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Finger Drumming Technique / Reddit Cure

#32
Alue said:
Residual inhibition does not work for me at all. Sometimes I feel like people are trolling me when they say put your hands over your ears and thump the back of your head.

I'm curious why it works for some and not others, and what percentage of tinnitus sufferers it does work on.
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I'm really curious about this too. It doesn't work for me so I wonder what the reasoning behind it is and why it works for some.
 
#33
The auditory nerve travels from the ears to the brainstem where it goes up into the brain. Finger drumming on that location in the back of the head is externally on top of where your auditory nerve meets the brainstem internally. Perhaps this technique works for people who's tinnitus is due to a tight brainstem without enough room between the vertibrae, drum tapping on the verbrae at the brainstem might help relieve tension placed on the auditory nerve by poor posture in the neck.
 
#35
Ian Mac said:
The auditory nerve travels from the ears to the brainstem where it goes up into the brain. Finger drumming on that location in the back of the head is externally on top of where your auditory nerve meets the brainstem internally. Perhaps this technique works for people who's tinnitus is due to a tight brainstem without enough room between the vertibrae, drum tapping on the verbrae at the brainstem might help relieve tension placed on the auditory nerve by poor posture in the neck.
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I get some T relief after stretching while swimming. This may support your theory.
 
#36
Shabbat Shalom, Co-Sufferers,

Many of you have likely encountered this one before; I re-discovered it myself by accident, on the web, earlier this morning.

Though it didn't work for me; I'm wondering if I place a tin foil hat on my head, and crank some Oingo Boingo "live" on MP4, while facing southeast, if it may in fact do the trick, over time (?).

"The following method may reduce the ringing in your ears, suggests Dr. Jan Strydom, of A2Z of Health, Beauty and Fintess.org. Place the palms of your hands over your ears with fingers resting gently on the back of your head. Your middle fingers should point toward one another just above the base of your skull. Place your index fingers on top of you middle fingers and snap them (the index fingers) onto the skull making a loud, drumming noise. Repeat 40-50 times. Some people experience immediate relief with this method. Repeat several times a day for as long as necessary to reduce tinnitus."

*Note: One of my cats ("Guido-Goomba-Sarducci") took reprieve from hummingbird-watching long enough to stare at me, twitch his ears, and walk up and sniff me, to ensure I was OK.

>'..'<
 
#37
I love Oingo Boingo! :)
I am going to try the finger drumming. I'll let you know if it helps. Thanks Peacemaker.
 
#38
Hey, no problem, MamaKat:)

My initial run on the finger-tapping didn't yield much, so I then incorporated doing so to the beat of the song, "Day of the Eagle," by Robin Trower, and experienced some nominal, temporary relief.

(YouTube link, below)

 
#39
Just found this on Reddit. I tried it myself, and the oscillating tones did disappear for me for about 15-20 seconds and some of the edge of my other tone was taken down a notch and then came back. I do wonder what the underlying mechanism is that makes this work very brief period of time.

My guess is that it's maybe similar to the bio neural vids on YouTube that seem to fake your brain into thinking the T isn't there anymore for a brief period. The drumming sound maybe produces a similar a effect.
 
#42
Rings-a-Bell said:
That didn't work for me but here is something else I noticed. I have two tones... a lower tone around 4khz and a much higher tone. If I go to a place like http://www.notchtherapy.com/ and use the slider to play a tone of 13khz or more on my headset for 10 seconds, the higher tone goes away for several minutes.
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yeah i tried this myself years ago, frequency cancellation..
i found the frequency of the tinnitus by mimicking it with a russian signal generation program.. i then inverted the waveform 180 degrees.
i then played it and my tinnitus vanished, nor could i hear the tone in the affected ear.
unfortunately i could hear the generated signal in my good ear. (of course)
a clever hearing aid would fix it outright, just play the tone.
I mailed my idea of an invention to a company for free but never heard back.
 
#43
Funny thing about this technique, I googled and stumbled upon it by accident several years ago and gave it a try in addition to applying some kind of acupressure to the mastoid bone around the ear. I did get relief and the tinnitus was greatly reduced. Not sure if this was some kind of weird placebo, as it only worked for a few days. I tried it again after a few days and it didn't have the same effect.
 
#44
you want to try a different version ..re the little flap near the opening of the ear canal fold over and close the earcanal using forfinger then using middle finger tap on the nail of forfinger a few hundred times,,what happens too me is after my ears feel really open and no pressure and the T is probably 80% better and it lasts for around a minute then starts to all come back...very strange stuff
 
#45
So I tried this this morning, and my ears started screeching! I stayed calm and it went back to it's usual. whew..never doing that again! No idea why though :/
 
#46
carlover said:
you want to try a different version ..re the little flap near the opening of the ear canal fold over and close the earcanal using forfinger then using middle finger tap on the nail of forfinger a few hundred times,,what happens too me is after my ears feel really open and no pressure and the T is probably 80% better and it lasts for around a minute then starts to all come back...very strange stuff
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WOW @carlover ...Mine quietens down to nothing too when I do this !!! Then comes back about a minute later.:arghh:
Just need to walk around folding my ear flaps closed and continuously tapping for the rest of my life.:cautious:
Interesting though....why ?
 
