Hearing Loss Help  

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A lady explained,

I deal with noise complaints for a local authority. I have had some complaints that I believe are musical hallucinations, and have read and used your article about Musical Ear Syndrome (MES) to assist. We often also deal with complaints of low frequency noises, hums, washing machines, etc. that we cannot detect.

Having read your articles, I would like to know whether you consider simple noises such as those where the complainants claim they can hear washing machines/ tumble driers, generators, rumbles (sometimes with the associated physical vibration) that we cannot detect, to be phantom sounds or tinnitus? Is there a difference?

We have two current complaints from elderly ladies living alone who are utterly convinced that their neighbors are running their washing machines throughout the night, every night. I would like to give them some information to try to open their minds so they understand that there are some other explanations for their perception of noise.

When you took this position as an Environmental Health Officer, I’ll bet you never anticipated that one of your jobs would be to “police” complaints of phantom noise! Unfortunately, more and more people are “hearing” (and complaining) about such sounds.

As you are learning, when you receive complaints of noise that you cannot hear, nor can you detect it with your sensitive sound equipment, and only the person complaining can “hear” these sounds, you are probably safe in assuming that you are dealing with people who have tinnitus and/or Musical Ear Syndrome (MES).

In the past, I know even some doctors were fooled into believing such people had super-acute hearing (hyperacusis), and that was why they could hear sounds that no one else heard. For example, one elderly lady who was almost deaf—she couldn’t even hear me when I was talking loudly right into her ear—said she could hear sounds from way down the street, which her doctor had diagnosed as hyperacusis.

I thought to myself, “Yeah! Right! She can’t hear sounds from even 2 feet away—how can she possibly hear sounds from a block or more away?

Her doctors were wrong! This lady didn’t have hyperacusis, she had Musical Ear Syndrome!”

Thus, when people hear sounds that they swear are washing machines/ tumble driers, generators, rumbles (sometimes with the associated physical vibration) that you cannot detect with your equipment, and especially if they are also report feeling the vibrations of these supposed machines, you can almost be certain the person has MES.

You see, the people that “hear” such phantom low-frequency sounds also often experience an equally-phantom sensation of rumbling or vibration. This makes it most difficult to believe that what you are both “hearing” and “feeling” is not real at all, but totally phantom.

Tinnitus sounds are simple, unmodulated sounds, whereas MES sounds are more complex sounds. Thus I’d class things such as washing machines, driers, generators and so on as MES sounds, as they are more than just a simple, repetitive sound. Whether these sounds are tinnitus or MES doesn’t really make any difference—they are all still phantom sounds.

Another clue that you are dealing with people who are experiencing MES is your statement, “We have two current complaints from elderly ladies living alone utterly convinced that their neighbors are washing throughout the night, every night.” You know that no one runs the washer all night long—every night.

One lady complained to me that the couple in the apartment above her were making love all night long—every night. That doesn’t happen in real life either! She was also misled in believing the phantom sounds she was “hearing” were real.

In another case, a man believed that his landlady, who lived below him, had it in for him because every night when he went to bed she’d begin to play loud music. Not only that, he believed she also had some type of vibrating device that she attached to her ceiling to shake his floor. This man both heard and felt this phantom music every night—again, not a real-life scenario.

Furnaces, air conditioners, fridge motors and fans can all cause Musical Ear Syndrome in some people. Their brains somehow modulate these low-frequency sounds, and convert them into music—often sounding much like an orchestra warming up or playing. So there are all sorts of variations to what your ladies are experiencing. Although all the experiences are somewhat different, what remains the same is that all these people experience hearing phantom sounds, but cannot believe these sounds are not real.

In helping such people, the first thing you have to determine is whether they can understand and accept that the sounds and sensations they are feeling are truly phantom. If they cannot understand/accept that, then you are going to have a tough time.

It’s extremely hard to accept that something that has sound, has directionality (you know its coming from the landlady downstairs, for example) and has sensations (floor vibrating), all at the same time is not real. Furthermore, if the person’s only frame of reference is that people who experience such things are “crazy”, your job just became almost impossible.

I’ve found that people in their 80s and upwards seem to have a mental block so that they either won’t, or can’t, accept that these sounds are phantom. Generally, people under 80 or so, when you explain what is happening in their ears and brains, can accept/understand that these sounds are phantom, and then act accordingly—not banging on the landlady’s door at two in the morning demanding she stop the racket like the gentleman in the above story did!

You can learn more about Musical Ear Syndrome in my book, “Phantom Voices, Ethereal Music & Other Spooky Sounds“.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A man wrote,

I started taking Citalopram (Celexa) in mid-April. I was on it for a week and got ringing in my ears. This was 7 days at 10 mg., and 2 days (days 8 and 9) at 20 mg. when the ringing became severely loud.

I got off the Citalopram right away, and found out that tinnitus is a common side effect. However, it has been 3 months now, and I still hear the ringing. I don’t know what to do. Some people say it will take up to 7 months for it to go away!

Citalopram (Celexa) is a Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI). It causes tinnitus in perhaps 1% or more of the people taking it.

