Low Drone Tinnitus Does Not Need Much to Shut Down Completely

[Lukee]

How long did it take before you saw benefit from the AC-11 and at what dosage?

One a day. I think it's 300 mg?

It took a couple days and it seems to be mostly gone along with my hyperacusis which is prob 10% remaining.

 

[Ben Winders]

One a day. I think it's 300 mg?

It took a couple days and it seems to be mostly gone along with my hyperacusis which is prob 10% remaining.

That's fantastic news - I'm really happy for you.

I see you've had tinnitus since January 2021 - anything else you ve been doing or taking that could have contributed (other than time, which may actually be your biggest curative factor. 7 months is not THAT extremely long)?

 

[SaraK18]

Yup, I have this crawling feeling too. That's 100% physical.

Very big plot twist happened today and keep in mind, I am 13 months into this nightmare.

I put my background noise last night at very low volume for sleeping, which usually results in a more persistent drone during the day.

On this day though, I took a seat in an office chair (in my home) that I hadn't been sitting on for the longest time.

I was sitting there, working on my laptop, drone was buzzing at 6/10 volume. But then... I decided to take a break and put on a YouTube video which made me slouch a bit in my chair and bring my chin closer to my chest.

What happened next had me almost in tears (note: first time I have been able to do this since onset), when I brought my chin to my chest, the drone was gone. Gone!
I was so thrown off that I even yelled at my girlfriend to come join me. I brought my neck back up and whaddayaknow, the drone came back to 6/10 level. I brought my chin down to my chest again, drone was gone again.

Now I'm even more sure than before that this is muscle/tension related.

What other tinnitus turns itself off completely some days. What other tinnitus is 8/10 ON after a short car ride and then starts to clearly, audibly stutter before stopping.

Now, that said, I still believe my acoustic trauma started all this, as is being mentioned by this paper on muscle/tension related tinnitus:

"Diagnosis and management of somatosensory tinnitus: review article"

It states that while acoustic trauma can be the trigger for these issues (muscle tension in/around the ear), but the thing that keeps it alive / buzzing is that muscle tension.

Now the million dollar question: how to fix this.

That's super interesting Ben. Thank you for posting. I have suspected I have a similar issue. Tinnitus/hyperacusis and slight noise induced hearing loss (which very well might be resolved at this point, I haven't gotten an audiogram since September) from a sound trauma, but I have had years of TMJ and neck tension which I suspect may have played a role in the severity of my symptoms.

Never found a direct link so thank you for posting that. I'm going to check it out.

Sara

 

[Lukee]

That's fantastic news - I'm really happy for you.

I see you've had tinnitus since January 2021 - anything else you ve been doing or taking that could have contributed (other than time, which may actually be your biggest curative factor. 7 months is not THAT extremely long)?

I'm in the same boat. Tinnitus since January and then hyperacusis and some other stuff came on a few months later. I have tried just about everything but nothing is a home run. Today was a bit of a setback, the hyperacusis was still pretty good and as I write this I have the slight drone. Something set me back and I feel like it was the Magnesium I took last night. I could feel it when I woke up. It seems Magnesium makes me more susceptible in a sense.

 

[Ben Winders]

I'm in the same boat. Tinnitus since January and then hyperacusis and some other stuff came on a few months later. I have tried just about everything but nothing is a home run. Today was a bit of a setback, the hyperacusis was still pretty good and as I write this I have the slight drone. Something set me back and I feel like it was the Magnesium I took last night. I could feel it when I woke up. It seems Magnesium makes me more susceptible in a sense.

Slight drone is 'good'. If someone would offer me a slight drone for the rest of my life safeguarding me from the loud drone that I've had on multiple occasions, I would sign immediately.

 

[Lukee]

Slight drone is 'good'. If someone would offer me a slight drone for the rest of my life safeguarding me from the loud drone that I've had on multiple occasions, I would sign immediately.

Something funny just happened. Sitting in my living room and I can hear some drone. It's perfectly quiet at the moment and I start to realize the drone follows a rhythm. I asked the others, "can you here it or is my drone really getting funny now?" No one can hear it, the three of us in the room are still like statues. I can hear it still and I motion with my finger when the drone comes. They say no. They move right to the window and still can't here anything. We open the door, go outside, and I can hear it just the same but a little less like drone. They still can't hear it, then finally, my neighbour's music hits the chorus and they can hear that there is music playing. They were unable to hear the LF bass and yet I was able to, suggesting I have more sensitive hearing that theirs, especially for the low frequencies. I just found it very strange.

 

[Maria Francesca]

@Lukee, I read your post on the thread "Examining the Possibility of a Viral Cofactor with Noxacusis" about EBV. And I read here Cat's Claw reduces your symptoms. Cat's Claw is both anti-inflammatory and antiviral.

