Searching for the Cause

[davorr]

Dear Friends

I'm new here. Maybe some of you had some similar experience and can help me. Currently I am trying to find out, what really caused my Tinnitus. I've written some assumptions here (A,B,C…), so please let me know, which one you think could be the real cause concerning the entire description.

Tnx a lot in advance!

_________
AGE: 40
TINNITUS-BEGIN: Oct. 13, 2016. Duration: almost 1 month
DISEASES: Tinnitus & hyperacusis (cause unknown); I also got high blood pressure.
_________
SYMPTOMS:
- 24 hrs tone, also slightly audible when I'm outside in the city. Not audible while showering.
- Hyperacusis was initially very strong, but after 2 weeks about 60% less (some noise in the kitchen still irritates me)
- Rare pain or pressure, feeling about 2-3cm in the left ear, sometimes right
- maybe 30% less concentration
- Emotional condition: No panic, but with some concerns, whether this will last forever.
_________
TINNITUS SOUND TYPE:
A stable, non-oscillating sound, with some texture / high tones , so the overall sound is not as clean as a "Sine Wave", but rather like the water in the radiator or a fizzy tablet in the mouth.
_________
TINNITUS FREQUENCIES:
Not easy to identify, since probably about 3 tones are simultaneously present. But one of them is dominant (makes about 60% of the total noise)
- 8000 Khz (dominant)
- about 14500 Khz (metallic texture)
- Probably further, unidentified high frequencies as well (metallic texture)
_________
VOLUME:
- On my iPhone I turn the music loud up to half of the display, in order to cover tinnitus a bit.
- Left / Right: Approximately 30% louder in the left ear, with the source feeling more in the center of the head.
_________
POSSIBLE CAUSES (for my case; a subjective list, the order is not relevant):
A) 1 day before it occurred, I've had lot of stress & been working for 11 hours on the computer. The last 3 hours on my couch until 1 o'clock at night (with a very bad head position)
B) 3-4 days before it occurred, I was testing my the guitar amplifier. It was extremely loud. Maybe it damaged my hair cells?
C) 2-3 days before it occurred, I went to swimming in a pool, then I had a 5 min. walk to my car by cold weather. Maybe got some infection there?
D) I got Hypertension / high blood pressure (for 1/2 year)
E) Side effect? I take Olmatec, the hypertension medicine (for 1/2 year)
F) Traffic Noise: Since 3 years my office is looking at the highway: 45-50 DBfs constant noise.
G) Dental: No pains, but you never know. I haven't visited a dentist for years.

 

[davorr]

I forgot to say:
Sometimes (couple of times a day) I got a throat and ear pain simultaneously. A very short one and not very painful.

 

[Candy]

Difficult to know, I would probably look into side effect of drugs and search the connection between high blood pressure and t because I think there is a link.

Road noise seems like a long shot, I live under the flight path but so does most of West London, so haven't considered it amongst causes for my t.

Have u had your throat checked out?

Like in my case there is nothing particularly remarkable in your days preceding t, so it's hard to say...I'm 5 months in and still trying to go through a process of elimination...

 

[MikeL1972]

Hi Davorr,

Welcome to the board!

First off, hypertension is a serious matter and can lead to stroke and heart attack.

Regarding tinnitus, my initial plan of attack would be to take the medical route and go to your friendly local ENT and have him or her look inside your ear and sinus cavity.

If the side effect of the high BP med is tinnitus, maybe they can switch it up for you?

Good luck!

 

[Kazue]

I think the guitar amp and the stress was the last straw for ya. I think you should check out the Hyperbaric oxygen chamber to get oxygen to your ears. You are still in your early stages.

