Meniere`s disease

Vincent van Gogh (dutch painter)
suffered Meniere's disease.

Meniere's disease or Menier syndrome is one of causes of tinnitus accompanied also with dizziness (vertigo) and fluctuant hearing loss. Source of these problems is not yet exactly defined, it is assumed that this syndrome relates to autoimmune disorder, when human body itself continually eliminates cells of vestibular system; it could be related to increased pressure in inner ear as well as to consequence of some infection.

Symptoms, such as dizziness and partial hearing loss in lower frequency range (in contract with acoustic trauma, by which there is hearing loss in middle and high-pitched frequencies), are temporary, but in case of not being cured they could escalate and become persistent. One can repress them by balanced food with plenty of vitamins and also using vasodilating medications.

More info on this issue:

http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/balance/pages/meniere.aspx

Barotrauma of the ear

source: wikimedia

Sudden change in ambient pressure can cause ringing in the ears. Scuba divers or pilots of aircraft that are not equipped with a pressurized cabin are most threatened. Also, ordinary passengers in transport aircraft may be under threat, if they have problems with pressure compensation, because in these planes usually occurs some pressure instability. So, if you have problems with Eustachian tube, it is better to avoid flying or scuba diving.


Barotrauma is actually mechanical damage to structure of inner ear by excessive pressure changes. In certain way it is comparable to acoustic trauma. The primary treatment for barotrauma are the same procedures as for other disorders of inner ear, ie hyperbaric oxygen therapy, corticosteroids, vasodilatation.

Environment	Typical ambient pressure (standard atmospheres)
Hard vacuum of outer space	0 atm
Top of Mount Everest	0.333 atm
Pressurized passenger aircraft cabin altitude 8000 ft (2,400 m)	0.76 atm
Sea level atmospheric pressure	1 atm
10m depth in seawater	2 atm
20m depth in seawater	3 atm
Recreational diving depth limit cca. 130 ft (40 m)	5 atm
Common technical diving depth limit cca. 330 ft (100 m)	11 atm
Maximum ambient pressure a human has survived	54 atm

Residual inhibition

Residual Inhibition is a very interesting phenomenon, which I have basically recognized myself, and later I have learned that it was discovered by James Spalding (or Spaulding, not sure about this) in 1903. This phenomenon was not further investigated until the early seventies of the 20th century.

One of the theories about Residual Inhibition says that tinnitus itself is actually compensation of missing frequencies (originally heard by auditory cells that died) in the auditory center of the brain. When tones very close to to the missing frequencies reach the center, brain stops compensating and tinnitus is muted or disappears for a while.
Personally, however, I think that this theory does not make any sense as by this compensation brain causes suffering to itself.

Several attempts were made to demonstrate the efficacy of Residual Inhibition. It is not yet entirely clear why this is happening, tinnitus is still relatively little explored phenomenon, but the fact is that according to research, this therapy works on average for 5 to 8 of 10 people suffering from tinnitus, for whom, after hearing the same tone externally, disappears their own internal tone for a few seconds to minutes. The ratio of success varies according to different researches, but in any case, 50 per cent or more is a decent result.

There may be long-time or even permanent effects of Residual Inhibition:

• The most extreme case of the permanent outcome of Residual Inhibition was recorded by Jack Vernon, co-founder of ATA (American Tinnitus Asociation). When a patient who suffered from tinnitus 61 years, after listening to the tone for one minute was completely free from ringing in ears for eight weeks.
• For another patient suffering from tinnitus for 20 years, it was enough to undergo Residual Inhibition 15 minutes a day to cancel tinnitus for twelve hours.
• In my case after about four weeks of listening to 4600Hz tone in the right ear, tinnitus of the same frequency had disappeared permanently. I was listening to a very moderate volume and only intermittently. For lower frequencies my tinnitus is still there, but Residual Inhibition helps me to stop perceiving them temporarily.
• There are plenty of other similar cases.

Residual Inhibition is a safe therapy and in any case there is no hearing damage or deterioration of the condition, however there are few documented cases where the tinnitus temporarily worsened. This deterioration was back to normal after a minute. In such case, it is pointless to use the Residual Inhibition.

In my opinion at the moment this is one of the most effective non-invasive therapy that will help us overcome the time until the real cure is discovered.