Some long-haulers say symptoms subsiding after vaccines - Washington Post March 16, 2021

[Hufsamor]

I read just today: COVID 19 itself can give hearing loss and tinnitus.
I don’t have the English papers, but it seems to be an article about it in
International Journal of Audiology .

 

[Hufsamor]

Here it is, I presume
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14992027.2020.1798519?journalCode=iija20&forwardService=showFullText&tokenAccess=JPDQVWJJ89HPHTW9ZXG6&tokenDomain=eprints&target=10.1080/14992027.2020.1798519&


Results

Sixteen (13.2%) patients reported a change in hearing and/or tinnitus since being diagnosed with COVID-19. The median age in these 16 cases was 64 years, range 44–82, with 14 (87.5%) male. Co-morbidities were common, e.g. diabetes (n = 3). There was a self-reported deterioration in hearing in eight cases, with four reporting a pre-existing hearing loss. There was self-reported tinnitus in eight cases, with three reporting a pre-existing hearing loss. There were no reports of recent changes in both hearing and tinnitus in the same individual. One individual with hearing loss also reported vertigo, which may have been vestibular in origin. One patient reported unilateral tinnitus (left) that was associated with a sensation of aural pressure. Another patient reported that the tinnitus had now resolved.

 

[Wayne]

I read just today: COVID 19 itself can give hearing loss and tinnitus.

A good number of people on a tinnitus forum I visit have reported this.

 

[used_to_race]

I received my second dose of the Moderna vaccine one week ago. No tinnitus. Also no change in my (mild) ME/CFS symptoms, such as constant sore throat, mild fatigue, mild POTS.

For anyone who's interested, I was pretty concerned the vaccine would hit me hard in terms of secondary effects, but it was fine. I was a little achey and fatigued for one day after the second dose, no fever. The first dose gave me a runny nose.

 

[Booble]

I received my second dose of the Moderna vaccine one week ago. No tinnitus. Also no change in my (mild) ME/CFS symptoms, such as constant sore throat, mild fatigue, mild POTS.

For anyone who's interested, I was pretty concerned the vaccine would hit me hard in terms of secondary effects, but it was fine. I was a little achey and fatigued for one day after the second dose, no fever. The first dose gave me a runny nose.

That's great to here. Congrats on being fully vaccinated!

 

[5vforest]

"Some Covid-19 long haulers say vaccines may be relieving their symptoms. Researchers are looking into it"

https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/03/health/long-haulers-vaccine-wellness/index.html

More of the same. (Maybe of note, this piece was written by Ryan Prior, director of Forgotten Plague.)

 

[Rufous McKinney]

No tinnitus

Do you normally have that symptom? (curious)

 

[bensmith]

Update. 1/3 no change 1/3 improve 1/3 get worse. Seems to me. This is my covid group.

 

[5vforest]

Update. 1/3 no change 1/3 improve 1/3 get worse. Seems to me. This is my covid group.

...which is the same distribution as many other interventions that have been studied.

I would probably still try and get the vaccine if I had had COVID, since you never know.

 

[Jade7]

I just ran across another testimonial, this time regarding the Pfizer vaccine:

"I now have tinnitus after receiving the first dose of the Pfizer vaccine. It’s been constant for 8 weeks. I was perfectly fine prior to the vaccine. No history of ear infections, no issues at all, now this constant ringing. If I had known this would have happened, I never would have gotten the vaccine. You can read my story in my introductory post I just posted."​

Two of my close friends have just recently developed tinnitus within a week of receiving the Moderna vaccine. It doesn't seem to be that rare of a side effect.

 

[Booble]

Two of my close friends have just recently developed tinnitus within a week of receiving the Moderna vaccine. It doesn't seem to be that rare of a side effect.

One of my friend's boss committed suicide post vaccine purportedly due to very, very loud tinnitus.

 

[Hufsamor]

How sad

 

[bensmith]

@Booble wow that’s sad, from the vax? There was a famouse ceo who killed himself from post covid tinnitus.

 

[Booble]

@Booble wow that’s sad, from the vax? There was a famouse ceo who killed himself from post covid tinnitus.