 

[billie48]

Welcome to the forum. It is not often easy to pin point to an exact cause of T. There are many causes which can trigger or aggravate tinnitus including drug reaction or side-effects, ear or Eustachian tube infection, ear drum injury, fluid build-up feeling pressured, TMJ, high blood pressure or blood circulation problem, loud noise exposure or acoustic trauma, head trauma & injury, neck problems, hearing loss, Meniere's, barotrauma from flight, grief for the loss of loved ones, untreated sleep apnea, elevated stress, anxiety & panic disorder, etc. Sometimes it may take more than one of above causes to aggravate T. Take care. God bless.

 

[davorr]

Thank you, dear friends, for your time and the ideas!

@Candy: No, I haven't checked my throat. Gonna ask the doc for that by next occassion.

@MikeL1972: Yes, I'll try to replace that BP med by some tea mix, that hopefully should do the same. I've been at local ENT, she has checked my ears, eyes and my balance. But hasn't checked the sinus cavity. Did your T. have something to do with the sinus cavity?

@Kazue: Thanks for the suggestion to check the Hyperbaric oxygen chamber! Do you have any experience with that? Is there any other way to get more oxygen in the ears?


***

Generally, I am a bit disappointed of the 2 medical examinations I had:

1. My family doctor is an older guy, a nice person. But when I mentioned the massages and the neck, he said: "No, T. doesn't come from there". Man, I've been working in front of the computer for the last 20y. We could at least give them a try.

2. The local ENT has not checked, if my T. is being affected by pressing some points at my neck. I've found out, my T. tone frequency is sometimes changing, when I press my neck with my fingers below the ears. This I saw in some online diagnosis tools like http://www.tinnitool.ch (in german only) At the end of this online test, the result said it might be some circulation disorder.

 

[drox]

Hello !
Was the onset instantaneous or progressive ? This could also give some indication...
It looks like T is often triggered or aggravated by a combination of things with noise and stress at the forefront !
Be very careful with noise, stress and medication as from now...

 

[davorr]

It was instantaneous: I woke up and heard it.
Maybe even in the evening before, before I went to sleep after I was working on my couch on the Notebook for 3h, I can't quite remember.

Thank you.

 

[MikeL1972]

POSSIBLE CAUSES (for my case; a subjective list, the order is not relevant):
A) 1 day before it occurred, I've had lot of stress & been working for 11 hours on the computer. The last 3 hours on my couch until 1 o'clock at night (with a very bad head position)
B) 3-4 days before it occurred, I was testing my the guitar amplifier. It was extremely loud. Maybe it damaged my hair cells?
C) 2-3 days before it occurred, I went to swimming in a pool, then I had a 5 min. walk to my car by cold weather. Maybe got some infection there?
D) I got Hypertension / high blood pressure (for 1/2 year)
E) Side effect? I take Olmatec, the hypertension medicine (for 1/2 year)
F) Traffic Noise: Since 3 years my office is looking at the highway: 45-50 DBfs constant noise.
G) Dental: No pains, but you never know. I haven't visited a dentist for years.

-------------------------------
It's hard to point to the specific reason why you got tinnitus, but given all the options above, there could be more than one culprit. But, if you were to ask me to pick one of them, I would say choice B) would be the reason as the bulk of the cases are due to this. Typically, it's instantaneous, meaning you would hear the ringing as soon as it happened (or that same night as in my case) so I'm not sure why it took 3-4 days for you to pick up on it, unless you weren't listening for it.

Or, there is the possibility that it could have been due to a combination of things. Basically, a result of a confluence of things...

 

[peetdoor]

Hi! I'm new to this forum. My tinnitus started right after something very similar to (C). In my case it was the morning after juming into very cold water.

 

[davorr]

Today I visited my ENT.

No hearing loss according to the audio test. But i felt like my tinnitus tone was 3x louder then those test tones.

She did also a check with a mini camera into my nose. Before that she gave me some anesthetic spray into the nose. The thing went pretty deep. She said no infections.

We did also a blood test (I wanted that). The results will come in a fee days.

The thing with my guitar amp is: If this should have caused my Tinnitus, it should have happend probably right after I was playing. And not after 3 days. Does this make sense? This is my greatest fear: that I damaged the hair cells and will never be able to regenerate them.

