MemberWell, its the same as diving , so if diving is safe , this should be safe 
Its not very comfortable though .
Its not very comfortable though .
Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy
- Thread starter joe
- Start date
- Oct 22, 2014
- 240
- 40
- Tinnitus Since
- 10/2014
- Cause of Tinnitus
- Acoustic trauma (club drumming)
Did another dive this morning - I doze off I'm so used to it all now. So many pillowsWell, its the same as diving , so if diving is safe , this should be safe
Its not very comfortable though .
Can you combine HBOT and NAC? Is it better to go on HBOT with or without NAC?
And what pressure(depth of dive) is best for tinnitus?
I've had about 15 dives at about 13 meters(42ft) and didn't get any significant improvements.
And what pressure(depth of dive) is best for tinnitus?
I've had about 15 dives at about 13 meters(42ft) and didn't get any significant improvements.
I've found a place near my home that offers HBOT. It is relatively affordable $75 USD / session so I am considering it. They specialize in treating kids with Autism in it but said they've treated 2 people with tinnitus.
Is it possible for HBOT to make tinnitus worse?
Is it possible for HBOT to make tinnitus worse?
HBOT sessions usually last from 1h to 1,5h while inhaling 100% oxygen. Minium amount of sessions is around 5 (once per day for example). I think that diving isn't quite the same thing.
I did HBOT when I got my T in 3,5 weeks from onset. It should be done in 4 weeks from onset - preferably in next couple of days if possible. Your profile says that you had your T in 2012. I wouldn't bother for HBOT unless you really have some extra cash. 75$ is kind of cheap I think. I payed 1000$ for 5 times.
- Oct 30, 2014
- 31
- Tinnitus Since
- 10/2014
- Cause of Tinnitus
- Medication or infection (I Reckon)
Did my first session of this today. I've had tinnitus for over 5 weeks.
Was incredibly painful in my right ear to begin with (the ear with the worse tinnitus) but after a while it was okay. I 'popped' my ears and the sounds i heard in the right ear were incredible, it sounded like a washing machine.
Hasn't had any real effect so far but I've got a few more sessions to go!
Was incredibly painful in my right ear to begin with (the ear with the worse tinnitus) but after a while it was okay. I 'popped' my ears and the sounds i heard in the right ear were incredible, it sounded like a washing machine.
Hasn't had any real effect so far but I've got a few more sessions to go!
- Oct 22, 2014
- 240
- 40
- Tinnitus Since
- 10/2014
- Cause of Tinnitus
- Acoustic trauma (club drumming)
Did about 15 not completely consecutive from 3 weeks after. Deep depth.
Not especially convinced. Once or twice I came out and it was very low or next to silent but return to normal in less than an hour.
Not especially convinced. Once or twice I came out and it was very low or next to silent but return to normal in less than an hour.
Reporting back, I can say that other than brief reduction of tinnitus volume during most of the hyperbaric treatments, I've not experienced any relief from the HBOT. It's possible that post-HBOT healing will continue and I'll see a reduction in symptoms over the new few months, I don't know. It's also possible that if I were to do another round of HBOT, it would help more than just the 10 I've done previously. Considering the expense, however, I'm not inclined to spend another $3000 for 10 HBOT sessions.
I'll post elsewhere, but at this point I've tried every nutritional regimen theorized to work on T (including glutathione IV therapy), HBOT, acupuncture, and steroids. I'm convinced that there's no intervention that will help my symptoms. Only whatever healing that time will now bring.
My plan all along was to try every interventionist option I could and when they proved to not be effective (or no longer be effective), shift my focus to sound therapies to begin retraining/coping with the tinnitus.
I'll post elsewhere, but at this point I've tried every nutritional regimen theorized to work on T (including glutathione IV therapy), HBOT, acupuncture, and steroids. I'm convinced that there's no intervention that will help my symptoms. Only whatever healing that time will now bring.
