How Come Most People Can Be Exposed to Loud Noise and NOT Get Tinnitus?

[cjbhab]

I'm sitting outside the club eating pizza right now because it's too loud... and I'm drunk but still want to post this thought..

Isn't it interesting how the majority of people can go stand beside a speaker every Friday and Saturday night at ridiculous volumes and will never get tinnitus ever.... I wish that were me.

To me that tells me that we have no idea what the cure is, or what the cause is. Research is literally at the same spot it was in the year 1800. Let's be honest, Lenire doesn't work. If it did, we'd all be rejoicing and I'd be able to walk into the local clinic and lay $10,000USD on the table and they'd blow me and then fix my ears. Everyone has some degree of hearing loss... I mean it comes with age.

Sucks we pulled the short straw. Have a great night folks.

 

[Don Tinny]

I wonder the same. As I always say, my friends are 35 years old and they go to nightclubs, pubs or shows every weekend, but they never get tinnitus. Weak ears or some brain problem? Maybe we will never know.

 

[Michael B]

Isn't it interesting how the majority of people can go stand beside a speaker every Friday and Saturday night at ridiculous volumes and will never get tinnitus ever.... I wish that were me.

Never say never. It might just creep up on them some day.

 

[bobvann]

Don't forget not everyone has the negative reaction we get. Aren't we special

 

[Jazzer]

Let's be honest, Lenire doesn't work. If it did, we'd all be rejoicing

I agree...

 

[alanisnotadj]

I agree...

I would not be so sure.

 

[aot]

Genietic predisposition, I think. Many members have parents and/or siblings with Tinnitus. My mother has it due to Menire's Diease. Just bad luck, I guess.

 

[MRItechssuck]

I'm sitting outside the club eating pizza right now because it's too loud... and I'm drunk but still want to post this thought..

Isn't it interesting how the majority of people can go stand beside a speaker every Friday and Saturday night at ridiculous volumes and will never get tinnitus ever.... I wish that were me.

To me that tells me that we have no idea what the cure is, or what the cause is. Research is literally at the same spot it was in the year 1800. Let's be honest, Lenire doesn't work. If it did, we'd all be rejoicing and I'd be able to walk into the local clinic and lay $10,000USD on the table and they'd blow me and then fix my ears. Everyone has some degree of hearing loss... I mean it comes with age.

Sucks we pulled the short straw. Have a great night folks.

Life isn't fair... it sucks. I hope your were wearing earplugs, but I'm glad you are living life!

I doubt even FX-322 will work for everyone... I agree with your drunken sentiments on research... Lenire... etc.

Life is a b!tch and then you die... wow I never realized how prophetic that was when I was younger.

 

[Tybs]

Genietic predisposition, I think. Many members have parents and/or siblings with Tinnitus. My mother has it due to Menire's Diease. Just bad luck, I guess.

I'm not so sure it's mainly genetics. Certain research articles of the past few years seem to indicate that there is a sum of input variables which leads to T once a certain treshold is met in the DCN. Input from hearing, nerves from different areas of the body and specific jaw-related points are apparently all part of this sum. If only one variable is higher than normal, one does not get T yet, but once many issues occur at the same time (e.g. hearing loss + jaw issues + neck muscle tension due to stress), the "normal" DCN input is exceeded and T initiates.

Nothing is proven yet, but this would explain a lot of things: how stress can trigger T (indirectly), how T can naturally disappear (sufficient inputs decreasing), how every case is different with type of sounds, treatment effectiveness, volume, etc.

 

[Contrast]

Why do some people with lost limbs/fingers not experience phantom syndromes?

A neurologist needs to solve the riddle.

 

[FGG]

Why do some people with lost limbs/fingers not experience phantom syndromes?

A neurologist needs to solve the riddle.

Apparently how much the opposing muscle groups caps the nerve endings after the amputation might be one factor:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/new-approach-to-amputation-could-reduce-phantom-pain/

If the brain can still sense the stretch of muscle fibers, it doesn't perceive the pain apparently.

Certain etiologies are also more likely to cause phantom pain after amputation (e.g. blood clots) so it seems like maybe the kind of local neuroinflammation (i.e., in the limb, not the brain) that happens before the amputation is likely a factor. I would love to know specifically what genes/conditions lead to more neuroinflammation in one person vs another.

 

[Michael Leigh]

Isn't it interesting how the majority of people can go stand beside a speaker every Friday and Saturday night at ridiculous volumes and will never get tinnitus ever.... I wish that were me.