I started recently taking Boswellia, which is antinfiammatory and antiviral, and found reduction in my symptoms. I have also mild visual snow, maybe it is in connection with my tinnitus through EBV. I have ordered Monolaurin and Lysine to see if they might help too.

 

[Lukee]

@Lukee, I read your post on the thread "Examining the Possibility of a Viral Cofactor with Noxacusis" about EBV. And I read here Cat's Claw reduces your symptoms. Cat's Claw is both anti-inflammatory and antiviral.

I started recently taking Boswellia, which is antinfiammatory and antiviral, and found reduction in my symptoms. I have also mild visual snow, maybe it is in connection with my tinnitus through EBV. I have ordered Monolaurin and Lysine to see if they might help too.

I haven't tried the Monolaurin yet but I am going to try it. I don't know. Cat's claw was AV so this is interesting and maybe something to pursue.

 

[Maria Francesca]

WebMD: Could the 'Mono' Virus Be Driving Long-Haul COVID?

Interesting:

"These long-haul patients with high EBV antibody levels reported fatigue, insomnia, headaches, body aches and confusion as their most common symptoms. Other symptoms included tinnitus (ringing in the ears), hearing loss and skin rashes."

 

[Ben Winders]

Sitting here in most quiet room of our house. Drone is at 8/10... I put earbud in drone ear with a low rumbling sound from YouTube at the absolute most minimum volume level, I even zoomed in on the volume bar to make it as fine grained as possible... Basically I can't even hear the YouTube sound.

My drone is at a 2/10 now.

Why aren't we (people that have a drone) all having hearing aids with white noise generators in all day?

I know it's obviously better to have nothing in your ear all day, but 8/10 > 2/10 is a big difference.

My anxiety level also immediately went from 8 to 2.

 

[Lukee]

Sitting here in most quiet room of our house. Drone is at 8/10... I put earbud in drone ear with a low rumbling sound from YouTube at the absolute most minimum volume level, I even zoomed in on the volume bar to make it as fine grained as possible... Basically I can't even hear the YouTube sound.

My drone is at a 2/10 now.

Why aren't we (people that have a drone) all having hearing aids with white noise generators in all day?

I know it's obviously better to have nothing in your ear all day, but 8/10 > 2/10 is a big difference.

My anxiety level also immediately went from 8 to 2.

So you have residual inhibition? If you wear it for an hour, does the drone go away for some period of time after you take it out?

 

[Ben Winders]

So you have residual inhibition? If you wear it for an hour, does the drone go away for some period of time after you take it out?

Doesn't everyone get residual inhibition? (Serious question). Let's say my drone is at 10/10, I take a 1 hour car ride. After the ride the drone can/will be off (0/10) for a certain amount of time (I havent timed it yet, but we're not talking seconds, we're talking an hour, or more).

I wonder why you are bringing up residual inhibition. Most people with the drone can completely shut it off by standing next to a fridge or any other appliance with the right frequency, or shoving a finger up their ear (the finger makes a sound also). I was not talking about residual inhibition, my proposal is talking about real time shutting it down by feeding the ear with VERY VERY LOW VOLUME white/brown (whatever you call it) noise.

 

[Lukee]

Doesn't everyone get residual inhibition? (Serious question). Let's say my drone is at 10/10, I take a 1 hour car ride. After the ride the drone can/will be off (0/10) for a certain amount of time (I havent timed it yet, but we're not talking seconds, we're talking an hour, or more).

I wonder why you are bringing up residual inhibition. Most people with the drone can completely shut it off by standing next to a fridge or any other appliance with the right frequency, or shoving a finger up their ear (the finger makes a sound also). I was not talking about residual inhibition, my proposal is talking about real time shutting it down by feeding the ear with VERY VERY LOW VOLUME white/brown (whatever you call it) noise.

The reason I bring it up is I don't know much about drone. Mine is intermittent and only happens in morning and night. I was wondering if with time the residual inhibition becomes longer and longer. So your idea of idea of using hearing aids, when used long enough might be permanent.

 

[Ben Winders]

It seems I've reached another stage in my 13 month humming/drone journey.

This morning when I woke up I noticed my usual (for 13 months now) 4/10 (when in rest) drone would go all the way up to 12 after I spoke a few words to my girlfriend (I have a very low voice). It would die down back to 4/10 after a couple seconds.

Even after my girlfriend spoke a few words to me, it would flare up to 12 , and she has a fairly high pitched voice.

I then started to experiment and hummed for 10 seconds... again, flare up to 12 and it would "get stuck" at 12...

Now comes the weird part: every single time (we tried many times) I could completely bring it back to baseline by swallowing. That's it, just swallowing.

Also making a lot of noise on my pillow would send it to 12, and again... swallowing would bring it back to baseline immediately.

