Tinnitus - do you have ringing in the ears?

Here is a toll free number with information on hearing:
877.828.7888 at the prompt dial:

#4682 Detecting a hearing loss
#4683 Hearing aids
#4684 Hearing loss from otosclerosis
#4685 Hearing loss in adults
#4686 Hearing loss in children
#4687 Hearing loss: Sensorineural
#4688 How noise affects hearing
#4689 Protect your hearing for life

#4453 Ear wax

The information given is pretty basic but there are a few useful tidbits.

Buy the foam style earplugs (good ones can be had at Walgreens - Extreme Hearos brand - blue in color) and learn to get them deep into your ears. They should fit so well you have to reach in and pull out to remove. They should also reduce your hearing substantially. I wear them every night and the minor tinnitis I had about 4 yrs ago is barely noticable. My doctor suggested that ears need to relax and rest along with all other functions. Ear plugs allow that and I never have slept better.

Worse in the morning. It got worse during a period where I neglected my exercise program.

I've found that by keeping cholesterol low and by getting 4 or 5 hours a week of cardio, it is nearly gone.

Yet another great reason to stay healty

I have had it for 10 months in my right ear. I have found it has improved over that time period but very slowly.
I,like lemmycaution, have also found that rigorous regular excercise is helpful in reducing the volume of the tinnitus
significantly. I bought a treadmill just for that purpose.
It also reduces stress and stress is known to increase tinnitus volume.

I've had tinnitus since 1998. The first ear doctor I went to suggested it was from taking Neurontin. His sister-in-law had gotten it that way, he said, and when she took it, it went away. I stopped taking it, gradually, but the ringing -- usually more a hissing, actually -- never went away.

As far as music goes, I'm more aware of the hissing when I listen to female vocals, particularly when I listen digitally. It's as if the high-pitched hissing sound fights the sound of treble audio for my brain's attention.

I find I like listening to records much more than CDs, but that was true pre-tinnitus.

Most times I don't notice it. When I eat foods with a lot of sugar and flour, the volume of the hissing goes way up, and can become more of a ringing (higher pitch than the hissing). I try not to eat too much of those foods, and I gave up drinking coffee. I think that helped. I don't notice the noise as constantly. I also notice the hissing/ringing more when I take aspirin or NSAIDs.

And listening to records instead of CDs seems to help me notice the hissing less.

Long story short: no sugar, no flour, no caffeine, no NSAIDs; yes vinyl.