What sounds like several crickets in his head unsettles John Bloom several times. Sometimes it sounds like a whistle. At other times, it seems like electronic beats. At times there is just a hissing sound.
It is something like a living hell for this Californian who says he constantly hears menacing sounds that cause a complete disruption of his thought process, the root cause being an ailment called tinnitus that permanently affects the inner ear and brain. He dreads every single day that he has to live.
This ailment, the result of sudden and loud noises either at the workplace or in the form of loud music, causes a gradual loss of hearing. More than other factors, ageing is certainly responsible for tinnitus.
Over 50 million people in America have been affected by tinnitus either occasionally or permanently as recently reported by the American Tinnitus Association. While about 2 million people are completely disabled because of tinnitus, 12 million more are in a fairly bad shape because of it.
Bloom is one of those unlucky people who have gone completely deaf. His tinnitus is indeed very frustrating and unbearable. Medical opinion suggests that a rock concert that he attended two years ago seems to have been the starting point for his tinnitus.
Without naming the band or the particular event, Bloom confirms that the particular moment during that concert was the cause of his permanent loss of hearing. He says he was surely wearing foam ear plugs throughout duration of the concert. When the music got too loud, he tried to adjust one of the ear plugs for better sealing, but that is when he felt a jarring sensation in his ear.
The first thing he noticed was a really bad and nonstop earache accompanied by acute sensitivity to noise.
He felt he was hearing a continuous string of background noises which he could not make sense of. After he consulted a doctor for the first time, within a few days his condition was diagnosed as tinnitus.
His doctor and the ear, nose and throat specialist were in complete agreement on the fact that there was no cure for his condition of tinnitus. There is treatment available for lessening the ringing feeling, but the patients invariably have to condition themselves to coping with the ailment.
The seemingly endless suffering of tinnitus patients is somewhat reduced by sleeping pills and antidepressants. Bloom?s personal preference leans towards natural remedies. In his diet he includes zinc, magnesium and Vitamin B12 supplements to help him get better and melatonin to help him sleep well.
Many of the available therapies work on inducing the brain to believe tinnitus does not exist.
Neuromonics uses an electronic gadget to produce a pleasing white sound that counterbalances the irritating noises. While some tinnitus patients are taken off the list because of the successful treatment, more patients get added by the day. It?s a tough ask getting rid of tinnitus completely with the current knowledge base in medical sciences.
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