From NPR: Texas Roadhouse restaurant founder and CEO Kent Taylor died by suicide last week at age 65 after what his family described as a "battle with post-Covid related symptoms, including severe tinnitus." I personally had Covid in December 2020, which left me with chronic fatigue, and an especially increased amount of tinnitus. I have known too many people commit suicide. Therefore, I felt obligated to do an episode on this subject. If you feel suicide is an option, please call the National Suicide Prevention Hotline at 800-273-8255.  They're website is: https://suicidepreventionlifeli ..read more

Progressive Muscle Relaxation has been touted by some as the best misophonia treatment modality.  It works to help people stay relaxed no matter what trigger response occurs.  PMR is a learned skill that I recommend my patients begin using three times daily. If this is not realistic, try to do it once a day. No matter what. Do it at least one time before dismissing it.   When I'm on vacation or relaxing on the beach, I'm not going to respond nearly the same to a trigger as I would if I were sitting in traffic after a stressful day at work.  PRM teaches our limbic system to ..read more

The Tinnitus Doctor is available virtually! COVID-19 has increased stress levels, which is making tinnitus more prevalent than ever.  Listeners have inquired how they can get access to the Tinnitus Doctor without traveling. You may now reach her anywhere in the world for customized tinnitus coaching.  ..read more

Noise exposure, present in everyday life, puts individuals at a high risk for developing hearing loss and tinnitus.   From the American Tinnitus Association website (https://www.ata.org/understanding-facts/causes): "Exposure to loud noises, either in a single traumatic experience or over time, can damage the auditory system and result in hearing loss and sometimes tinnitus as well. Traumatic noise exposure can happen at work (e.g. loud machinery), at play (e.g. loud sporting events, concerts, recreational activities), and/or by accident (e.g. a backfiring engine.) Noise induced hearing lo ..read more

The Tinnitus Doctor discusses tips for battling insomnia ..read more

A deeper look at tinnitus retraining therapy and how it works. We go over the Tinnitus Primary Function Questionnaire (The University of Iowa, Department of Otolaryngology – Head & Neck Surgery. Tyler, R., Ji, H., Perreau, H., Witt, S., Noble, W., & Coelho, C. (2014). Development and validation of the Tinnitus Primary Function Questionnaire. Am J Audiol, 23, 260–272) and how these types of questionnaires are used clinically ..read more

This episode explains in more detail just how we get hearing loss.  (We also mention earbuds-yikes!) Under 10 minutes ..read more

St. Pete has plenty to offer in terms of being sensory friendly! We brought you the best information possible in this 6 minute podcast ..read more

We talk about simple ways to manage tinnitus. 10 minutes ..read more

Why are hearing tests important? Let's answer that question in a no nonsense way in under 10 minutes ..read more