My Cure Tinnitus

This is an interesting story about this individual’s introduction to the world of tinnitus.  I am posting this here on our website because it is a great example of how one small moment in time can change everything.  This story describes, in very interesting details, how a simple prank by good friends affected this persons hearing forever.  While a tinnitus cure could restore a single innocent moment in time, for now we continue to treat our tinnitus symptoms with the best available options while researchers work frantically for the magic bullet that might end tinnitus forever.

While I can only speculate as to whether or not the foreboding premonition was real or only added to spice up the story, it’s still has an eerily haunting feel for me and probably anyone else that suffers from tinnitus symptoms, particularly the ringing in the ears variety.  We search the Internet regularly looking for anything new or interesting about tinnitus, yet this story grabbed my attention immediately, and I knew almost instantly that I had to share it on our website.

Here is what Roger Ling had to say about his experience with tinnitus at www.stationr.org:

Cure Tinnitus (www.sunshinereflections.wordpress.com)

A lifetime ago we had a friend named Biz whose father owned some property with an abandoned farmhouse in a place called Pleasant Grove, high on a mountaintop in Jackson County, Alabama. Once in a while we would go out to sweep the dust, mow back the grass, and spend the night out there in the woods. The house wasn’t much more than a shack with a sagging front porch, a musty little kitchen, a living room, and two bedrooms. There were bees living inside the outer wall of one bedroom, and you could hear them in there during the night. We’d stay up drinking warm beer and playing cards before retiring cautiously, careful not to make too much noise and alarm the bees.

One night around 1984 Annie and I were out at the cabin with a couple of friends. I have a picture of Annie holding Uno cards, a big Budweiser there on the table. I had been drinking a few beers myself and during a break in the cards I went out onto the front porch, my Walkman playing Roger Waters. There was a tree growing right next to the porch that almost begged to be climbed, so up I went into the night. No sooner had I settled on a branch high above the roof when a picture flashed unbidden into my mind.

I saw a dark, hooded figure moving through the woods behind the house, somewhere out there in the distance, coming toward us in silence and darkness. I saw no face or features, just a man-like figure threading through the trees, but what I saw in my mind was pure evil, Satan himself.

Funny how the mind plays tricks, how an idea so simple could be so powerful. I had been alone in the dark countless times, up in trees at Percy Warner Park in Nashville, on the beaches of Mississippi at 3 AM, alone in the woods, caves, in graveyards and empty buildings, and I tended to take it all at face value. What you saw was what you got; I wasn’t scared of the dark and a little proud of that. But this split second of imagination, a moment of video that for whatever reason played in my head, frightened me. That vision of a dark, evil figure moving toward me scared me enough that I immediately came down from the tree to go back inside with the others.

I have to confess it was years later that I made the connection between that vision and what came next, the sad and stupid little event that changed my life subtly but forever for the worse. Like most turning points it was a tiny thing, nothing dramatic despite the fact that it involved a gun. In those days one of my friends liked to play with a muzzle-loader rifle, and he had left it there in the living room.

I have never cared much for guns, and had no real knowledge or interest in a muzzle loader, but in idle boredom I picked up the rifle. I was being cautious enough that I would never have pointed the gun anywhere near a person, but for reasons I don’t understand I hefted it up towards my shoulder and sighted down the barrel at a window. I wasn’t even holding it right, kind of up in the air and forward; my finger was nowhere near the trigger, but I’ll accept responsibility for picking the thing up. What happened was my fault. In that senseless moment as I stood there someone reached over and pulled the trigger. Blam! The gun went off and I was sure I had blasted out the window, but the guys were laughing at my expression of horror, knowing they had just pulled a good joke. The barrel had been empty, no bullet or gunpowder there, but the small charge in the flintlock, intended to set off the real blast, had been present. When that little charge went off like a firecracker, it was no more than an inch or two from my right ear.