#50
I just got interviewed about this. Looks like Reddit is driving the news cycle again. Here is my take on this "new" discovery - It's basically a masker (as others have written), with a clever twist. All maskers work by funneling signal into the inner ear, which allows the pathologically overpowered amplifiers in the central auditory centers of the brain to relax >temporarily<, thereby turning down the tinnitus severity. As everyone here knows, the most direct path to the inner ear is through the outer and middle ear. But that isn't the only path to the inner ear. You can bypass the outer and middle ear and vibrate the fluid-filled compartments of the inner with intense stimulation of the bone overlying the inner ear. Check out this link for a standard hearing device for people with middle/outer ear complications called a BAHA (bone anchored hearing aid - Bone-anchored hearing aid - Wikipedia). Does that region look familiar? This is another approach to ramp up the signal to the inner ear to temporarily quiet the hyperactive central processing. No revelation here, despite the best efforts of their marketing team. Still, the price is right and no batteries are required.

Most maskers are fairly useless for any long-term relief but can help you get through a rough spot. Though sometimes the T comes roaring back with even greater ferocity, so beware.
 
#51
HomeoHebbian said:
I just got interviewed about this. Looks like Reddit is driving the news cycle again. Here is my take on this "new" discovery - It's basically a masker (as others have written), with a clever twist. All maskers work by funneling signal into the inner ear, which allows the pathologically overpowered amplifiers in the central auditory centers of the brain to relax >temporarily<, thereby turning down the tinnitus severity. As everyone here knows, the most direct path to the inner ear is through the outer and middle ear. But that isn't the only path to the inner ear. You can bypass the outer and middle ear and vibrate the fluid-filled compartments of the inner with intense stimulation of the bone overlying the inner ear. Check out this link for a standard hearing device for people with middle/outer ear complications called a BAHA (bone anchored hearing aid - Bone-anchored hearing aid - Wikipedia). Does that region look familiar? This is another approach to ramp up the signal to the inner ear to temporarily quiet the hyperactive central processing. No revelation here, despite the best efforts of their marketing team. Still, the price is right and no batteries are required.

Most maskers are fairly useless for any long-term relief but can help you get through a rough spot. Though sometimes the T comes roaring back with even greater ferocity, so beware.
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Why does residual inhibition work on some people and not others? This technique does nothing for me.
 
#54
This worked for me but only lasted very briefly. I get the same temporary relief with an electric toothburush
 
#56
G H said:
What do you do with the electric toothbrush?
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I brush my teeth :) It's something curious I noticed. I've an electric toothbrush and when I use it my T temporarily goes away.

As background I've only had T for about a month. I'm not really sure what triggered it but a year and a half ago I had a bicycling accident and did lose consciousness for a brief spell and hit my head. May 1 I've a dr appointment with an ENT but really doubt he'll do anything except to say deal with it. Next stop will be acupuncture.
 
#57
MaryK said:
I brush my teeth :) It's something curious I noticed. I've an electric toothbrush and when I use it my T temporarily goes away.

As background I've only had T for about a month. I'm not really sure what triggered it but a year and a half ago I had a bicycling accident and did lose consciousness for a brief spell and hit my head. May 1 I've a dr appointment with an ENT but really doubt he'll do anything except to say deal with it. Next stop will be acupuncture.
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I'm currently getting acupuncture treatment. Not sure yet if it's working, maybe some temporary relief then it comes back again. Still have some more sessions to do though and also hoping it can relieve stress and insomnia and high blood pressure.
 
#58
G H said:
I'm currently getting acupuncture treatment. Not sure yet if it's working, maybe some temporary relief then it comes back again. Still have some more sessions to do though and also hoping it can relieve stress and insomnia and high blood pressure.
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Good luck with your acupuncture! I'm guessing it could take several visits. I'm also hoping to try fasting. I just need to find a window where I can fast. I'm still trying to figure this out but I noticed something else new. Occasionally I go for a run and typically it's with a neighbor. Today I ran solo and my T altered with my running, it did not hold constant. Anyway, hang in there and here's hoping the acupuncture brings you some relief.
 
#59
MaryK said:
Good luck with your acupuncture! I'm guessing it could take several visits. I'm also hoping to try fasting. I just need to find a window where I can fast. I'm still trying to figure this out but I noticed something else new. Occasionally I go for a run and typically it's with a neighbor. Today I ran solo and my T altered with my running, it did not hold constant. Anyway, hang in there and here's hoping the acupuncture brings you some relief.
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Thanks! Yeah, apparently it would take quite a few visits to notice a difference.
 
#60
Wondering if anybody has tried this technique for quieting tinnitus, and if so, did it work for you? If you have not done it yet, what's the video, and give it a try, and please report your experience.

 

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