My plan all along was to try every interventionist option I could and when they proved to not be effective (or no longer be effective), shift my focus to sound therapies to begin retraining/coping with the tinnitus.
Hello,
I have noise induced Tinnitus. Stupidly I set off a firecracker and my world changed. i am an American living in Thailand so it's been difficult getting treatment.
I finally found a place that does HBOT. There are several in Bangkok. $45 for two hours in personal chamber. After two sessions my T got better. It was at a point when I didn't think about it anymore. It was still there though so I went in for a third time. They set it deeper. When I got out my T was loud. I got very worried. When I called the specialist there she said it was temporary. It settled a bit but is still louder than before I went in the third time. Not sure what to do. If it doesn't go away does anyone think I should go a fourth time to get it back to where it was? There is a chance it will make it better, there is a chance it will make it worse. What would you do? Would you take that risk? I am just past the six week mark soI feel I need to make decision soon.
I have noise induced Tinnitus. Stupidly I set off a firecracker and my world changed. i am an American living in Thailand so it's been difficult getting treatment.
I finally found a place that does HBOT. There are several in Bangkok. $45 for two hours in personal chamber. After two sessions my T got better. It was at a point when I didn't think about it anymore. It was still there though so I went in for a third time. They set it deeper. When I got out my T was loud. I got very worried. When I called the specialist there she said it was temporary. It settled a bit but is still louder than before I went in the third time. Not sure what to do. If it doesn't go away does anyone think I should go a fourth time to get it back to where it was? There is a chance it will make it better, there is a chance it will make it worse. What would you do? Would you take that risk? I am just past the six week mark soI feel I need to make decision soon.
I think the issue is that there isn't lots of studies yet, only a few, although there is some indications of success early on after onset. Am not quite sure how you are supposed to go really early in to your tinnitus though, as normally it's prudent to see an ENT and have scans and rule out other causes first, rather than dive in on your own initiative and diagnosis. From what I have read, I think it's worth a try early on, as the risks seem low, but it depends on individual cases I guess.
The problem we all have is that there isn't really any reliable treatment out there. Even steroids early on seem hit and miss from what I have read, and some, where they inject the ear drum, seem to have causes problems too.
How deep was the dive/pressure adjusted to? Was this on your request?
Matt
The problem we all have is that there isn't really any reliable treatment out there. Even steroids early on seem hit and miss from what I have read, and some, where they inject the ear drum, seem to have causes problems too.
How deep was the dive/pressure adjusted to? Was this on your request?
Matt
I think it is coincidental. I myself have done 15 sessions, there were times that I felt it did something but it wasn't real, it was just my imagination. There are good and bad days for Tinnitus, that is what happened with you. Also, when you catch a cold, it gets worse. It also depends on the weather, if it is cold mine gets awfully loud.
There is very little chance the HBO chamber did anything for your tinnitus, positive or negative.
There is very little chance the HBO chamber did anything for your tinnitus, positive or negative.
Thank you Matt and skoupidis for your replies. Sorry I haven't responded sooner still trying to figure out these forums. The third dive was deeper than the previous two. Not sure the exact. It definitely changed my T for the worse after third dive. There is an additional brassy overtone that was not there before. Not sure because of the added depth. I've read that divers sometimes get T. Barotrauma or something of that name. Just trying to decide if I should go in again as it seem to help in the beginning. Wanted to see if it made it worse for anyone else. Wouldn't be able to live with myself if it got any louder. Especially if it was because of my own bad choice.
Any feedback is helpful before I decide. Thank you for you time.
Any feedback is helpful before I decide. Thank you for you time.
You get barotrauma if you do not equalize the pressure, meaning popping the ears correctly and all the time of the dive. If you do not, your ears will start feeling pain. If you don't stop even then, you may get barotrauma.
But there are nurses there, that guide you and if necessary stop the dive, even get you out. Did you have problems with that?