My ear was ringing like crazy from the concussion, but of course I didn’t think much of it at the time. It was still ringing when Annie and I crawled into bed later. To my surprise it was still ringing the next morning. That was almost twenty years ago now, and the ringing in my ear has never stopped, not for an instant. Sometimes it rings quietly in the background. Often it’s the single loudest noise I can hear.  You can read the rest of the original article here.

Even if you don’t suffer from tinnitus, you probably still find this story to be an interesting one.  However, if you experienced anything similar or even if your tinnitus came on differently, you were probably like me and hung on every word with a heavy weight, knowing and feeling exactly what Roger felt when his experience occurred on that in Alabama.

If you are new to our website, then you will want to continue exploring all of our information and articles, but if you are a repeat visitor, then you already know that we are focused on tinnitus and tinnitus research and will continue to search weekly for anything new or exciting when it comes to finding a tinnitus cure.

While a tinnitus cure could restore a single innocent moment in time, for now we continue to treat our tinnitus symptoms with the best available options.  We have used this treatment information personally with great results, and we now know and understand that lifestyle and food intake can both directly affect the rate at which our tinnitus symptoms occur.  If you are searching for tinnitus relief, you might want to spend some time looking at this tinnitus treatment option to see if it might help you as well!

Your overall health and many different medications can increase Tinnitus symptoms.  We have another great article located here on our website that already discusses how prescription medications can affect your tinnitus, but now it seems that even over the counter medications can often lead to an increase in your tinnitus problems.  Also, because tinnitus is a symptom of some other underlying health issue, it seems that many different health problems can contribute to that annoying ringing in the ears that is most often associated with tinnitus.

Control Tinnitus Symptoms With Improved Health and Diet (www.stationr.org)

Many times the onset of the ringing is very subtle, but it almost always increases with time and as the damage worsens or as other health issues help heighten the noise that is usually associated with tinnitus.  While there is no way to cure tinnitus, there is a way to improve your tinnitus symptoms.  The best cure is prevention, although no one wants to believe that they are going to be next because there are no warning signs really.  You either have tinnitus symptoms or you don’t, but then suddenly, the damage is done and the perception of sound is there without warning, and then you are forever a tinnitus sufferer from that point forward.

According to a recent article we found at www.waff.com, even caffeine and aspirin can increase the ringing in your ears significantly.  Here is what Bobby Shuttleworth had to say in a recent article he posted at www.waff.com:

Dr. Randall F. Wilks is a 20 year audiologist. He’s very precise about the hearing tests he gives to people. He recognizes complaints about a ringing or buzzing noise in their ears because he also suffers from the condition.

“When you’re perceiving sound and there’s no sound present, that is in a broad range considered Tinnitus,” said Wilks.

He said it can be caused by many things.

“Something as simple as aspirin can turn the volume up and we hear our inner ear’s internal noise,” he added.

And it isn’t always a ringing noise.

“Sometimes the sound is perceived as a roaring water fall,” he said.

Wilks said the sounds can vary as much as the cause. One big reason people develop the condition involves prolonged exposure to loud noises, like a train whistle.

Years ago, Baby Boomers cranked up the tunes, and now they are paying the price.

Very often this condition goes hand in hand with hearing loss.

There are other causes like high blood pressure, infections, and medications.

“When you find nasal allergies and any medical condition in your body, there are medications involved to treat these things. I believe the side effects of medication to treat a variety of things,” said Wilks.

He is in a unique situation in that he also suffers from this condition.

“As I sit right here, right now, my ears are screaming,” he said.  You can read the rest of the original article here.

None of this is really new information, but many people are still not educated enough about what causes tinnitus, so the fact that a medical doctor is telling us these facts was important enough that we wanted to add the information to our website here at My Cure Tinnitus.  If you are suffering from tinnitus symptoms or if you are searching for a tinnitus cure, then you have come to the right place.  Spend some time reading the information that is found here on our website so that you will have the most recent and updated information on exactly what causes tinnitus and how you can treat it.

