Tinnitus.......and noise cancelling headphones

[Hookeye]

I got a set of Beats Studio 3 headphones for Xmas (since my ol lady doesn't like Mortiis or Maiden blasting).

Dunno how it works, but my tinnitus is gone or so low I can't really pick it up.
Must be reactive tinnitus.

I'm not even listening to music .............just have the headphones on. Wonderful (they are turned on LOL).

When I wear my shooting earprotection the ring is rather loud in my muffs,.

Just saying...........this is strange stuff.

Too bad I can't sleep in these things

 

[jmr40]

Mine tinnitus is not shooting related. Several years ago I went to bed with near perfect hearing and woke up 100% deaf in my right ear. Doc's can't say for sure why, but suspect one of the tiny blood vessels supplying the nerves in my ear became clogged or burst. Similar to a stroke, but in my ear instead of brain. I was given some steroids to take and they did bring back SOME hearing to that ear. I can now hear "sounds" in that ear, but with my left (good ear) covered I mainly just hear noise when people talk, but can't understand them.

I hear well enough with the good ear as long as everything else is quiet, but in a louder the environment the noise in my right ear makes it harder to understand what I'm hearing through my left ear. A couple of years ago I bought a set of wireless headphones to use when watching TV. It made a huge difference. The muff over my bad ear eliminates outside noise and I can adjust the volume on the headphones without turning up the TV. Turning up the volume on the TV only made things worse anyway. It also amplifies the noise going to the bad ear. Since my issue is only in one ear I've also found that I often hear things much clearer if I wear one ear plug in the bad ear. Had to explain to my preacher that I was only wearing one ear plug and why.

This past fall our local Sams Club had some of the Walkers shooting muffs with built in speakers for $40 so i bought a pair and am finding that they help too.

 

[JeffG]

Be aware, statin drugs for cholesterol (Lipitor) cause ringing in the ears, and have been know to damage hearing. I have hearing loss from noise, but my statin drug amplified it. I'm headed back to the doc for something else.

 

[Hookeye]

No prob with that here.
Aleve for a couple days makes my hearing super sensitive, almost chalkboard fingernails stuff.
Read that a common side effect.
I can do one aleve a day for my arthritis and seems to not mess up ears. But the pain in my joints doesn't lighten up much.
2 Aleve worked kinda decent on arthritis.

 

[jonb32248]

Be aware, statin drugs for cholesterol (Lipitor) cause ringing in the ears, and have been know to damage hearing. I have hearing loss from noise, but my statin drug amplified it. I'm headed back to the doc for something else.

Try stopping the statin drug. I took myself off after watching my wife in soooo much pain that started about 3 yrs ago. Asked the doc and she told her to stop the drug to just use fish oil. Look it up and see all the side effects.Her pain is gone.

 

[Deus Machina]

Can't say much about it, but my in-ear monitors (KZ ZSN, if anyone asks. Best in-ear buds I've ever tried.) don't bother my tinnitus, when I often have it just laying in bed. Don't seem to have much effect when it's off but I hadn't paid attention and tested them. Maybe it is 'reactive' and starts up when you gets some pressure without much noise going?
Mine will just start at random, apparently more often when I'm tired and it's more obvious when things are quiet. It can react to some things; dry-firing the 870 I had was the exact frequency of sharp click that would set my left ear going every time. No noticeable difference with anything else over any other sudden sound, or even distinctly louder ones.

 

[Drail]

It is very possible that your headphones are producing frequencies which are out of phase with the frequency of the tinnitus sound and are cancelling each other out. I have had tinnitus for 20 years and there are times when your brain just ignores it.

 

[JeffG]

Try stopping the statin drug. I took myself off after watching my wife in soooo much pain that started about 3 yrs ago. Asked the doc and she told her to stop the drug to just use fish oil. Look it up and see all the side effects.Her pain is gone.

I did, that's how I realized the statin was elevating the problem.

 

[JohnKSa]

I'm not going to defend this opinion dogmatically, nor do I have any medical research or any authoritative sources to back it up.

IMO, at least some types of tinnitus are due to the way a damaged ear "filters" the ambient noise resulting in what "sounds" like certain tones being active. It stands to reason that if a person with this type of tinnitus could get into a perfectly soundless environment (or even a very quiet one) there wouldn't be any ambient noise to filter and the tinnitus would be either silenced or significantly reduced.

 

[Waveski]

In my case silence makes for max tinnitus. I believe that (in at least some cases) tinnitus is the result of the audio nervous system trying to "fill in the blanks" which result from middle frequency hearing loss. If the hearing "system" is pretty well occupied , as in the case of using noise a cancelling headset which is acting as a basic amplifying hearing aid when not in BANG cancellation mode , there are less blanks to fill in , therefore less perceived tinnitus.

This is my take based on my layman's interpretation of that which has been explained to me by doctors , and my experience with noise cancelling headsets vs plain protection earmuffs. I greatly prefer the electronic cancellation gear.