But there are nurses there, that guide you and if necessary stop the dive, even get you out. Did you have problems with that?
I was chewing candies during the descent and ascent of the dive. I did have slight pain and fullness of the ears which I regulated by chewing and swallowing. It was not so bad that I told them I needed to get out. I know they equalized the pressure when I was at the suggested depth. Not sure if they screwed up or not. Hard to tell what is normal during the procedure. Do you know if barotrauma worsens T permanently or temporarily? It's been six days since I did it and still feel like it was worse than when I went in. Still I want to make the right decision of whether to continue. If over the long run this will help me I would continue. I know its hard for anyone to make a suggestion but had hopes that someone had similar experience and could give me their opinion. Sounds like you had many descents and no problems. If you have any advice or recommendations Id appreciate it as I'm going in tomorrow to talk with them and figure out my next step.
This whole thing depends on information and I'm certainly grateful for this site.
This whole thing depends on information and I'm certainly grateful for this site.
I am not sure you understood what takes place, when they stabilize the pressure there is no danger. The danger is in the ascent and in the descent when you have to correctly pop your ears as many times needed. If you don't, they start to hurt. And you may get a barotrauma. Did you pop your ears open every time you felt them stuffed? This is what you really have to do. There are several methods to do so, swallowing is one of them and I thing it is better than just chewing.
They have doctors there, they can examine you to see if you suffered a barotrauma. They will tell you to continue or not. Although I don't know how a barotrauma feels, or what exactly it does to your ear, I think it can heal.
But I don't think you suffered a barotrauma and I don't think your Tinnitus got worse by the HBO chamber. My Tinnitus is constantly fluctuating, there are good and bad days, usually cold days are bad for example. I think that HBO did not affect your T in any way. I give it little chance to help you, perhaps if you went the first couple of days after your acoustic trauma it would.
I think it is a placebo feeling. I did have placebo feelings during my sessions too. When the session was over, I felt my T was less loud. But during the day, it was coming back to its regular state, unfortunately.
Now if you are certain your T got worse, then don't continue. There are several people in here that thought after the 8th session the got better, they continued and then after the 15th session they got worse. And they regretted continuing. This is all placebo feeling according to my experience. I did feel a bit better at the beginning, but is was not real. Or it was a temporary feeling. The HBO chamber did nothing to my tinnitus. I did get to it a bit late, 2 months after my acoustic trauma. Perhaps an earlier treatment would give results, perhaps not. Nobody knows. They say that they have good results the first month. And less good results in the second and third. Then the results get really poor. In my opinion, in acoustic trauma cases, one has to act really fast and in the first couple of days do what needs to be done. Not much really, corticosteroids (have you tried?), some blood circulation drugs and perhaps start HBO therapy. Still, it does not mean he will heal, perhaps nothing will be done even then. Nothing can be proved, these are just what specialized doctors say. In my opinion, the first two days are the days that an organism may heal by itself. How can it be proved that one is healed because for example took corticosteroids? But since it is the only treatment there is, and perhaps HBO therapy, one should try them ASAP!
Now I am not saying you are too late, you should try everything there is and maybe get lucky.
If you don't, you will just wait like all of us older patients, for a new treatment.
They have doctors there, they can examine you to see if you suffered a barotrauma. They will tell you to continue or not. Although I don't know how a barotrauma feels, or what exactly it does to your ear, I think it can heal.
But I don't think you suffered a barotrauma and I don't think your Tinnitus got worse by the HBO chamber. My Tinnitus is constantly fluctuating, there are good and bad days, usually cold days are bad for example. I think that HBO did not affect your T in any way. I give it little chance to help you, perhaps if you went the first couple of days after your acoustic trauma it would.
I think it is a placebo feeling. I did have placebo feelings during my sessions too. When the session was over, I felt my T was less loud. But during the day, it was coming back to its regular state, unfortunately.
