Curious Views on Tinnitus in Russia

[Andrey]

Hello!
Got my tinnitus half-year ago, accompanied with mild vertigo (didn't notice before asked by an otolaryngologist).

My experience showed that most doctors in Russia seem to think that the noise in the ear is nearly always to do with the vascular problems. The fact that I have a scoliosis just seems to prove their point (in their minds, that is).

Standard treatment includes an old-fashioned set of stretches and moderately hard crunches for abs and your back. And, of course, some familiar to most of you b-vitamin-complexes and brain-blood-flow-enhancers-pills. They will also tell you to go swim regularly.

Finally, the most puzzling thing to me is that nobody will just bluntly tell me: it will probably stay. Everyone seem to have a faith that tinnitus is transitory. It seems like there is no good statistical data on how successful those stretches are... though I suppose if it were efficient the whole world would follow the example.

If anyone have any observations or experience with that ex-USSR-style system - please drop a line.

 

[Richard zurowski]

Well I certainly won't be going to Russia for help with my tinnitus?

 

[valeri]

Well I certainly won't be going to Russia for help with my tinnitus?

Maybe you can come to Australia and be told that tinnitus never goes away and people commit suicide from it!
Your pick

 

[PaulBe]

I never quite got that Valeri, but I never got anything remotely useful either. I did get told that musicians often get excluded from therapeutic options because they're just too hard.

 

[vasil]

Standard treatment includes an old-fashioned set of stretches and moderately hard crunches for abs and your back. And, of course, some familiar to most of you b-vitamin-complexes and brain-blood-flow-enhancers-pills. They will also tell you to go swim regularly.

Кавинтон had temporal, but major effect on my T. I think they have some point.

 

[Richard zurowski]

And there's me thinking that it can't get any worse!

 

[Mad maggot]

I have no idea about Russia but it is true there are many types of T from many different causes and if your T is caused by scoliosis and vascular problems then the prescribed treatment and exersize may help you. If not the. Your problem is from another source. You could try the prescribed treatment as a way of ruling things in or out?

 

[linearb]

Hello!
Got my tinnitus half-year ago, accompanied with mild vertigo (didn't notice before asked by an otolaryngologist).

My experience showed that most doctors in Russia seem to think that the noise in the ear is nearly always to do with the vascular problems. The fact that I have a scoliosis just seems to prove their point (in their minds, that is).

Standard treatment includes an old-fashioned set of stretches and moderately hard crunches for abs and your back. And, of course, some familiar to most of you b-vitamin-complexes and brain-blood-flow-enhancers-pills. They will also tell you to go swim regularly.

Finally, the most puzzling thing to me is that nobody will just bluntly tell me: it will probably stay. Everyone seem to have a faith that tinnitus is transitory. It seems like there is no good statistical data on how successful those stretches are... though I suppose if it were efficient the whole world would follow the example.

If anyone have any observations or experience with that ex-USSR-style system - please drop a line.

Hey, this is really interesting to me for a lot of reasons, not the least of which is that I personally think my own tinnitus has connections to nerve and vascular compression in my cervical spine.

All I can really say is that I've read a good number of reliable accounts over the years from people who have had some degree of success with such treatments, and it seems to me that there have been several periods of time when I was in better shape as far as my neck, that my T was less of a problem. There is also a well known Russian Olympian who claims to have developed severe tinnitus as a result of misusing his body with his crazy workouts, who believes they cured themselves largely by attending to those muscle groups.

So, I'd say I believe that for some people this may be a significant (or even the significant) factor in their tinnitus, and if there is a lack of awareness of that in the US medical community, perhaps there is an over-awareness of that in the Russian medical community? My own ENT actually has long maintained that she thinks my assorted tmj/neck/cervical issues are a bigger factor in my problems than hearing loss is.

I haven't yet found a good way to deal with this but I also haven't lost hope. Sometimes I wonder if a big part of the reason benzos helped me so much is that they relax all the muscles that I otherwise have problems with. All I can say is that in addition to the tinnitus I have constant pain, discomfort, cramping, clicking, popping and grinding in my neck -- none of these things end up being nearly as distressing as the tinnitus, but if I can find a way to improve them I'll be a little shocked if the tinnitus does not improve to some extent.

I started doing exercises for cervical instability today after searching youtube, and a couple of them elicit an enormous (and detrimental) effect on my T. It was also of a fundamentally different nature than jaw manipulation.

 

[Andrey]

I did get told that musicians often get excluded from therapeutic options because they're just too hard.

Well. I am one if that's of any interest,

 

[Andrey]

You could try the prescribed treatment as a way of ruling things in or out?

I will definitely try it. But I think it is also important to be realistic

 

[Andrey]

Кавинтон had temporal, but major effect on my T. I think they have some point.

That's the one, yes. So... temporal, you say. Will be ready at least.

 

[vasil]

That's the one, yes. So... temporal, you say. Will be ready at least.

2-3 hours after the system. Only intravenous had the effect, the pills were more like placebo.

 

[PaulBe]

I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the Russian view out-of-hand. Its not as though we are any better off with Western medicine and its primary wealth motivation, If this view has come out of the Communist era then there may be some valid observation behind it, after all the profit motive wasn't really driving medical research at that time.

 

[Andrey]

I wouldn't be so quick to dismiss the Russian view out-of-hand.

I think your argument is an important one. I guess my main problem is that evidence-based-medicine is still not a highly valued concept here.

 

[PaulBe]

I think your argument is an important one. I guess my main problem is that evidence-based-medicine is still not a highly valued concept here.

True, but in the "West" making the evidence fit the desired outcome remains something of an imperative, particularly these days, and particularly in regards to pharmacology.

 

[Mike82]

I used to live in and work in Japan... a country that has, for better or worse, true universal health care.

When I explained to my dentist the reason I was getting my wisdom teeth removed over there was because it would cost me thousands of dollars to do the same thing in Australia, he was shocked.

I think @PaulBe's comment about being driven by profit is an astute one. I saw my GP again the other day and brought up my tinnitus and he just shrugged his shoulders and said "you're on your own". And he's a good doctor!

At any rate, one thing I find interesting @Andrey is that my own somewhat severe tinnitus only started after I really hurt my back and began getting chiropractic treatment around 18 months ago. So perhaps there is something to your own diagnosis after all?

 

[Andrey]

Just to follow up on my now completed phisio-treatment - no improvement.
Although secondary complaint which was mild vertigo might have been improved. Taking into account the pills for vascular function improvement it could be temporal.

Good luck to everyone.

 

[japongus]

There is also a well known Russian Olympian who claims to have developed severe tinnitus as a result of misusing his body with his crazy workouts, who believes they cured themselves largely by attending to those muscle groups.

Maybe it was all the doping he did

 

[japongus]

True, but in the "West" making the evidence fit the desired outcome remains something of an imperative, particularly these days, and particularly in regards to pharmacology.

Well living in the east isn't a charm either. but its a difficult choice between the penny stock hustling for the next drug in california or mother's remedies in belarus....