Massage Made My Tinnitus Calm — Does It Mean If I Do It Regularly It Could Go Away?

[anusha]

Hi,

I have had tinnitus for 8 and a half months and I am now 4 months pregnant and my tinnitus got more louder during pregnancy. Yoga helps me calm but not tinnitus.


Since last week I started having back pain at work and I thought I should go to a Licensed Massage therapist and I did this Saturday.

Just last Wednesday I cried endlessly as my tinnitus was so loud I couldn't sleep.

After I went to the massage on Saturday that night I felt immediate reduction in the intensity at least by 40-50% I thought maybe it's just today because it always gets back to its loudness in silent rooms and bedroom but it's Thursday today, 5 days since the massage and the tone of tinnitus is the same 50% less or so than last week.

She did a lot of massage on my neck. Head backside where we do that fingers technique to get immediate relief from tinnitus, pressed a lot and held for few seconds and massaged behind my ears and neck.

I did not tell her about my tinnitus. I just told her about my back pain. At the end of the massage I had relief from back pain and 40-50% reduction in loudness of tinnitus.

Could this be temporary relief? Did anyone experience this.

I've tried acupuncture, homeopathy, ginkgo, apple cider vinegar, yoga, none of them worked for me in reducing intensity. This has some kind of affect but am again not too excited because it could be temporary. I once posted in a success story thread after one month of tinnitus I thought I had silence for a day and next day since then for 7 months I have had no silence. Tinnitus came back, I don't know why that one day I had a silent day.

What does it mean that the massage reduced intensity of tinnitus. I got massages in India when I travelled there that did not have any affect but I am here getting a massage from Licensed Massage Therapist and she did something around head neck ears and intensity reduced.

My tinnitus was due to pouring hydrogen peroxide in perforated ear drum... Later I changed the doctor and they put me on steroids for a month and perforation closed in a month and temporary hearing loss came back to normal. Tinnitus never went away so I travelled to India to see if they had any cure. They did three hearing tests and one came back with sensorineural hearing loss. I can't understand why they did three tests and after they got that result told me that auditory cortex got weak due to that and the signals to the brain aren't sent properly. I need to suck up and get used to it. I was angry and came back and tried acupuncture and yoga. Acupuncture I did 3 sessions and did not see any difference so I stopped pouring my money into it and started going to yoga, this is where I came in to mode of acceptance of my situation and going ahead with my life despite of tinnitus.

Finally this massage gave me some relief from screeching tinnitus which got louder in pregnancy. Not sure if my tinnitus is related to neck issues or nerve issue or what.

Long story short but will continuing the massages help? Did anyone see any result through massages?

Thank you for response in advance. Sometimes I feel like I should accept and let go. Sometimes am back to TinnitusTalk in search of success stories and cure for myself.

 

[coffee_girl]

No massage does not help for me, everyone is different and everyone will have natural fluctuations in their T...for example my T is reduced by 50% if I stop drinking coffee...but I love coffee and I refuse to arrange my life around T.

I think someone on this forum said that if your T is not gone by 1-2 months than it is most likely permanent. I Took this advice as a way to accept and move on, life has been great since I don't have to stress or worry about it any more. No more crying over T, no more wasted hours on the web looking for "cures". I'll be in line if someone releases ear drops that are proven to cure it, but until that day I am living my life normally as if I never had it.

Please take care of yourself and don't worry too much. You said yourself that it increased due to pregnancy, so perhaps it will go away once the child is born...hang in there <3

 

[anusha]

I Took this advice as a way to accept and move on, life has been great since I don't have to stress or worry about it any more. No more crying over T, no more wasted hours on the web looking for "cures"

yes I was almost in that phase where there were days I don't talk about tinnitus just turn on my fan, talk to my husband and doze off... lately since I have increased trips to restrooms middle of the night when getting back to sleep, falling asleep was the hardest part and there was a meltdown last week after 2-3 months.

I totally agree searching for cure can make a person drive crazy sometimes but when a simple massage gave a temporary relief just curious if it could fix the problem on the whole.

Acceptance is definitely Freedom.

 

[coffee_girl]

yes I was almost in that phase where there were days I don't talk about tinnitus just turn on my fan, talk to my husband and doze off... lately since I have increased trips to restrooms middle of the night when getting back to sleep, falling asleep was the hardest part and there was a meltdown last week after 2-3 months.

I totally agree searching for cure can make a person drive crazy sometimes but when a simple massage gave a temporary relief just curious if it could fix the problem on the whole.

Acceptance is definitely Freedom.

I'm sooo sorry you had to go through that, I felt the same way too!! I used to curl up in bed and watch reruns of TV shows I loved and just hoping an asteroid would hit my house so I don't have to worry about T anymore...the nights of waking up mid-sleep and trying to "find" it was so exhausting mentally and emotionally. So happy that the massages gave you some escape...perhaps it will be permanent, I hope so. Do update us if you get better =D

 

[BobbyH]

Hi,

I did not tell her about my tinnitus. I just told her about my back pain. At the end of the massage I had relief from back pain and 40-50% reduction in loudness of tinnitus.

Could this be temporary relief?

Long story short but will continuing the massages help?
.

I think that stress exacerbates tinnitus. The tinnitus then causes more stress, this creates a vicious cycle of tinnitus that causes anxiety that causes tinnitus.

From your description, I think the massage relieved your stress which broke that vicious circle temporarily. I would say, continue the massage. You don't have to tell the person doing the massage or even you thinking you're doing it for your tinnitus. Go into it for the sole purpose of relieving stress and feeling good. If it helps you, then continue. Breaking the cycle over time becomes a habit and that is a good thing.

Bobby

 

[JohnAdams]

I think that stress exacerbates tinnitus. The tinnitus then causes more stress, this creates a vicious cycle of tinnitus that causes anxiety that causes tinnitus.

From your description, I think the massage relieved your stress which broke that vicious circle temporarily. I would say, continue the massage. You don't have to tell the person doing the massage or even you thinking you're doing it for your tinnitus. Go into it for the sole purpose of relieving stress and feeling good. If it helps you, then continue. Breaking the cycle over time becomes a habit and that is a good thing.

Bobby

Yep. Ive been low stress for the last couple of days and i feel like my t is almost gone and i have my life back. This is however only a temporary oasis and i have to try and keep my stress low or else it will come right back to a horrible level.

 

[TuneOut]

Could this be temporary relief? Did anyone experience this.

It could be more than that if the stress and muscle tension is exacerbating the tinnitus. If you have it done regularly it could very well help keep your tinnitus lower. Stress can be a big factor.