This week I had an appointment with a hearing therapist at Melksham Hospital. The appointment lasted around an hour and covered my history, causes of tinnitus and possible treatments.
Tinnitus is a symptom and I have not been able to define a cause for its onset and I don't have any significant hearing loss so a mystery.
The therapist drew this simple diagram of the ear, the brain and its connections to the auditory cortex. She gave an explanation of how sound is converted into nerve impulses by the cochlea that extend my understanding learnt in general science in the 1960's. She said that tinnitus may be the result of damage to some of the fine hairs in the cochlea and the brain over compensating for the loss of the frequency. Fascinating.
Of course the most interesting part of the appointment was when she talked about treatments. She told me about 3 categories Distraction, Relaxation and stress management.
Distraction. I have a smart phone so she suggested that I down load one or more of the apps there are for Tinnitus including the one by Oticon the hearing aid manufacturer.
Relaxation. She told me that there is clinical evidence that Tai Chi and Yoga can benefit tinnitus sufferers.
Stress management. She introduced me to the square breathing technique and a couple of apps, Headspace and My Mindfulness.
She went on to talk about white noise therapy. This seems to me to be the best place to start so I down loaded an app on to my phone and have been listening to the hiss of white noise for the past couple of days.
May be its wishful thinking but the level of tinnitus seems to be lower. As a first step in finding a way of easing the condition I am happy to see where white noise leads.
Tinnitus is a symptom and I have not been able to define a cause for its onset and I don't have any significant hearing loss so a mystery.
The therapist drew this simple diagram of the ear, the brain and its connections to the auditory cortex. She gave an explanation of how sound is converted into nerve impulses by the cochlea that extend my understanding learnt in general science in the 1960's. She said that tinnitus may be the result of damage to some of the fine hairs in the cochlea and the brain over compensating for the loss of the frequency. Fascinating.
Of course the most interesting part of the appointment was when she talked about treatments. She told me about 3 categories Distraction, Relaxation and stress management.
Distraction. I have a smart phone so she suggested that I down load one or more of the apps there are for Tinnitus including the one by Oticon the hearing aid manufacturer.
Relaxation. She told me that there is clinical evidence that Tai Chi and Yoga can benefit tinnitus sufferers.
Stress management. She introduced me to the square breathing technique and a couple of apps, Headspace and My Mindfulness.
She went on to talk about white noise therapy. This seems to me to be the best place to start so I down loaded an app on to my phone and have been listening to the hiss of white noise for the past couple of days.
May be its wishful thinking but the level of tinnitus seems to be lower. As a first step in finding a way of easing the condition I am happy to see where white noise leads.
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