The Tinnitus Doctor

From NPR: Texas Roadhouse restaurant founder and CEO Kent Taylor died by suicide last week at age 65 after what his family described as a "battle with post-Covid related symptoms, including severe tinnitus." I personally had Covid in December 2020, which left me with chronic fatigue, and an especially increased amount of tinnitus. I have known too many people commit suicide. Therefore, I felt obligated to do an episode on this subject. If you feel suicide is an option, please call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 800-273-8255. They're website is: https://suicidepreventionlifeline.org/

Progressive Muscle Relaxation has been touted by some as the best misophonia treatment modality.  It works to help people stay relaxed no matter what trigger response occurs.  PMR is a learned skill that I recommend my patients begin using three times daily. If this is not realistic, try to do it once a day. No matter what. Do it at least one time before dismissing it. When I'm on vacation or relaxing on the beach, I'm not going to respond nearly the same to a trigger as I would if I were sitting in traffic after a stressful day at work.  PRM teaches our limbic system to go into vacation mode on command when it tries to react in full stress mode. When patients do this diligently, they are able to relax immediately after about two weeks. Note: I didn't realize until I was in the editing process that my microphone was going bad, so you will hear periodic static during the podcast. I edited out as much as possible. I will re-record in the future. Thank you for your understanding.

The Tinnitus Doctor is available virtually! COVID-19 has increased stress levels, which is making tinnitus more prevalent than ever.  Listeners have inquired how they can get access to the Tinnitus Doctor without traveling. You may now reach her anywhere in the world for customized tinnitus coaching.

Noise exposure, present in everyday life, puts individuals at a high risk for developing hearing loss and tinnitus. From the American Tinnitus Association website (https://www.ata.org/understanding-facts/causes [https://www.ata.org/understanding-facts/causes]): "Exposure to loud noises, either in a single traumatic experience or over time, can damage the auditory system and result in hearing loss and sometimes tinnitus as well. Traumatic noise exposure can happen at work (e.g. loud machinery), at play (e.g. loud sporting events, concerts, recreational activities), and/or by accident (e.g. a backfiring engine.) Noise induced hearing loss is sometimes unilateral (one ear only) and typically causes patients to lose hearing around the frequency of the triggering sound trauma." https://www.tinnitus.org.uk/noise-and-the-ear [https://www.tinnitus.org.uk/noise-and-the-ear] "The ‘dosage’ of noise exposure is dependent on two main things: 1. the ‘volume’ or intensity of the noise 2. the time or duration of the exposure to that noise. The intensity of a noise can be measured by comparing its sound pressure (the change in air pressure caused by the sound) to that of the quietest sound that can be heard. The intensity of sound is measured in decibels(dB). Decibels are what’s called a logarithmic unit, and this means that an increase of 3dB in a sound means that the sound intensity is doubled. So a sound of 88dB is twice as intense as a sound of 85dB. Noise exposures are a combination of the intensity and the duration of the noise exposure. Most international regulations for noise exposure at work state that the loudest noise someone should be exposed to for an 8-hour working day is 85dB - roughly equivalent to a blender, or a milling machine. Now, as we saw before, a 88dB sound is twice as intense as a 85dB sound, so it follows that the maximum exposure duration should be half as much, so 4 hours. This rule of halving the maximum exposure duration for every 3dB increase (so doubling) in sound intensity is true for noises up to around 110-120dB. Above this, even a very short exposure time can be damaging."

The Tinnitus Doctor discusses tips for battling insomnia!