Now if you are certain your T got worse, then don't continue. There are several people in here that thought after the 8th session the got better, they continued and then after the 15th session they got worse. And they regretted continuing. This is all placebo feeling according to my experience. I did feel a bit better at the beginning, but is was not real. Or it was a temporary feeling. The HBO chamber did nothing to my tinnitus. I did get to it a bit late, 2 months after my acoustic trauma. Perhaps an earlier treatment would give results, perhaps not. Nobody knows. They say that they have good results the first month. And less good results in the second and third. Then the results get really poor. In my opinion, in acoustic trauma cases, one has to act really fast and in the first couple of days do what needs to be done. Not much really, corticosteroids (have you tried?), some blood circulation drugs and perhaps start HBO therapy. Still, it does not mean he will heal, perhaps nothing will be done even then. Nothing can be proved, these are just what specialized doctors say. In my opinion, the first two days are the days that an organism may heal by itself. How can it be proved that one is healed because for example took corticosteroids? But since it is the only treatment there is, and perhaps HBO therapy, one should try them ASAP!
Now I am not saying you are too late, you should try everything there is and maybe get lucky.
If you don't, you will just wait like all of us older patients, for a new treatment.
Thank you Skoupidis,
Perhaps you are right about the placebo. I guess Ill never know the answer. I'm leaning towards giving up on it since there have been other people that have regrets about continuing.
It's such an awful thing to have to figure out on your own. One day youre fine and the next you're introduced into something you had never heard about and your life changes. I would just love to have a day that I didn't even think about it.
Currently I'm living in Thailand and would like to take part in the am 101 trial. It would require borrowing money I dont have and flying back to USA to take part in it. That's if I got accepted. Not sure if its worth doing. I've read its most helpful in cases of acoustic trauma. Korea is doing it as well and would be closer but for some reason their part if the website is password protected.
Thank you again for your time
Anthony
Perhaps you are right about the placebo. I guess Ill never know the answer. I'm leaning towards giving up on it since there have been other people that have regrets about continuing.
It's such an awful thing to have to figure out on your own. One day youre fine and the next you're introduced into something you had never heard about and your life changes. I would just love to have a day that I didn't even think about it.
Currently I'm living in Thailand and would like to take part in the am 101 trial. It would require borrowing money I dont have and flying back to USA to take part in it. That's if I got accepted. Not sure if its worth doing. I've read its most helpful in cases of acoustic trauma. Korea is doing it as well and would be closer but for some reason their part if the website is password protected.
Thank you again for your time
Anthony
I have tried this treatment. Strangely, I find the ascent tougher than the descent. Not sure if it's in my head, but my affected ear always feels more requiring of equalising than my other ear. When I spoke to the staff there, it's apparently incredibly rare to get a barotrauma, in fact I don't think they had seen one, although they have had aborted dives where people with sensitive ears cannot make the depth, so skilled supervisors are important. They will take you down to around 40 ft, yet some drive dives go much deeper. I guess it all depends if your T is linked to damage to say the ear drum, in which case I wouldn't do this, but again T is usually inner ear or brain from what I tend to read. I didn't do loads, first few it seemed to get temporarily worse, but then it seemed to improve, and I don't want to risk any more even though they recommended around more sessions.
The problem is that it's partly guesswork in terms of how this is working. There are some factual results inside 3 months, but how it's achieved isn't completely understood. The theory is that by allowing your blood and blood plasma to carry more oxygen around the body, you can get more oxygen in to the inner ear, which is generally very hard to get to, both oxygen and drug delivery, hence the difficulty in finding drug based cures. Thinking about it, and it's guesswork, you could either stimulate or improve damage, reducing the T, or I wonder if the very same process in rarer scenarios could increase T. Like with many treatments, we just don't have the knowledge to make a completely risk free decision.