What's left, as possible causes, are the high blood pressure or the medication side effect of it. Or the neck problem. And the stress as an overall factor as the ENT states.

A really annoying disease because it is constant. My tinnitus is still strong, particulary in the evening and in the morning. But when I think about that I am not alone and there are milions suffering... and it will go for sure one day dear God takes my soul, all this makes it easier a bit somehow.

Thanks friends for your ideas and suggestions. This is a great place because we can find the real understanding only by the affected ones. Nobody else knows.

 

[aksentije]

@davorr I have almost similar situation, my T started suddenly like yours and I have excluded all of the possibilities except for swimming pool infection, this sounds like the only logical cause.

Did your tinnitus go away, could you give us an update on this?

 

[Pleasure_Paulie]

I can speak for all of us when I say that part of the grief process is indeed finding the cause. I can also tell you that you probably won't ever find the cause. Please don't spend too much time of your life trying to, it will not help you long term.

The most likely cause for most people is a noise related trauma combined with a stress response (cortisol hormone).

I suggest you do all of your medical checks with your doctor such as getting an MRI, try an oral steroid such as Prednisone ASAP and see an audiologist for a hearing test. Then go through the process of dealing with this and move on with your life. PS. It could go away

 

[aksentije]

@Pleasure_Paulie thank you very much maybe you are right, I guess there is no point in bothering to find a cause at this point. I have had my T for 2 years now, I think I have small chances for it to go away and I'm ok with that, I just hope it's not anything related to some other hidden disease that I can't discover.

I did audiologist test but my ENT ( 2 of them whom I went to) never suggested MRI (which I really don't understand why). I think I will try to talk them into doing MRI just to make sure I did everything I could like you said

 

[Pleasure_Paulie]

@aksentije An MRI is to simply check for an acoustic neuroma. Don't fret, the chance you have one is very low. The ent's don't normally do one unless requested because of their cost and the chance of finding a problem being so low.

There is stories of t going away for people that have had it for years. Don't loose hope, but also let you life move on and make the best of it! Remember, t won't hurt or kill you. So much of overcoming t is psychological.

 

[aksentije]

@Pleasure_Paulie thanks man, I appreciate your help and support And yes I suppose it's not acoustic neuroma, if it was I guess it would have some consequences, I didn't have other problems during these 2 years.

 

[davorr]

@davorr I have almost similar situation, my T started suddenly like yours and I have excluded all of the possibilities except for swimming pool infection, this sounds like the only logical cause.

Did your tinnitus go away, could you give us an update on this?

Dear Aksentije,

No, my T didn't leave me a second since the October. It's been in my head for almost 1/2 year.

Since my throat is also a bit affected and I also had pains in the ears, I think it is caused by an infect. It might be, that other things (stress) had contributed to the disease as well.

Best
Davorr

 

[davorr]

Dear all, thanks for your posts here. Here an update of my case:

Tinitus and Sinusitis have not changed, since I wrote this in October last year.

Sinusitis
After they've scanned my head with CT, it turned out that I have Sinusitis. But, the ENT didn't think, that this caused my Tinnitus.

Valsalva
I can't pop my left ear, since I have T.
OK, I can, but I got to close my nose and my right ear. And try much longer.

Pain
The left ear is the only one where I had a pain. and the fullness/watery feeling:

• At the beginning the pain occurred sometimes simultaneously in the left ear and somewhere in the throat.
• Now, a short, not so strong pain comes sometimes while yawning, only on the left side.

My Conclusion
My high blood pressure maybe had contributed a bit, but it is not the main cause of my T.
I think there is some connection to the left ear, Sinusitis and - probably - my eustachian tube.

My question to you
How can I come closer to the answer, if it is my eustachian tube?
Please help me. Thank you, dear friends.

