On the Road to Success — Tinnitus and Hyperacusis Improved After Low-Level Laser Treatment

[SaraK18]

Hi,

I wanted to post a quick note.

My physical therapist has been using a low-level laser on my ears for several weeks, and I have noticed a decrease in tinnitus and hyperacusis that seems to be directly related to the laser treatment.

My ear issues were caused from an acoustic trauma. Sometimes I feel very mild pain or heat when she has the laser on, it subsides when she is done, and shortly after I notice an improvement. I have been doing a lot of things to try to heal my ears as well, but there is a noticeable difference with this.

She said she uses MedX home laser. I have her stop at 1 joule, which is about 45 seconds per ear. I wanted to start slowly, and that seems to work well for me.

I wear earplugs and baby my ears extra the day I get laser treatment.

Just thought I would share this.

Best,
Sara

 

[Michael Leigh]

I wear earplugs and baby my ears extra the day I get laser treatment.

Just thought I would share this.

Thanks for posting this @SaraK18 and I hope things continue to go well for you.

 

[SaraK18]

Thanks for posting this @SaraK18 and I hope things continue to go well for you.

Thank you Michael!

 

[Uklawyer]

@SaraK18 - great news. Can you tell us how many weeks it has been and try to quantify the reduction in volume on a 1-10 scale?

 

[Ben Winders]

@SaraK18, what does your tinnitus sound like? High pitched / low pitched? How loud would you say it is (moderate/severe)?

 

[Uklawyer]

It's funny (not very) that we read this stuff and think of trying absolutely EVERYTHING to help us in some way.

 

[SaraK18]

@Uklawyer, thanks! I started in July but I only did it a couple times in July/August. For the last 4 or 5 weeks I have been doing it weekly. Tinnitus volume was maybe a 5 or 6 with pretty sensitive hyparacusis (for example, water turned on too strong hitting the sink would hurt my ears, I also switched to plastic cutlery and paper plates to avoid that potential landmine). Now the tinnitus is around a 3 although it fluctuates. It is the lowest volume I think since my initial injury. Hyperacusis is much better although it's a little hard to quantify. I still have sensitive hearing but I can tell it's easing up. I notice a reduction in h within an hour of the treatment.

Side note - I go to my physical therapist for an unrelated issue and when I told her about my ears we decided to try the laser. My advice to anyone thinking of trying this is to start slow. See how your body responds first.

 

[SaraK18]

@Ben Winders - I have a few tones. 2 are higher pitched. Kind of classic type. Consistent. Rarely, I have a lower intermittent tone in my right ear only that sounds like a hum. I suspect this is related to jaw tension or trigeminal nerve because when I relax my jaw and face it ceases.

 

[SaraK18]

I wanted to add... I do a LOT of different things to heal. I pretty much dedicated my life to healing my ears for the last few months. I think these things work synergistically.

 

[LukeYoung]

@Ben Winders - I have a few tones. 2 are higher pitched. Kind of classic type. Consistent. Rarely, I have a lower intermittent tone in my right ear only that sounds like a hum. I suspect this is related to jaw tension or trigeminal nerve because when I relax my jaw and face it ceases.

Do you have TMJ by any chance?

 

[Uklawyer]

Thanks @SaraK18.

So to summarise:

You have had tinnitus for c. 1 year, caused by acoustic trauma. Your tinnitus was stable up to July/August of this year, when you started LLLT.

You have practised this consistently for the last 4 - 5 weeks and have noticed roughly a 40-50% reduction in the volume of your tinnitus.

Is that accurate?

 

[PolarSun]

What kind of laser is this that we are talking about? Cold laser?

 

[SaraK18]

@LukeYoung, yes, I grind my teeth and have had occasional jaw tightness since I was a teenager.

 

[SaraK18]

@Uklawyer, I had an acoustic trauma a year ago and the tinnitus and hyperacusis was bad. After a few months, the hyperacusis resolved and the tinnitus diminished but was still present. Things seemed stable.

Then in July, I had another semi loud sound exposure. It reactivated my original injury: increased tinnitus, hyperacusis, nausea, and constant fight or flight type feeling.

I tried the laser after the reactivation in July. Correct about the reduction in volume, and the hyperacusis is probably down even more than 50%. Some of this may have been a result of time also. But I believe the lllt sped up my healing process and eased the suffering.

 

[SaraK18]

@PolarSun, my physical therapist uses a Medx home laser. It is not a cold laser. It's red light laser. See original post for more detail on our method.

 

[star-affinity]

Thanks for sharing your experience and good luck further on too!

May I ask if you could share some of the things you do to your ears to make them heal?