You might be surprised to learn a lot of people that do as you suggest, already have tinnitus but it remains at a low level their brain can comfortably ignore for now. This is facilitated during the day by environmental sounds that masked it. They have probably experienced loud ringing in the ears after a night out clubbing and in a day or two, it reduces to low level where it is no longer heard or completely disappears. Be under no illusion, if these people continue to subject their ears to loud music at clubs or use headphones at high volume levels, it is just a matter of time before they develop full blown tinnitus that their brain cannot ignore. Depending on the severity of the tinnitus, they may or may not have to seek professional help with a Hearing Therapist or Audiologist specialising in noise induced tinnitus.

Michael

 

[LukeYoung]

Isn't it interesting how the majority of people can go stand beside a speaker every Friday and Saturday night at ridiculous volumes and will never get tinnitus ever.... I wish that were me.

That is the mystery.. someone should do a poll on hearing issues in the family.

for me, my mother has menieres.
Brother had ear issues since he was a kid, always had glue ear.

so I was probably doomed from the start.

 

[Michael B]

I never thought I'd get tinnitus but then I did at an older age. Yeah, some people are spared but others may not be as fortunate... they just don't know it yet.

 

[TheDanishGirl]

I never thought I'd get tinnitus but then I did at an older age. Yeah, some people are spared but others may not be as fortunate... they just don't know it yet.

Still, most people don't get tinnitus. I know a ton of people who are 50+ and have been to countless loud events in their lifetime and still go all the time (without ear plugs), who don't have an ounce of tinnitus.

 

[ASilverLight]

As far as I recall I haven't ever suffered tinnitus ONCE before mine started this year. Maybe a slight hiss once or twice, but nothing I can genuinely recall - if it lasted more than a few hours I'm 100% sure I would as it's not something you just completely forget.

Ear issues were completely foreign to me until now, my brother got a lot of ear infections as a child but once he reached double digits, all were gone and he hasn't had any issues since. Plenty of loud noise exposure for him too, MUCH more than me. My mother, too, although she had intermittent ringing from an earwax blockage until a few months ago. All things considered I'm the one with the least loud noise exposure in my family, the one who's never had a single ear infection before, and the one who's taken the most care to protect them, yet I'm the one with tinnitus.

Then again, mine is heavily somatic and a few interesting events preceded my onset, literally none related to loud noise exposure as the last one was in mid September 2019 and it came without any tinnitus. (Interesting meaning a fall and possible mild whiplash, an earwax buildup, lots of nasal congestion and intense anxiety and mental and physical fatigue, which may or may not be related to said whiplash.)

But I do agree. It's interesting how some do and some don't, but I guess we can apply that to a variety of health issues.

 

[matt89]

Everyone is different, and so is every inner ear. While anyone can develop tinnitus, there are plenty of people who can stand in front of the speakers at an AC/DC concert and feel no effects afterward. There are many factors involved. For example, people who play in rock bands and regularly expose themselves to extreme decibel levels naturally develop a higher noise tolerance. Additionally, individuals who grow up in noisier environments, like those in countries such as India or China, often have a greater noise tolerance.

Throughout my life, I had no issues with loud music or sounds. I went to loud clubs every week, attended rock concerts—even a Black Sabbath concert 10 years ago without earplugs, standing right at the front. I had no problems—nothing. But eight years ago, in pure silence at the gym, someone next to me with headphones dropped a 60-pound weight on an old-school training machine from the 1980s, and the resulting iron-on-iron clash was deafening. I still remember that exact moment clearly—it felt like 200 decibels, like two screwdrivers being driven through my ears. My life changed at that moment. That's when my tinnitus and hyperacusis started.

For five to six months, I was a mess. It took me about a year to get back to my normal daily life, though the ringing in my ears never left. However, over time, it stopped bothering me as much. I think, in my case, I had a high noise tolerance but was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. No one could have walked away from that loud clash without developing tinnitus. It's like being near an explosion—noise tolerance doesn't matter. You lose to the decibel levels because we're not superheroes with invincible hearing.

Fast forward to eight years later (just two months ago), I had become so confident about my noise tolerance that I attended a wedding party for a good friend, feeling safe. Unfortunately, I wasn't safe. They played music louder than a Boeing 747 taking off. A second acoustic trauma occurred, and despite already knowing about hearing issues, a new nightmare began with different symptoms.

Living with hearing issues is a completely different world, one that only people in this forum will truly understand. There's a lot of darkness and no light in the beginning because hearing problems don't improve overnight. Recovery is a long, difficult road. That's why so many who have never experienced it freak out. It's not like a fever that goes away after a week—it's a condition that not only takes time but also requires a lot of mental work to cope with.