Even though there is no real way to cure tinnitus, you can treat and manage the symptoms through dies and improving your overall health, particularly through holistic stress management practices or stress reduction techniques.  Don’t continue to suffer any longer:  Spend some time on our site and make sure you understand that your overall health and many different medications can increase Tinnitus symptoms.

It’s not just heavy metal rock stars that are suffering from tinnitus symptoms.  It seems that even classical musicians are searching for help to cure tinnitus symptoms.  What people need to understand is that any loud noise, even a soothing one, can cause damage to our ears if we listen to it for prolonged periods of time.  Don’t think it’s just the heavy metal or hard rock music that is the culprit, because any time our ears are subjected to loud noises for an extended period of time, they can become damaged and you will begin to suffer from the symptoms of tinnitus.

Prevent Tinnitus With Ear Plugs (www.earplugs.de)

We found this recent story about a pianist named Steven Osborne who is a world-class soloists, who is suffering from tinnitus.  The good thing about Steven’s story is that he discovered his symptoms early and being to protect his ears from further damage by using earplugs.  Steven now believes that the ear plugs help him to be a better performer, so this story has a better ending than most tinnitus stories.  Here is what Judith Kogan of www.wbez.org had to say about Steven in a recent article:

Imagine an artist who puts on clouded glasses in order to paint. Or a ballerina who adds weights to her feet.  Now consider a musician who puts in earplugs:  not a rock star, who’s protecting his ears from deafening noises, but a classical soloist who by comparison works in near silence, and who believes that filtering out sound leads to a more nuanced performance.

Meet pianist Steven Osborne and cellist Alban Gerhardt. They’re both world-class soloists who will be featured at Chicago’s Grant Park Music Festival, which starts Wednesday in Millennium Park.  And they both consider earplugs as essential to their music-making as the instruments they play.

About 15 years ago, Osborne started to hear a quiet high-pitched noise in his left ear. It came and went; he didn’t think much of it. After a while, it seemed to move from his left to his right ear. And then, alarmingly, one day it stayed. A doctor determined that Osborne had developed tinnitus from practicing too loudly in a small room.

There’s no way to cure tinnitus, but earplugs can keep it from getting worse. Osborne was custom-fitted with a special “musician” pair of earplugs, which filter out a calibrated amount of noise while allowing other sounds to enter.

Osborne discovered that it was helpful to practice with the devices, and shared this with his friend and collaborator Alban Gerhardt, who doesn’t have tinnitus. Curiosity piqued, Gerhardt tried and liked them. He said they forced him to listen more carefully, and he found it easier to hear the “core” of his cello sound, to get to its essence.

“It’s such a big difference playing in a little room versus a big hall,” Gerhardt said. Wearing earplugs in the practice room prevents him from getting seduced by the vibrant acoustics, he said. And that helps prepare him for performances in large concert halls, with stages that can feel big, dry and unforgiving.  He said, for him, wearing earplugs has closed the acoustic gap between playing in a practice room and a concert hall.  You can read the rest of the original article here.

We just did a recent post on how bad ear phones, particularly ear buds can be for our young people’s hearing, so to find a story where ear plugs are actually helping to improve our music is a bit different and a really great story.  If you are a musician or involved with loud music in any way, you may be able to use this information to protect you or someone you care about and prevent them from doing future or even further damage to their hearing.

I believe that we are on the cusp of finding a tinnitus cure, but until then, we need to make sure that people are really educated on the dangers of loud sounds in our ears.  Even moderate sounds that last for extended periods can do damage, and I don’t think young people really quite understand this fact.  The simple fact that even classical musicians are searching for help to cure tinnitus is a good indication of what extended loud noises can do to our ears and our hearing.  If you have young kids, please make sure you monitor their use of headphones, ear buds and any type of noise that goes for extended periods of time.

Below is a YouTube video on how to properly use earplugs.

Do you own a mobile device such as a phone, mp3 or Ipod in which you listen to music on it through earphones?  If so, you should be aware that these mobile listening devices increase the odds of ringing in the ears significantly.  A recent study shows a significant increase of tinnitus and ringing in the ears for those that use earphones with portable listening devices.

