You have my commiserations; I remember working; I didn't like it very much .. I would be more worried about the effects the screen would have on my eyes than the fan on my ears.  I would suggest a very good screen shield to filter out all those nasty rays.  Polaroid glasses may also help.  

Have you thought about posture issues whilst you're sitting at your PC ?  Make sure you get up every so often and have a walk around, it'll help ward off DVT too. .. I do believe you can get special chairs which will help.

Working can be quite hazardous .. good luck.

My chronic tinnitus is a result of ear infections at age four; so the doctor told me. I find that the sound of fans ameliorate my awareness of tinnitus. For years I ran the bathroom fan at night to help me sleep. More recently I use a pitch-tunable white noise machine for that purpose. For my part I'd say the noise from fans are more a comfort than culprit for tinnitus, but there are varying causes for the symptom. Lifestyle certainly contributes; exposure to ambient noise levels, exercise, blood pressure, use of stimulants (caffeine, nicotine) alcohol, etc. Barring those considerations, maybe it's time to dust the fan port of your PC, move it to a different location, consider a new PC, or visit a doctor/audiologist.

joerand posted:

My chronic tinnitus is a result of ear infections at age four; so the doctor told me. I find that the sound of fans ameliorate my awareness of tinnitus. For years I ran the bathroom fan at night to help me sleep. More recently I use a pitch-tunable white noise machine for that purpose. For my part I'd say the noise from fans are more a comfort than culprit for tinnitus, but there are varying causes for the symptom. Lifestyle certainly contributes; exposure to ambient noise levels, exercise, blood pressure, use of stimulants (caffeine, nicotine) alcohol, etc. Barring those considerations, maybe it's time to dust the fan port of your PC, move it to a different location, consider a new PC, or visit a doctor/audiologist.

That's interesting Joe. I'd always assumed my chronic tinnitus was caused by listening to too much Led Zeppelin, Deep Purple, Black Sabbath etc as a teenager. I had regular ear infections when I was about 5 or 6. I still remember the agonising pain. Maybe that's where it comes from. 

Consciousmess posted:

This is alarming to me as I just noticed it.  I have so much new work to prepare for my new job and that means many hours in front of the PC.

It isn't loud, but it's the same pitch as tinnitus (or vice versa).

Has anyone else had this?

That's not how it works. Tinnitus arises from damage. A quiet computer fan isn't going to cause such damage, regardless of frequency.

But what did you just notice? Actual tinnitus, or the sound/frequency of the fan?

winkyincanada posted:

Tinnitus arises from damage.

 

That is one cause (acoustic shock). The second major one is emotional shock, i.e., a person receives a phone call informing him that a loved one has just been killed in a car accident. The news alone is enough to trigger tinnitus.

In the case of acoustic shock or high-frequency hearing loss, there is actual damage that the brain tries to compensate, by filling in the missing frequencies and rearranging the auditory cortex in the process, losing its tonotopical organisation. 

In the case of emotional shock, it is as if the brain is saying 'I don't want to hear this' and puts the auditory cortex into self-defense mode, again rearranging the layout of the neurons.

My tinnitus arrived suddenly in a situation (working in a cubicle) where I had overtaxed my brain trying to concentrate despite the noise and disturbances from adjacent cubicles. 

Whatever the immediate cause, tinnitus ultimately seems to be a mismatch between what the brain hears and what it wants to hear.

I firmly believe that providing a sound environment that pleases the brain can help in relieving the mismatch. I would like to believe that it could also help rearrange the auditory cortex back to its normal tonotopic organisation, due to brain plasticity. There is a fair bit of research in this area, but no firm therapies yet.

So, could a computer fan cause tinnitus ? Quite possibly if you hate the sound enough.

Jan

Jan-Erik Nordoen posted:

winkyincanada posted:

Tinnitus arises from damage.

 

That is one cause (acoustic shock). The second major one is emotional shock, i.e., a person receives a phone call informing him that a loved one has just been killed in a car accident. The news alone is enough to trigger tinnitus.

In the case of acoustic shock or high-frequency hearing loss, there is actual damage that the brain tries to compensate, by filling in the missing frequencies and rearranging the auditory cortex in the process, losing its tonotopical organisation. 

In the case of emotional shock, it is as if the brain is saying 'I don't want to hear this' and puts the auditory cortex into self-defense mode, again rearranging the layout of the neurons.

My tinnitus arrived suddenly in a situation (working in a cubicle) where I had overtaxed my brain trying to concentrate despite the noise and disturbances from adjacent cubicles. 

Whatever the immediate cause, tinnitus ultimately seems to be a mismatch between what the brain hears and what it wants to hear.

I firmly believe that providing a sound environment that pleases the brain can help in relieving the mismatch. I would like to believe that it could also help rearrange the auditory cortex back to its normal tonotopic organisation, due to brain plasticity. There is a fair bit of research in this area, but no firm therapies yet.

So, could a computer fan cause tinnitus ? Quite possibly if you hate the sound enough.

Jan

Interesting. I never knew about psychological tinnitus.

It might be quite rare. For example, the Mayo Clinic doesn't list psychological factors as causes. Maybe it goes by another name if it is psychological.

http://www.mayoclinic.org/dise...-causes/dxc-20180362

Winky,

Here's an abstract of some work by Mazurek:

[The significance of stress: its role in the auditory system and the pathogenesis of tinnitus].

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19795102

Emotional stress is often associated with auditory phenomena such as hyperacusis, tinnitus, Ménière's disease and vertigo. Stress develops as a result of a person's attempts to come to terms with the increased or unexpected demands of his or her environment. Stress serves to protect one from physical danger and to temporarily increase one's performance in order to increase the probability of survival. Sleep and appetite are particularly reduced, while anxiety increases. The mental changes induced by stress may contribute to the onset or exacerbation of tinnitus. The following links exist between the auditory and stress systems: the limbic system, which regulates instinctive behavior and emotions, is linked to the auditory system via the medial geniculate body (amygdala). The hypothalamus, which is the integrative center of the endocrine and autonomic systems, is linked to the auditory system via the inferior colliculus. The reticular system, which is focused on the behavior pattern of attention and excitement, projects serotonergic fibers to all pathways of the auditory system, ranging from the cochlea to the auditory cortex.

A later paper, again by Mazurek:

...or an anti EMF pendant like this ..