the feeling that "wow, this can't possibly be real," or "sure, it's great that everyone else has found peace, but I'm a special snowflake and my condition has to have a simple, curable explanation." The truth is incredibly difficult to...

Firstly, I am so sorry that you are in throes of this right now. Secondly, I know exactly what your experience is like. What you are describing - vertigo, intense jaw pain, the Tinnitus itself - is exactly how my Tinnitus began. You are probably sleepless, your mind wracked with anxiety...

Firstly, I am so sorry to hear about your sudden onset last year. For what it's worth, I had a very similar onset, at least on paper. I had been extremely stressed out at work, started suffering some strange gastro-intestinal and eventually cardiac symptoms, and finally, after several weeks...

This a question for all of you who have gone through this, or for our clinicians (especially @Dr. Hubbard) who may have some insight here. Background: I am successfully habituated to Tinnitus. I engaged in a largely self-directed regimen of lifestyle changes, physical activity, and...

There is both good news and bad news to this situation. First, some background. Tinnitus has its origins in hearing loss. Whether that hearing loss is direct (through auditory over-exposure) or indirect (through some underlying neurological process that has interfered with the auditory...

There is actually medical basis to understand some of this effect, and it is grounded upon damage to the Dorsal Cochlear Nucleus, or DCN. When the DCN becomes damaged (usually, indirectly by either vascular compression to the surrounding tissues or by neuromuscular conflict in the head, neck...

Speaking from personal experience, magnesium is one of the only supplements that has made a discernable difference in my anxiety levels and it helped accelerate my habituation process. Even if it was just placebo secondary (through the muscle-stabilizing primary effect), it is worth taking a...

Strictly speaking, using headphones at a reasonable volume will not cause (or exacerbate) hearing damage. However, with individuals who have Tinnitus and a Hyperacousis complication, using headphones at any volume can impact habituation. If you've overcome your hyperacousis, there is relatively...

While the origin of Tinnitus can be found in hearing loss, its expression (and our sensitivity to it) is actually grounded in a very complex set of triggers. Each person is very different. However, scholarship tells us that the primary factors that drive our awareness of Tinnitus (and counter...

If anything positive can be gathered from this episode, I would hope that it is awareness. Fortunately, because they caught this right on the onset, I suspect that a high threshold course of prednisone will reverse the detectable hearing damage and mitigate the intrusive tinnitus. Based upon...

I agree with seeing a Chiropractor. When I went to see a chiropractor after it was suspected I had TMJ, I noticed significant improvement to my Tinnitus (from what was a 7 to start, down to a 1 or 2). However, this isn't so much a cure as it is a coping mechanism -- it will definitely provide...

Yes, you rightly observe that for those of us who have suspected TMJ complications, the face, neck, and upper back muscles are all interconnected. It does take a lifetime of bad habits to eventually shift the muscles into these states of spasm. Habituation is ultimately what did it for me, but...

Any tinnitus that deviates in volume based upon sleep is usually attributed to an underlying physiological aggravating cause. I have found that a chiropractor really helped with my sleep posture and positioning here. Have you had cervical adjustments with a chiropractor?

There are physical exercises that I had done during physical therapy to address jaw and neck issues that helped tremendously. I should really start and do these again because they definitely had an immediate effect. When you say "awakening tinnitus," do you mean does my Tinnitus start out...

My Hyperacusis lasted only about 8-10 weeks at the very start of my Tinnitus, and it was pretty terrible. But then it gradually faded away. I don't get H anymore, and haven't since the very start. I've read that this is very typical. Aside from diet and exercise, I take a multivitamin and...

I took vinpocetine for a few weeks, and ultimately noticed minor improvements in my Tinnitus, but also had some neurological side effects (increasing dizziness, for example). Discontinuing vinpocetine brought things back to normal in about 2-3 weeks, in my case.

This is a Success Story about how habituation, physical therapy, mental discipline, and finally, lifestyle changes have made Tinnitus a non-factor in my life. Over 19 months ago, my life was forever changed when I awoke one morning and, slowly, throughout the course of the day the familiar...

Interesting hypothesis. I've checked all of my labs since the onset of my tinnitus last November, and I never had a Magnesium Serum test conducted. This is probably because my calcium levels were normal; ordinarily, it seems like Mg deficiency testing is only conducted when there are other...

I thought I'd resurrect this conversation with someone scholarship from the past two years reflecting on the link between Omeprazole (a Proton Pump Inhibitor typically prescribed to people who suffer from GERD, as I do) and Tinnitus: (Es)omeprazole and Tinnitus (Lareb) Dutch medical treatise...

I thought I would revive conversation here. In my case, I've got confirmed diagnoses of somatic pulsatile tinnitus syndrome, and physical therapy has significantly lowered the volume and intensity of my tinnitus. When combined with proper posture overnight, my tinnitus becomes barely...

@linearb is right on this, @Nucleo. In particular, there is a lot of compelling research that has been done on the dorsal cochlear nucleus, or DCN, not as the antagonist, but as the receptor, of a dysfunction that causes it to be inhibited or erroneously activated thereby generating tinnitus...

Hi @Leodavinci, First, glad to hear that Prednisone may be helping you! I should warn you, in case I haven't already - it's going to be short-lived. You can expect significant (if not total) relief for the first couple of days, but as you start to taper down, the tinnitus will come roaring...

