Hacker News Reader

Hacker News

Comment by manoDev | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

manoDev

I feel you. Here’s things you can try (in this order):

- Cut stimulant use (coffee, energy drinks) and alcohol

- Drink plenty of water

- Check blood pressure

- Talk to a dentist and check if you grind teeth or suffer from jaw stiffness

- Supplement Magnesium (chelated/glycinate, 300mg/day)

I’m ignoring issues of the ear canal (wax, secretions) since you mentioned it.

Studies point to tinnitus being either caused by changes in blood supply on the inner ear, of neurological origin or trauma. These are all measures I took and greatly improved my case (and when I neglect one of those, it comes back).

View on HN

Mine came on when I was about 12 years old and I'm convinced it was brought on by severe anxiety.

At the time my life had changed dramatically. My parents split. Moved to an area adjacent to government housing projects, through which I had to travel everyday to school, and I was, by virtue of unfortunately being wrong color, beaten daily by gangs of hooligans. I ended up sneaking through a slightly wooded area like a South American guerilla until they caught me there.

I couldn't handle it as I was already a sensitive kid and, the parent I ended up with, the other having gone to jail, was compassionless due to their own horrific upbringing. So I had no way of coping which led to total breakdowns and anxiety attacks.

Tinnitus reared it's ugly head soon after which further exacerbated the anxiety.

But the correlation is all speculation on my part because my parent only took me to the doctor a year or so later after much complaining. And only for the tinnitus, not the crippling anxiety.

Stress -> jaw clenching -> tinnitus.

I don't drink alcohol at all and haven't for quite awhile, and my blood pressure is pretty low and hasn't changed significantly. I did try cutting out caffeine entirely for several months (and the tinnitus actually started when I wasn't haven't any caffeine at all).

I do very slightly grind my teeth in my sleep, but in this particular case the problem is basically solved (at least at the dental level) because I have mild sleep apnea so I sleep with a plastic mouthpiece every night anyway.

I'll look into the magnesium supplements.

Yeah, caffeine is not the cause per se - the thing is it has both vasoconstriction and vasodilation effects at different times, so it can mess with blood vessels in the inner ear. It totally makes sense if you get tinnitus when you cut caffeine after your body is used to it.

Magnesium plays a part on vasodilation regulation as well, and many people are silently deficient on it. It’s hard to detect deficiency w/ blood samples, because the body works hard to keep blood concentration stable. You will know you do if you get muscle cramps or twitches.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com