In hindsight, you should have stopped taking the Citalopram as soon as the ringing started. Taking the increased dose and getting worse tinnitus obviously wasn’t a smart move. However, that is all in the past. You want to know to deal with your tinnitus now.

You now know that your ears are particularly sensitive to Citalopram, so this drug is not a good one for you to take in the future, as you will likely get even louder tinnitus if you do.

Tinnitus is a strange “beast”. Sometimes getting off the offending drug is all that you need to do, and your tinnitus will go away on its own in a few days to a few weeks to a few months. Unfortunately, sometimes it never goes away—especially if you are anxious, worried, stressed or depressed over your tinnitus. You see, tinnitus has an emotional (psychological) component. (You can think of it as a psychosomatic condition.) As a result, worrying about your tinnitus makes it even louder and more intrusive.

Thus, one of the better ways to deal with tinnitus is to learn about it (we are anxious about the unknown), then choose to completely ignore your tinnitus by focusing your energies on the loves of your life. As you do this, your tinnitus will (hopefully) fade into the background. This will take some months (or even a couple of years depending on how strong the emotional bond is that you need to break). This is known as becoming habituated to your tinnitus.

If your tinnitus never goes away (it may or may not), when you become habituated to your tinnitus, it will not bother you even though it is still there. For example, I’ve had tinnitus for many decades now. It’s always “there”, but I don’t let it bother me—although my ears are ringing away rather loudly at the moment since I am thinking about tinnitus while I am writing this. However, my tinnitus will soon return to its usual level when I focus on other things. You, too, can have the same experience.

If you want to learn more about tinnitus and the things you can do to help bring it under your control, check out the book, When Your Ears Ring! Cope with Your Tinnitus—Here’s How.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A lady wrote:

I have a serious problem. I need to have a renal scan that uses Lasix (Furosemide) intravenously. I just read in your book “Ototoxic Drugs Exposed” how toxic Furosemide can be, and hearing loss can result from intravenous injection. I am extremely nervous as to what to do. I must have this test and with my tinnitus, I am already beyond upset.

Do you have any suggestions? Should I talk to the doctor and see if there is anything else that can be used. What if they need to use this? What is the likelihood that I will have hearing loss. I am highly upset and anxious at this point.

First, talk to your doctor about your concerns and see what he suggests. Ask your doctor about less ototoxic alternatives. Perhaps they could use a much lesser ototoxic diuretic such as hydrochlorothiazide? That would be my first choice if I could pick the diuretic I needed.

Second, here’s some other things to consider.

Notice that Furosemide is less likely to produce hearing loss if you are not taking any other ototoxic drugs at the same time, especially any aminoglycoside antibiotics. If you can, stop taking any ototoxic medications a couple weeks before the scan. This may help put the odds in your favor.

Furthermore, ototoxicity is related to the concentration of the Furosemide in your blood. Thus the total amount of the drug you are given should be kept to a minimum. Also keep the rate it is given to a minimum. For example, if you keep the rate to less than 4 mg/minute, the chance of ototoxicity is much less than if you take it at a rate of 25 mg/minute.

In addition, you need to get your anxiety under control. The best way is to this is to discus these concerns with your doctor and come up with a plan of attack that reduces the ototoxic risk as much as possible.

If your doctor will work with you on these points, you have a much better chance of not having any permanent ototoxic side effects. You may not even have any temporary ones either.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A man explained:

I am looking at a loop system for my home to be used with the telecoils in my hearing aids. I want to use it primarily to help me converse when a lot of people are in the house. I am looking at the Univox line and I have a couple of questions.

1. How many microphones (I like the Radio Shack wireless/patch cord option) are the systems limited to?

2. Will it work effectively with a room microphone?

The Univox line of loop amplifiers are great amplifiers. That is why I carry them. I have looped one end of my house using the DLS-50 Univox loop amplifier, and am very pleased with the results.

Now to answer your questions.

1. The Univox DLS-50 has three ports (jacks) on the back, so you could plug in up to 3 microphones at a time—but I’ve never tried using that many microphones in that way.

A better way, if you want to use multiple microphones, would be to get yourself a small mixer and plug all your microphones into the mixer, set the levels so all their outputs are about the same, and plug the output of the mixer into the loop amplifier. That way you are not limited by the number of microphones you have. At the same time, you have also leveled out the differences in volume between the people using the various microphones.

2. The loop amplifier itself will work great—but one room microphone is going to pick up all of the noise and babble in the room, so you are probably not going to be able to effectively hear any given person. With our poor ears, typically we need a microphone right at the speaker’s lips, not a general one in the room picking up all the other sounds. You’d have to experiment to see if a room microphone would work for you in the situation you describe, but I know it won’t work for my ears. If only one person is talking at a time, and he is quite close to the microphone, and there isn’t any background noise, then a room microphone could work quite well—but this is not the situation you are envisioning. It would be much better to have multiple microphones—one clipped to each person’s collar.

You can learn the specifics of the various Univox loop amplifiers here.