Hi Sara, While most cases of Tinnitus are caused by hearing loss, this is only the case in about ~60% of all Tinnitus cases. Most other tinnitus is caused by a neuromuscular inflammation, and often times will have a somatic component - meaning that stress, body movements, postural aggravations...

I understand that this is your opinion, but the data and research doesn't actually support this view. My own research, which is really just reviewing published medical studies and (especially in the past few months) ground-breaking discoveries about how Tinnitus works backs up a few basic...

@Cheza and @Leodavinci are both correct. Neuromuscular Inflammation is a major cause of Tinnitus (affecting about 30% of all Tinnitus sufferers), and it is generally believed that the inflammation is occurring in the neck, head, back, or jaw muscles -- all of which are deeply intertwined and...

Hi Sara, Welcome to Tinnitus Talk! It's very clear that you're dealing with neuromuscular inflammation -- this is the primary factor for Tinnitus in about one-third of all cases. (The most common, affecting nearly two-thirds, is of course damage to your auditory organs through over-exposure.)...

Hi Steve! Firstly, I'm so sorry that you've reached this heart-breaking conclusion. I think everyone who suffers from chronic tinnitus reaches this point, and for each person, their reaction can prove quite different. I do want to encourage you not to allow this realization to become a point...

Interesting. Thanks, @Carl Horton. My doctor reviewed some x-rays, and out of an abundance of caution, has ordered a Cervical MRI for me. She also prescribed baclofen (10 mg), which she indicated might help. It's slightly different from your Flexiril (which the doctor told me had a...

While there are only a couple of definitive tests that exist in the world right now that can reliably (or at least, to a greater degree of accuracy) detect Lyme disease's antigens, there is a simple process of elimination based upon your symptoms that you can use to determine whether Lyme...

Hi @derpytia, You hit the nail right on the head with your final sentence there. With Tinnitus, you are likely to have post-hyperacusis fleeting issues that will be exacerbated by loud sounds. Even if your tinnitus wasn't caused by auditory over exposure, it's still nevertheless a good idea to...

Thanks, @Carl Horton - Out of curiosity, how loud did your Tinnitus get? Was it unilateral or bilateral? Was it a hiss with a tone? Some other sound? And how frequently did it wax and wane?

Thanks, Carl! We've got some great orthos here in Boston, so I'm going to see if they can take a look at some tests I had done early on.

@Carl Horton this is an incredibly inspiring story. Did your "neck doctor" have a title? I've been to see several doctors - neurologists, maxillofacial surgeons, and even a chiropractor - and they all agree that "something is going on with [my] head and neck area" but they don't have specific...

Hey @Carl Horton - Thanks for the update! How did you get your condition diagnosed? Is there a specific doctor you went to see about getting your neck examined?

@Rube is totally right. Please stop surfing the web in search of stuff about Tinnitus, drink plenty of water, take a hot shower, get plenty of sleep. If it's still here in 7 days, come back to us for more advice. :)

Thanks so much for tagging us, @Codaz. In my case, it's becoming clear that "TMJ dysfunction" is too specific a diagnosis for what is really ultimately Somatosensory Pulsatile Tinnitus caused by neuromuscular inflammation along the head, neck, back, and jaw muscle cluster (resulting in the...

This is entirely possible but exceedingly rare, and so, you can use a process of simple elimination in three tests to determine if this is worth exploring in your case. TEST 1: The "Sound" Test for Pulsatile / Rhythmic Tinnitus Behaviors If a circulatory condition is causing your pulsatile...

It's important to note that Dr. Levine's studies theorize that there are really one of two scenarios where the DCN is compromised: Neuromuscular inflammation of the neck or head which causes nerves in the muscles that are spasming to interfere with the DCN's conduction and filtering process of...

After reading Dr. Levine's paper on Somatic Pulsatile Tinnitus Syndrome, I went to Massachusetts General Hospital for a follow-up on a diagnosis that I had received as the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary back in November of last year (as vaguely "neuromuscular inflammation," most likely...

Thanks so much, @Suffering. This is a great synopsis of treatment available to people who have compromised Dorsal Cochlear Nuclei, like all of us who have principally somatosensory tinnitus do. It really does sound like long-term physical therapy is the only way to get this condition properly...

@Nucleo is correct: Prednisone completely resolves my tinnitus, usually within 36 hours of starting a standard 50 mg taper regimen. However, by the end of the regimen (usually days 4-6), the tinnitus returns. It's proof positive, however, that neuromuscular inflammation is the cause of my...

Precisely the very definition of habituation, so I wouldn't be alarmed. If anything, you're habituating exactly like those of us who have habituated or are habituating -- the noise is as loud as ever, but our reaction to it is passively and approaches indifference. That's all great news!

Does your condition match Dr. Levine's reported circumstances? Namely, does it have a somatic component and can you silence it by applying pressure, moving your lower jaw, etc.? And if so, have you tried prednisone (starting with a 50mg. taper) at any time over the past 11 months?

I get that you're cynical about this, and it's hard not to be if you're still struggling with your tinnitus. However, if we ever want researchers to get serious about curing tinnitus, we need to stop belittling their efforts. And I think Gander's work here is nothing short of phenomenal -...

I apologize for the tangent, but since you brought it up, can you tell us a bit more about efforts to deny you a place at the table? Your writings describing each person afflicted with Tinnitus as an "authority" in their own right have been very inspirational and supportive for me, and given...