 

[buck460XVR]

Active noise-canceling headphones add an extra level of noise reduction by actively erasing lower-frequency sound waves. How do noise-canceling headphones accomplish this? They actually create their own sound waves that mimic the incoming noise in every respect except one: the headphone's sound waves are 180 degrees out of phase with the intruding waves. Is this what is causing your tinnitus to diminish? Who knows, but if it's working good for you!

 

[herrwalther]

I noticed the same thing many years ago. I have had tinnitus in my ears since Fall of 09. When I went overseas I bought myself some expensive noise cancelling Sennheiser headphones. Among the many benefits such as more relaxing air travel, they alleviated the symptoms of my tinnitus. I got close to 7 years of use out of them before they bit the dust. And for Christmas last year I bought myself a similar set.

 

[rb288]

As I was reading this I thought about the Howard Leight Impact Sport headset I have. I tried them out and, viola, when turned on to normal listening levels, where normal conversation can be heard, no tinnitus, very interesting.
They work great at the range and, now, make my "ringing" go away.
What a wonderful time we live in.

 

[jonb32248]

I'm not going to defend this opinion dogmatically, nor do I have any medical research or any authoritative sources to back it up.

IMO, at least some types of tinnitus are due to the way a damaged ear "filters" the ambient noise resulting in what "sounds" like certain tones being active. It stands to reason that if a person with this type of tinnitus could get into a perfectly soundless environment (or even a very quiet one) there wouldn't be any ambient noise to filter and the tinnitus would be either silenced or significantly reduced.

I'm not sure ,if I understand it, because with my tinnitis which has gotten worse will start up from a minimal case to really load one sometimes in a quiet room. Right now my right ear which is always noisy, is screaming with the left one not as bad. I carry ear plugs at all times for different situations, like grand kids.

 

[CapnMac]

Need to pitch 2¢ in here--remember that Noise Cancelling phone are producing sound, even if inaudible. Which is tricky as you re creating a sound which still affects the auditory system. It's possible to get some hearing damage from prolonged exposure to high enough levels of NC "sound."
That's why NC is not OSHA approved. Or, at least that's what the OSHA CE class said.

 

[luzyfuerza]

Statins and NSAIDs aren't the only drugs that can cause hearing loss and tinnitus.

Acetaminophen can, too.

 

[Pat Riot]

Be aware, statin drugs for cholesterol (Lipitor) cause ringing in the ears, and have been know to damage hearing. I have hearing loss from noise, but my statin drug amplified it. I'm headed back to the doc for something else.

JeffG, Thank you so much for posting this. I did not know this. I take Lipitor. I started a few months back. I have had bad tinnitus in my left ear for some time but noticed it was getting worse. I noticed a while back my right ear was ringing more too. Chalked it up to aging. Too coincidental not to be the Lipitor.

Thank you so much.

 

[DoubleMag]

I would venture to think (IMHO) that lipitor, ibuprofens etc in themselves have a very low chance of causing tinnitus. I mean, no more then other listed side effects, loose stool, stomach upset etc. The list that seems to be with every medicine LoL whether prescrip or OverTheCounter. More like, there was some tinnitus there that the medication accentuated. Perhaps there, but not so bad as to you being able to screen it out or it blends in with other background noises.
Everyone here who shoots can be possibly a hearing patient. Happens. Free audiology tests are available and it IS a big deal. If I remember correctly a new graduate of Audiology carries a PhD WOW.

Get a hearing test, wear muffs I mean come on...electronic muffs are easily available under 30 bucks, foam plugs are mere pennies. And please shoot something this week, shotgun, 22LR or whatever ! Enjoy!!

 

[JONWILL]

Mine is from my time in the Air Force. I worked on B-52’s. Honestly, after 20 years I got used to mine.

 

[CapnMac]

in themselves have a very low chance of causing tinnitus.

"Causing" is a complicated word, medically.
One of the problems is pharmaceutical design is that you really can only measure gross changes in biochemistry. The minor ones tend to fall into the statistical static. The other issue is that humans are imperfect test subjects. They skip med, take things they ought not to, all sorts of things that muddy the results.

What appears to link meds with a history of reports of increased or onset of tinnitus is that they are focused on inflammation. NSAIDs even have that in their name; cholesterol meds affect liver hormones which, by inference, decrease production of cholesterol; excess cholesterol production (decreased elimination as well) is inflammatory.

Even some notorious tinnitus meds, like vankomisin, may not be the "cause"; the cause may well be the severe infection that generally is the reason to prescribe vankomisin.

Don't tell any germophobes you know, but the eggheads are now saying that there are about as many microbiota in our bodies as cells, and 95% of them are necessary for human existence. A significant portion of those are bacteriophages, bacteria who solely feed on viriods. Which is a cohort severely damaged by heavy antibiotics use. It turns out it's very difficult to measure microbiota which do not cause overt "symptoms" in humans.

 

[hso]

Since this isn't about firearms or shooting it isn't within our scope.

I encourage anyone with tinnitus to see a medical specialist who can evaluate all the possible contributors to any hear problems and take an active role in your auditory health.