I was one of those who suffered tinnitus, and who has overcome this supposedly incurable condition. In my rock and roll days of the late 70′s and early 80′s, I was in a very loud band, confronted 6 nights a week with being in direct line with the lead guitar player’s excruciating amp volume. This may or may not have been the cause of my fairly rare form (known to some researchers as ‘pulsating tinnitus’), appearing in the late 90′s. The symptoms were either a low- frequency clicking or rumbling earthquake in the middle of my head. The clicking was rhythmic, though not based on my heartbeat, and though it may have been enjoyable for certain drummers, it wasn’t for me. And it had nothing to do with TMJ syndrome.
I was directed to the most respected ear, nose and throat specialist in Toronto, Ontario. He basically told me there was nothing I could do about it. I was stuck with it. His advice was to learn to live with it. That helpful little bit of information was the norm until fairly recently.
Don’t ask me how, but it pretty much went away by itself. Maybe because I started doing something right, such as eliminating the high stress factors in my life. But I’d like to bring up a perhaps related event that happened earlier, that might shed some additional light on the mysterious workings of the inner ear.
Around 1991, I participated in a research project for the late Dr. Alfred Tomatis. He was a genius on the subject of hearing/ listening, albeit highly controversial amongst the scientific community. He concluded that the voice can only reproduce what the ear hears. This is debatable. But he produced so many miraculous reversals in the realm of so-called lost hearing capacity, among other things, such as treating attention deficit disorder, autism, preparing the ear to learn new languages.
The premise behind the research was that he took several subjects who had already been doing intensive toning training on their own. He wanted to see if we had quicker results in improving the higher end of our frequency response for hearing after the 10 day experiment. That is, quicker than people who had not undertaken this training. The experiment was to listen to special filtered music on headphones for up to 6 hours per day. This music, filtered in a quite irritating way at times (it was either Mozart or Gregorian chant) was designed to gradually restore our higher frequency response.
As this experiment ultimately resulted in my ability to hear higher frequencies than I had become accustomed to (proven via before and after hearing tests) I’ll admit that it does not really explain how I got rid of the low frequency earthquakes later on, to be sure. But it does seem to point me to the conclusion that we are malleable, that the course of history can be overturned. Cilia (the itsy bitsy little hairs lining the ear canal that are each responsible for a particular frequency) that have been laying down and playing dead can be taught to stand up again and become functional. Tomatis claimed that the reason they’d been lying down in the first place was due to early traumatic experiences involving those very frequencies. Psychological/ physiological damages, if you will. So perhaps the reverse is also true. We can learn to turn down the volume of the troublesome frequencies.
So, though I’m certainly no expert, I’m throwing around ideas here that might correlate to the whole topic of tinnitus, hearing loss, hearing gain, relief of debilitating symptoms.
Here’s a suggested natural cure for this nagging problem from one of my favorite sources of alternative healing, NaturalNews.com
Here’s a collection of videos on current treatments.
Sharry Edwards has also been highly successful in her approach to tinnitus. It is just one area of many that is addressed in her ground breaking work, Bio Acoustics Therapy.
CommentUsually, the first thing to go when one feels under the weather is the voice. Believe me, I am confronted with this from my choir members endlessly, week after week. “Sorry, I can’t utter a word” has become such a commonly heard sentence, that I can expect at least a quarter of my choir to be absent due to this excuse. And it’s always so and so’s fault, I got it from him/ her.
Vocal health, especially that of singers, needs to be constantly monitored. One of the things that is central to this is keeping the vocal cords lubricated by drinking plenty of pure water. There’s lots more.
Here’s some great resources for vocal health as it applies to singers.
Link # 1 Great tips from the Texas Voice Center
Link # 2 This one has special ‘Singers First Aid Kits’ and ‘Artist Emergency Kits’, with all kinds of great products to consider
I have frequently used and recommend slippery elm bark lozenges for dryness of the throat. (Thayers brand, available at many health food shops)
In a more all-encompassing approach, we need to take preventative measures, especially when our voices are what we derive the most pleasure from. And for some, our livelihood. This means maintaining a strong immune system.
Of course, no one wants to be sick. And in these times, our most sincere efforts to stay healthy are challenged incessantly by such factors as:
-air pollution
-chemically laden food
-carcinogens everywhere
-GMO frankenfood
-vaccines (yes, you read that right)
-heavy metals (mercury in your mouth, aluminum throughout your body, etc.)
-side effects of certain prescribed medicines
-radiation (always there, but perhaps now coming your way in a big way)
-chemtrails (yes, you read that right)
-insufficient vitamin D and C levels
-lack of sleep
-stressful working environments
-etc., etc.
Fortunately, we have instant access to fantastic sources of information on keeping these things at bay.
So don’t rely on the twisted mainstream media for your health information. Sign up for great health article sites: (that the FDA don’t want you to know about)
Look into:
-oil of oregano
-Krill oil (best source is the site of Dr. Mercola)
-chlorella, spirulina
-reishi mushrooms (Chinese herbal shops)
-Ayurveda (ancient east Indian system)
-getting enough sunshine
-exercise
-balanced diet
And for those of you with an esoteric bent, here is timely advice from the Hathors on the current radiation crisis.
To your Health!
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