Re: [microsound] Re: Brain Can Generate Unexplained Noise In Ears

[Richard Zvonar <zvonar@xxxxxxxxxx>]

At 5:57 PM +0100 12/29/02, duncan speakman wrote:

>With positive thoughts I must ask..has anyone had it and then got 
>rid of it? or should i just start accepting it now?

Not I. I've learned to live with it, though I had my own period of despair.

Like many with tinnitus mine was almost certainly due to exposure to 
loud music, rock in my 20s and electroacoustic in my 30s. I did use 
some hearing protection during the rock years, stuffing cotton in my 
ears, and the EA exposure was somewhat sporadic.

Then during my 40s I stopped listening to any loud music. I made it a 
practice to perform and mix music only at normal 
acoustic-instrumental levels. My hearing seemed fine, though at very 
quiet times, such as on first waking in the morning, I was aware of a 
slight "hiss." Perhaps in denial, I attributed this to an awareness 
of my body's own internal sounds, as described by John Cage about his 
visit to an anechoic chamber.

After a decade of relative kindness to my ears I started performing 
regularly again, in an electroacoustic band. We didn't play very loud 
at all, but since my "axe" was effects processing I did a lot of 
monitoring through headphones and got an occasional "zap" in the heat 
of the moment. Then came a particular gig when we added a subwoofer 
to our normal PA system and we were parked under a low ceiling that 
created low frequency resonance. After the gig I had a pronounced 
tinnitus, similar to experiences I'd had as a youth after an evening 
of clubbing. In the past this would subside after a few days. Not so 
this time.

After some weeks of this I visited the House Ear Institute here in 
Los Angeles. I got a hearing test, which indicated that I had normal 
hearing for my age and gender. I was fitted for a set of musician's 
ear plugs and told to take Niacin to increase the blood flow through 
my inner ear.

The Niacin did held to some extent, though frankly I haven't kept up 
with it. The ear plugs were a bit of the old closing the barn door 
after the cows are gone, but I do carry them with me for occasional 
defensive listening.

The conclusion I've come to in my own case is that tinnitus is 
forever but that it needn't be a living horror. Once one gives in to 
feelings of dread the tinnitus will seem louder and more incessant.

Nevertheless, there are treatments that are successful in some cases. 
As I've mentioned, Niacin can help and there are some other 
medications that have their adherents. Masking therapy has had some 
success. I've recently heard of a project at UCSD, involving a former 
professor of mine (Dick Moore) in which a digital reproduction of the 
patient's tinnitus sound is created and then played back 24/7 from an 
MP3 player. Some people report reduction of the tinnitus within a few 
weeks. The theory is that since tinnitus is a "subjective" 
phenomenon, the brain can be trained to ignore it by the presentation 
over time of an "objective" replica.
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______________________________________________________________
Richard Zvonar, PhD
(818) 788-2202
http://www.zvonar.com
http://RZCybernetics.com

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