 

[SaraK18]

Hi @star-affinity! Here they are:

• Acupuncture/Chinese herbs
• Meditation
• Visualization - actually visualize my ears/brain stem/cranial nerves/limbic system healing. Very powerful.
• Praying
• Don't yell/raise my voice (I noticed that increases my symptoms)
• Reiki and energy healing

Supplements in my rotation:

• Ashwaghanda
• Lyposomal Magnesium
• Lyposomal C
• B-complex
• Vit D (I'm chronically low)
• Bromelain
• DHA from algae
• Turmeric lattes (does this count? lol)
• -Youth Factor by Neora - a supplement my aunt gave me for something else, but it seems to lower the tinnitus volume slightly. It has a mix of things, but my doctor friend thinks it works bc it has something for the mitochondria so it will speed up healing. If you're interested in that you can google it and take a look at the ingredients.
• I try to limit inflammatory foods but I'm not super strict about it

I am careful with my ears. I wear earplugs when I go outside (for now).

As a sidenote - I tried a lot of these holistic/mind over matter methods when I was trying to heal myself from a bone marrow disorder several years back. Eventually, my blood counts started to normalize and my symptoms improved. My doctor was so surprised.

The human body is amazing. Never give up hope! I hope that doesn't sound too preachy, but it's something I have needed to hear from time to time, so I'm passing it along.

Best,
Sara

 

[twa]

Hi,

I wanted to post a quick note.

My physical therapist has been using a low-level laser on my ears for several weeks, and I have noticed a decrease in tinnitus and hyperacusis that seems to be directly related to the laser treatment.

My ear issues were caused from an acoustic trauma. Sometimes I feel very mild pain or heat when she has the laser on, it subsides when she is done, and shortly after I notice an improvement. I have been doing a lot of things to try to heal my ears as well, but there is a noticeable difference with this.

She said she uses MedX home laser. I have her stop at 1 joule, which is about 45 seconds per ear. I wanted to start slowly, and that seems to work well for me.

I wear earplugs and baby my ears extra the day I get laser treatment.

Just thought I would share this.

Best,
Sara

Several people have noticed improvement with lasers. I have not used lasers for my ears, but have used red light therapy for muscles and joints. I did see improvement after several sessions. I also did an anti-inflammatory diet.

 

[Wrfortiscue]

Several people have noticed improvement with lasers. I have not used lasers for my ears, but have used red light therapy for muscles and joints. I did see improvement after several sessions. I also did an anti-inflammatory diet.

How are you doing now?

 

[twa]

How are you doing now?

@Wrfortiscue, doing ok. Still feeling off, but hoping things will improve over time.

How are you doing?

 

[Eleanor89]

@twa, how are you x

I hope you are improving.

 

[Wrfortiscue]

@Wrfortiscue, doing ok. Still feeling off, but hoping things will improve over time.

How are you doing?

Gradually worsening lol but mood wise better.

 

[Freerunner]

@SaraK18, do you still continue the laser treatment and is there any other positive result?

 

[SaraK18]

@Freerunner, yes, I do it about once per week. I still feel improvement each time, both in tinnitus volume and hyperacusis.

 

[Freerunner]

Thank you @SaraK18!

How long have you had tinnitus before you decided to try the laser? I have had it for almost a month and I am considering giving it a try. I am visiting my physical therapist once a week and he has some laser and I think I am going to ask him about it.

 

[Wrfortiscue]

Damn. I'm inclined to try this.

 

[SaraK18]

@Freerunner, it was 10 months after my first acoustic trauma, and a few days after my second smaller acoustic trauma.

My advice is to start slowly. I had read something on here that someone had an adverse reaction to a different type of laser, and my assessment was that he may have done too much laser and not protected his ears sufficiently after treatment.
So, I'd recommend doing a little at a time, see how your ears respond. Use earplugs after, and limit sound exposure the day of treatment.

That's not to scare you at all! Just wanted to mention that is something I'm mindful of when doing laser treatment.

 

[SaraK18]

@Wrfortiscue, good luck! I hope you get some improvement if you try

 

[Freerunner]

@SaraK18, I hope you are doing well!

If you do not mind me asking - how many minutes did your first LLLT treatments last? How did you gradually extended the time? Did you also experience any spikes from the laser?

I am going for LLLT next month and I just wanted to get some experience from you. It will be a 5 day course with TinniTool Profilaser. Medical advisors told me the standard is 10 minutes a day per ear.

I would appreciate getting back to me once you see this. Thank you!

 

[Juan]

I asked public healthcare about laser treatments and they said there is not any evidence of this working... and there are not many private clinics who endorse it either.