The only thing that changed in my drug/supplements is that I started taking 2 days ago Carbamazepine (Tegretol) and Cat's Claw. (I tried Carbamazepine before and never did it have this effect on me).

Who on earth can stop/bring back to baseline their loud tinnitus by just swallowing. Isn't this textbook ETD? (I have regular hissing tinnitus too, so I know how "regular" tinnitus behaves. The humming is acting so weird.)

 

[Maria Francesca]

I started taking 2 days ago Carbamazepine (Tegretol) and Cat's Claw.

Hello, it is not clear to me if Tegretol + Cat's Claw is being beneficial to you or it is worsening the drone.

Any effect on the hissing?

 

[Ben Winders]

Hello, it is not clear to me if Tegretol + Cat's Claw is being beneficial to you or it is worsening the drone.

Any effect on the hissing?

The only thing that changed are the 12/10 spikes as described, but how on earth would I be able to swallow and make the 12/10 go back to baseline (it is really like an ON/OFF switch)? That sounds like something mechanical, not like something either Tegretol or Cat's Claw has anything to do with, right?

No effect on the hissing.

 

[Lukee]

It seems I've reached another stage in my 13 month humming/drone journey.

This morning when I woke up I noticed my usual (for 13 months now) 4/10 (when in rest) drone would go all the way up to 12 after I spoke a few words to my girlfriend (I have a very low voice). It would die down back to 4/10 after a couple seconds.

Even after my girlfriend spoke a few words to me, it would flare up to 12 , and she has a fairly high pitched voice.

I then started to experiment and hummed for 10 seconds... again, flare up to 12 and it would "get stuck" at 12...

Now comes the weird part: every single time (we tried many times) I could completely bring it back to baseline by swallowing. That's it, just swallowing.

Also making a lot of noise on my pillow would send it to 12, and again... swallowing would bring it back to baseline immediately.

The only thing that changed in my drug/supplements is that I started taking 2 days ago Carbamazepine (Tegretol) and Cat's Claw. (I tried Carbamazepine before and never did it have this effect on me).

Who on earth can stop/bring back to baseline their loud tinnitus by just swallowing. Isn't this textbook ETD? (I have regular hissing tinnitus too, so I know how "regular" tinnitus behaves. The humming is acting so weird.)

Apparently drone is tied to ETD and your symptoms mirror mine in a sense. Sometimes I can get relief of my symptoms when my ETs seem like they are working better.

 

[Ben Winders]

Apparently drone is tied to ETD and your symptoms mirror mine in a sense. Sometimes I can get relief of my symptoms when my ETs seem like they are working better.

It makes the most sense but can ETD issues be a result of acoustic trauma? Because I'm 99% sure my acoustic incident caused my drone as I got it right after? (I slept with YouTube fan noise in my in-ear plugs for a week (there was construction outside where I lived and couldn't sleep > the fan noise helped me sleep > mistake of a lifetime).

From the acoustic trauma (I'm guessing at low frequencies that don't show up on audiograms) I only have -20 dB "damage" at the 4000 Hz point... all other points are spectacularly good (according to all doctors).

I guess I also hurt my ears physically by sleeping on my side on my in-ear headphones, my ears physically hurt almost every morning upon waking up. Don't tell me, stupidest thing I ever did in my life.

 

[Lukee]

It makes the most sense but can ETD issues be a result of acoustic trauma? Because I'm 99% sure my acoustic incident caused my drone as I got it right after? (I slept with YouTube fan noise in my in-ear plugs for a week (there was construction outside where I lived and couldn't sleep > the fan noise helped me sleep > mistake of a lifetime).

From the acoustic trauma (I'm guessing at low frequencies that don't show up on audiograms) I only have -20 dB "damage" at the 4000 Hz point... all other points are spectacularly good (according to all doctors).

I guess I also hurt my ears physically by sleeping on my side on my in-ear headphones, my ears physically hurt almost every morning upon waking up. Don't tell me, stupidest thing I ever did in my life.

I don't think there is a clear answer to this. It seems like everyone is confused as to whether or not these ETD-like synonyms are actually ETD or not. I can't find a clear answer anywhere.

 

[Uklawyer]

@Ben Winders, are you able to see another doctor and ask about ETD? I will ask the same thing when I go to see an ENT next week.

I wouldn't be too hard on yourself about wearing earphones at night. I don't believe that some ear pain from sleeping with them in would cause tinnitus. And listening to fan noises seems highly unlikely to have caused any damage either in my opinion.

 

[Thomas L]

Does anyone know if taking the plane has a positive or negative impact on this sort of tinnitus? From my experience on my worse days, exposing my ear to a good amount of sound such as staying outside quite a bit or driving somewhere seems to be helping a bit so I was curious about the plane, would it shut if off for a longer time for instance?