Ear Phones Cause Ringing In The Ears (www.library.ttu.edu)

The real problem is that most of the damage that is being done to the ears and hearing will not be readily evident until it is too late.  You can warn young people over and over, and we do just that here on our website, but it seems to make little effect on them until it’s too late.  If you have a child that uses these devices, you should make certain that they see this article and read some of the other information here on our website.

Here is what Julie Power of www.greatlakesadovcate.com.au had to say in a recent article about the damage that using earphones creates:

While there is no definitive cure for tinnitus as of today, you can rest assured that there is new research being done for a tinnitus cure.  The work and research to stop tinnitus is continuing at a rapid pace and much progress is being made.  In fact, we have several new posts you can read here on our site that indicate a tinnitus cure is not far away.  Until then, we have some suggestions here too that have proven to help some of the worst tinnitus sufferers, so spend some time here on our site if tinnitus is a problem for you.

Tinnitus Treatment Research Grants (www.thisweekincas.com)

We are always scanning the news for information so that our web site is up today on anything related to a tinnitus cure or tinnitus remedies.  We found the following article today, and it just reinforces what we stated in the previous paragraph, and that’s the fact that the research to cure tinnitus continues at a very brisk pace.  Below is a small portion of an article we found in which PHD student Sarah Hays received a grant from the American Tinnitus Association to help her search further for the root causes of tinnitus.  Here is what the article stated that we found at www.buffalo.edu:

University at Buffalo neuroscience PhD student Sarah Hayes has won a $10,000 grant from the American Tinnitus Association (ATA) to aid her in her search for the causes of tinnitus. ATA is the largest nonprofit organization working to cure tinnitus.

While many people have never heard of tinnitus, about one in five has experienced the condition, characterized as hearing a phantom sound in the ears such as ringing or buzzing. The group of people Hayes is focusing her research on is the one percent of the population who hear the sound regularly at debilitating levels.

Hayes, now in her third year in the PhD program in neuroscience, an interdisciplinary program of the UB School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, was first introduced to tinnitus while working in the lab of Richard Salvi, PhD, SUNY Distinguished Professor in the Department of Communicative Disorders and Sciences in the College of Arts and Sciences. She became so interested in the subject that she took up researching causes of the condition for her thesis.

“I wanted to do research that is clinically relevant — research with the goal of helping people suffering from a disorder, or helping to find cures for different neurological disorders,” said Hayes, a native of Hamburg, New York, who received her BS in biology from Canisius College. “But I’m also interested by the fact that it is a phantom auditory perception. I think trying to understand how we perceive the world is fascinating.”

Currently there is no cure for tinnitus, and Hayes believes that this is mainly due to the condition not being fully understood.

It was previously believed that tinnitus was a result of damage to the inner ear, but studies conducted in the 1990s by Salvi, a member of the Tinnitus Research Initiative, and his colleagues produced findings that suggested the condition originated in the brain.

Tinnitus has been linked to noise-induced hearing loss as well. Aside from the elderly, military personnel make up a large population of the people affected by the condition, as some soldiers are constantly exposed to loud blasts and explosions.

The U.S. Department of Defense is so concerned with the issue that they are backing Hayes’ research. They have provided Hayes with the National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate Fellowship, which provides her with full tuition remission and an annual stipend.  You can read the rest of the original article here.

While this news is not nearly as exciting as some of the recent posts we have made in regards to progress being made for a definitive treatment, it is proof that there is a lot of new research being done for a tinnitus cure.  It gives me hope and it should give others hope as well.  Many new cures are found by researchers with grants like this young PHD.

In the mean time, if you are looking for anything at all to help you with your tinnitus symptoms, we suggest that you look at the following option.  We have used and tested this product personally, while collecting a lot of feedback on it as well.  In our opinion, it is one of the best option available for tinnitus symptoms at this point.