Additional Health Issues Other Than Tinnitus?

[felinefine]

I have a theory that many people who have other health issues-autoimmune, chronic inflammation, etc., may also have tinnitus or ear problems that are slow to heal due to their lowered immune systems.

This is the case with any other health issue, so why not the ears?

I also have had other health issues (diagnosed with ME) which I'm guessing is preventing my ear from complete (or near) recovery, even though it has improved quite a bit.

What are your thoughts on co-health issues? Can any of you relate?

 

[GregCA]

This is the case with any other health issue, so why not the ears?

I think the reason is that hair cells in ears do not regenerate, from a biology standpoint, no matter how healthy you are. That's a (major) difference with many other health issues (where the body can "fix itself").

 

[felinefine]

There are people who have issues that don't relate to hair cells. For instance, my hearing is apparently normal on tests. My bad ear even tests better than my good. I have some eustacian tube problems and tinnitus after noise exposure from 2 years ago. Possibly due to chronic inflammation. For some (probably many) it seems more complicated than just hair cells. As an example hearing issues could be from loss of hair cells, or from chronic inflammation, or even both.

 

[stophiss]

I believe you are quite correct OP..that tinnitus is often the result of other health issues...many in fact nerve related in the head or neck.

But will posit another root cause often discussed in the literature. If you were to query members here, tinnitus seems to affect those that are prone toward the higher anxiety population...likely even exacerbated by OCD and other neuro transmitter anomalies. If you read through the posts on this forum there is much discussion about fear and anxiety in the text of posts in fact. Of course there is some chicken and egg...which came first, anxiety and then tinnitus or T precipitating fear. But many maybe more predisposed to T by virtue of their brain chemistry. We are basically walking electro chemistry sets. This affects the concept of neuroplasticity...the memory of sound...neuropathways forged. A person under stress or at least one who perceives the threat of stress affects brain chemistry...the robbing of serotonine and how the brain fires and even processes sound.

So there are many prevailing theories regarding the origin of tinnitus and why is it so difficult to solve.
How the brain processes sound is complex....just like how the brain processes vision is quite complex...eyes being the mechanical interface of sight to the world.

 

[GregCA]

There are people who have issues that don't relate to hair cells. For instance, my hearing is apparently normal on tests. My bad ear even tests better than my good. I have some eustacian tube problems and tinnitus after noise exposure from 2 years ago. Possibly due to chronic inflammation. For some (probably many) it seems more complicated than just hair cells. As an example hearing issues could be from loss of hair cells, or from chronic inflammation, or even both.

Absolutely. If the condition causing T can be treated and repaired, then for sure T can disappear.
Note that having a "normal hearing test" is no guarantee that your ear is in good shape unfortunately (there could be hidden hearing loss), but it's arguably better than if your audiogram was showing losses.

 

[joseph Ghass]

With fasting you can reverse hearing loss. But you should do long term fasts like 25 days.

Additionally, Inflammation is the root of almost all diseases. Following an anti-inflammatory diet would be a good start.

Check my thread for a list of tools to optimize your health.

 

[felinefine]

Absolutely. If the condition causing T can be treated and repaired, then for sure T can disappear.
Note that having a "normal hearing test" is no guarantee that your ear is in good shape unfortunately (there could be hidden hearing loss), but it's arguably better than if your audiogram was showing losses.

I know what you mean about hidden hearing loss, but I seem to have "dog-like" hearing.

The first test was a month and a half after my acoustic trauma from a flare gun, the second test is months later (right before I started laser therapy), and the third test is the high-frequency test. My bad ear (right) can hear up to -20 (better than 0), and is testing even better than my good ear.

 

[The Red Viper]

TBH audiograms are useless when it comes to figuring out T. For one thing they are subjective, relying on the subject to click a button when they hear a noise. Furthermore their range is extremely limited. Even if a more objective test that pings all frequencies in the cochlea were developed, I fear that such results would indicate T in only a fraction of T cases.