Matt
The problem is that it's partly guesswork in terms of how this is working. There are some factual results inside 3 months, but how it's achieved isn't completely understood. The theory is that by allowing your blood and blood plasma to carry more oxygen around the body, you can get more oxygen in to the inner ear, which is generally very hard to get to, both oxygen and drug delivery, hence the difficulty in finding drug based cures. Thinking about it, and it's guesswork, you could either stimulate or improve damage, reducing the T, or I wonder if the very same process in rarer scenarios could increase T. Like with many treatments, we just don't have the knowledge to make a completely risk free decision.
Matt
Thanks for your advice Matt,
Not sure if I got barotrauma or not. I imagine I would be in a lot of pain if I did. Still there is a new element to my T that wasn't there before and I wish I could go back in time and stop myself from going in the last time. Maybe a fourth time would improve it but couldn't live with myself if I made it worse.
I hate the guesswork of tinnitus. The patient shouldn't be the one directing the treatment. It should be the doctors who have the answers but I feel the people in this forum know more.
I hope all of you had a peaceful weekend
Thanks again
Anthony
Not sure if I got barotrauma or not. I imagine I would be in a lot of pain if I did. Still there is a new element to my T that wasn't there before and I wish I could go back in time and stop myself from going in the last time. Maybe a fourth time would improve it but couldn't live with myself if I made it worse.
I hate the guesswork of tinnitus. The patient shouldn't be the one directing the treatment. It should be the doctors who have the answers but I feel the people in this forum know more.
I hope all of you had a peaceful weekend
Thanks again
Anthony
I really don't think that it hurt your ears or change your tinnitus. I really think it has nothing to do with HBO. I also think it is placebo. But it is just my opinion. I would try more if I were you. But I cant know for sure, if you did suffer barotrauma. I just think the odds are too small. Did you feel pain in every day of your visits or just the last one?
I didn't feel pain. Had a feeling of fullness of the ears yesterday which is one week after treatment. My T also has increased but I have been under a lot of stress as well. Deadline project, moving, no sleep, opening a new business, dying pet. It's all a perfect storm and then I have this three month deadline to deal with to get treatment. Say the increase was a placebo. Wouldn't it have gone back down by now? Is the fullness of the ears a placebo? I'm not sure what to think anymore. My Dad said he knew someone who was on stage with a hypnotist who cured him from smoking and there was a lady up there with him with T and he cured her too. Not sure how long her T was gone after that but isn't hypnosis a placebo too? If at is all in our minds and can be controlled with mind tricks why isn't there more of a focus on that in these forums? I tend to be suspicious of everything and it seems hard that I would be a victim or benefactor of the placebo affect.
Thanks for your advice
Anthony
Thanks for your advice
Anthony
It wouldn't hurt to try hypnosis. I myself have not tied it, I don't believe it, but I can easily understand if something works or not with my tinnitus, my T is more or less stable from the beginning, nothing changed it a bit.
I tend to be really pessimistic about it. I wouldn't take for granted that there is a 3 month window after which something happens to your tinnitus. The timeframe in which you have greater chance to act is the first couple of days. After that, my opinion in it is more or less the same.
I tend to be really pessimistic about it. I wouldn't take for granted that there is a 3 month window after which something happens to your tinnitus. The timeframe in which you have greater chance to act is the first couple of days. After that, my opinion in it is more or less the same.
The point of the therapy is to breath pure O2 under pressure, this way the O2 goes directly to the plasma of the blood and the procedure has shown remarkably faster healing processes in the organism. There would be no point in just breathing pure oxygen without the pressure.
@RoyZ Could I ask when you say you now have super low t after hbot, do you mean that your t is now so low that you cannot hear it during daytime activities even if you look for it or you can now hear it but its easy to ignore? If you plug your ears can you clearly hear it and has the tone changed since hbot, is it just a straight whine noise or the intermittent cricket sound that seems to be common? Thanks
@Salt What was the end result for you? Good reduction or not?
@Salt What was the end result for you? Good reduction or not?
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