 

[Michael Leigh]

@davorr
Many things can cause tinnitus but exposure to loud noise is the most common. If you listen to music through headphones regularly or attend places often where loud music is played then this could be the cause of your tinnitus.
Click on the link below to read my article: Tinnitus, A Personal View, as you might find it helpful.

All the best
Michael
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/hyperacusis-as-i-see-it.19174/

 

[davorr]

Dear Michael, thank you for your respond. A very interesting article.
But, in my case, as I mentioned, I have some other symptoms as well.

Anybody with the eustachian tube problems here? How can I find it out?

 

[Michael Leigh]

Dear Michael, thank you for your respond. A very interesting article.
But, in my case, as I mentioned, I have some other symptoms as well.
Anybody with the eustachian tube problems here? How can I find it out?

Hope that you are able to get some help soon @davorr
All the best
Michael

 

[Candy]

@davorr have Eustachian tube problems, even before t my ears would get blocked often when:

Closing the car window
Closing the shower cubicle
Turning my head
Shouting
Things popping
People shouting
People clapping cupping their hands

They closed the door in the audiology booth and my ears went blocked. I told them, asking the guy if he felt the change of pressure, but he said no. Then, best part, he said he coul check my ear pressure and (with my ear still blocked) the test said there was no problem. A while later, as I left, my ear unblocked. Moral of the story - the test doesn't always detect it. I have some research that suggests thus too.

 

[davorr]

@Candy They also checked my ear pressure twice and haven't found anything.
But, I feel something is wrong in that left ear. Now, while writing this, I feel some fullness in that ear.

Anyway, good to know that this ear pressure test is not telling everything (new to me). Thanks.
I have similar problems, when people shout.

 

[Parfait]

I reckon a combo of noise and medication. My is noise and medication combo.

 

[davorr]

I reckon a combo of noise and medication. My is noise and medication combo.

Thanks for your respond! May I ask, how do you know, that it was a combination in your case? Thanks!

 

[Parfait]

I noticed I was having a problem with fairly mild tinnitus in mid December 2016. When I dated it back to when the tinnitus started, I figured it was from when I attended a v v loud concert where my
Left ear (the one with the tinnitus) was angled 40cm (ish) from the loudspeaker and 40cm (ish) from the end of s trombone. This was on the 25th Nov. It was a 20 piece brass band. I took the supplements at the end of Dec and after a week my tinnitus went from mild to severe virtually overnight. I didn't in a month is sundays connect the iron tablets with the worsening of the t but stopped taking the iron around 1 jan. On the 13th and 14th Feb I again took the supplements and overnight I lost hearing in my right ear and my hearing overall was obviously drastically worse with worse hyperacusis and the pitch of the tinnitus was much higher, all overnight. This was when I twigged it was the supplements. Clearly the noise exposure left my ears super sensitive to further trauma. Even a few glasses of wine made the tinnitus hugely worse. I'm now teetotal. I hope that helps. Over the last two months the tinnitus has improved (it's now moderate). The hearing loss has improved a bit.

 

[aksentije]

Dear Aksentije,

No, my T didn't leave me a second since the October. It's been in my head for almost 1/2 year.

Since my throat is also a bit affected and I also had pains in the ears, I think it is caused by an infect. It might be, that other things (stress) had contributed to the disease as well.

Best
Davorr

hi Davorr, thank you for your reply

You mentioned Sinistus above, I think this could be the reason for my T as well. I had nose deviation and surgery which corrected it but since than I have chronic sneezing and runny nose for years

I hope you will be able to get to the bottom of this

 

[davorr]

update:
I can't pop my left since I have Tinnitus: Can't make the valsalva maneuver.
Calcium changes the tone: The T. remains only like a high pitched tone and loses the tonal body
I got (left) ear pain when yawning.

Does this mean, my eustachian tube on the left side is infected?

 

[GregCA]

Does this mean, my eustachian tube on the left side is infected?

Nobody can diagnose an infection over the internet. If you suspect an infection, go to a doctor at your earliest convenience. Untreated infections won't do you any good.