Yes, that's the one. A friend of mine works for his company and said he was the nicest guy.

 

[IThinkImTurningJapanese]

One of my friend's boss committed suicide post vaccine purportedly due to very, very loud tinnitus.

That was a very stupid decision, the mind is quite capable of tuning out that annoying sound with time. I developed tinnitus from multiple shots of a Marlin .45-70, without ear protection, decades ago. The first weeks were the worst.

Then I began using specialized ear plugs when going to see loud as hell bands at clubs, probably saved me from eventual hearing loss.

This is interesting that he developed tinnitus after the vaccine. From my experience, I'm convinced that tinnitus is primarily a neurological issue, minus the shoulder mounted cannons.

 

[bensmith]

Man that’s so sad. Maybe the tinnitus was really just the surface of some bad brain issue.

 

[Booble]

A lot of tinnitus people get to the point of madness. If you ever look at tinnitus forums you'll see a number of people that have a hard time blocking it out. Some tinnitus is also worse than others. When I get the beeping kind it's hard to ignore.

I suspect with this guy that the vaccine may have also created cytokines that cause depression. I think @bensmith is correct that he probably had a lot of neurological inflammation.
It's sad that they couldn't wait it out.

 

[Wayne]

the mind is quite capable of tuning out that annoying sound with time.

Hi @IThinkImTurningJapanese -- Though many people are eventually able to tune it out after a while, many cannot. Some people who have been able to tune it out (referred to as habituation) are also vulnerable to new assaults (or spikes) than can make tinnitus much worse again, and they lose their years' long ability to be habituated.

Just about anything can cause tinnitus to get suddenly worse, such as a loud noise (even a single exposure like an alarm bell), loud sound of an MRI, ear microsuction, medication, ear infection, tooth infection, increase in stress in a person's life, just the plain old fact of getting older, etc.

That's part of the difficulty for many people; having had it get worse, then habituating, then not knowing if or when it will get worse again. Many go through these cycles many times, with it sometimes taking years to habituate again. It's a very individual thing, and many people simply aren't able to habituate. I'd venture to guess about 10-25% of people with tinnitus have this severe type. Even those that can habituate to a degree can still experience a lot of misery and heartache from not being able to experience the restorative power of silence.

Some tinnitus is also worse than others.

Tinnitus can range from a mildly annoying form (1 on a scale of 1-10) and can barely be heard in a quiet room, whereas others have an extremely intrusive and debilitating form that can be a 10+++ and can be heard as being 2-3x louder than normal sound like a TV, with a variety of sounds all vying for attention. Trying to group all tinnitus into a single category of intrusiveness is simply not possible. People with COVID vaccine initiated tinnitus seem to be experiencing the severe form of tinnitus.

Everybody's situation is quite unique, which includes a variety of factors like general overall health, health of the brain andI neurological system, whether there are predisposing situations like depression, anxiety, etc. Many people with these latter conditions often start taking various medications and end up with drug-induced severe tinnitus on top of their already debilitating depression. These are the kind of people that often commit suicide.

For people who have a concern about getting COVID-vaccine induced tinnitus, I think the risk from getting it from the COVID vaccine may not be worth it. I would never recommend a person getting it, knowing first hand how easy it is for it to enter a person's life (a single dose of an anti-nausea medication for me), and how permanent and difficult it can be to live with.

BTW, my own tinnitus volume has gone down in the past three years from an original 10+++ to averaging around a 7. I continue to hope things will improve further, but it usually takes ears a very long time to heal, if they're going to heal at all. Part of my hope hinges on my volume at a few (short) times where it actually went down to around 5-6.

 

[Booble]

It's hard when it's really loud and you are in quiet room trying to sleep. I typically need to have a fan or other things that make noise so I can focus on those noises rather than the ringing.

 

[IThinkImTurningJapanese]

@Wayne I wish you weren't going through such a difficult experience with tinnitus, and I'm very grateful that you haven't ended your life because of it.

I need your help, the benefit of your experience, to live the life I want to live.