Covid death? This smells fishy

https://thehill.com/homenews/news/544200-texas-roadhouse-ceo-dies-amid-unbearable-post-covid-related-symptoms-family?fbclid=IwAR1zRVsjqu7_p_uipIGSZlLvNg1Pg0GAPf7YJOfLjJPWi84QkD5BjrXn26w

All media today implied this was a Covid death.

Read the comments to the article. People are commenting about the restaurant being open at 100% and the fear of eating inside.

The dude has tinnitus for years but Covid...

This was sad to read, he sounds like he was a great guy, well loved by all.

Tinnitus is no joke. I've haD it since my sr year in HS, but the most depressed I've ever been in my life was when I exacerbated it about 15 years ago after attending a particularly loud and guitar feedback heavy concert without earplugs. A severe case can absolutely drive people to suicide. If he had sinus/inner ear inflammation/damage that made his severe, I think it's entirely plausible.

48 hour rule.

Fore Left! said:

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Tinnitus is no joke. I've haD it since my sr year in HS, but the most depressed I've ever been in my life was when I exacerbated it about 15 years ago after attending a particularly loud and guitar feedback heavy concert without earplugs. A severe case can absolutely drive people to suicide. If he had sinus/inner ear inflammation/damage that made his severe, I think it's entirely plausible.

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March 28, 2018. That's when my started. Haven't had a good night of sleep ever since.

Yeah I have intermittent tinnitus. Comes and goes, pretty unpredictable for me. Can make sleeping hard sometimes.

Tinnitus is no joke, it can cause major depression. When you can't sleep you get depressed.

Shoefly! said:

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Tinnitus is no joke, it can cause major depression. When you can't sleep you get depressed.

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And depression sucks

I've always had a ringing in my ears. Thought it was normal up until 10'years ago when I first heard of tinnitus.

I have had tinnitus my whole life. It's to the point I have always thought that's what people meant by " the sound of silence". Stories like this always make me pause. It's super annoying but I have never gotten to that point. I absolute get though, if it comes out of nowhere it would be a hard thing to deal with. I would think it exacerbates issues people are already struggling with.

Very sad news. I have it also but overwhelm it at night with a background noise app on my iphone so I can sleep.

During the day I don't notice it so much. Went to an audiologist MD last year. Hearing tested great for 68 yr old but she said the leading cause of tinnitus is medications. I'm cutting back slowly on BP and statin meds...

Did she say specific medications or the ones you are taking now? How long have you had it?

Like you I don't notice it much. Some at night, when I'm thinking about it right now or deer hunting.

TX04Aggie said:

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Yeah I have intermittent tinnitus. Comes and goes, pretty unpredictable for me. Can make sleeping hard sometimes.

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Have you tried listening to the radio or white noise while going to sleep?

Generally have white noise or a tower fan going. Luckily I dont have it too bad at night, so usually no more than a couple of bad nights sleep at a time. Mine hits usually in day, almost like my ears do a reset/power down...then ring all the way back up. I had severe inner ear issues as a kid, lots of tubes, ear infections, other little procedures and elementary was all speech therapy. So who knows.. i do agree, medication definitely triggers it too.

AggieLostinDallas said:

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The dude has tinnitus for years but Covid...

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I've had rather strong tinnitus for years, but never even thought about suicide over it.

I had tinnitus pretty consistently for about 6 weeks after rupturing my eardrum in college, and I can absolutely imagine becoming suicidal had they persisted for months/years. It makes sleeping and virtually any task that requires significant concentration nearly impossible.

I've had a mild version of it for 10 years or so. That's about the time I started taking blood pressure meds.

Since retiring 5 years ago my doctor put me on low dose atorvastatin. It kicked up a notch with this med. Since then I have dropped 30 lbs, walking 40 miles a week and gotten my blood chemistry, BMI, in good shape. We are discussing cutting back on statins slowly. It's a marathon drug, not quick fix.

Full disclosure, I have played electric guitar since childhood. So I'm sure that has a bearing on the situation. But mostly VFW's across central Texas to pay for Aggie tuition. No heavy metal...

I've had tinnitus as long as I can remember. Fortunatly mine must be mild compared to others and I'm able to ignore it most of the time. I could see how it would be maddening if it showed up late in life for someone.

Pookers said:

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I've had tinnitus as long as I can remember. Fortunatly mine must be mild compared to others and I'm able to ignore it most of the time. I could see how it would be maddening if it showed up late in life for someone.

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Same. I haven't had a silent second since I was 10.

A coworker had it pretty bad and got some sort of hearing aids that fixed it for him. I don't know how they work. Seems sorta counter intuitive to me.

I don't believe I have tinnitus but do occasionally hear the "hum". It does make things very hard but I'm only talking a few days with on and off hum noise. Tinnitus would make things so hard

The hearing aids provide a less annoying white noise and help your brain habitualize the sound. Habitualization is the key to living with tinnitus. You just get used to it being there so constantly that you stop paying attention to it.

But tinnitus also occurs in different pitches and levels. Many of us have some minor form. But some forms can be pretty terrible and absolutely debilitating and harder to habitualizs. And it in all likelihood is never going away

Fore Left! said:

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Tinnitus is no joke. I've haD it since my sr year in HS, but the most depressed I've ever been in my life was when I exacerbated it about 15 years ago after attending a particularly loud and guitar feedback heavy concert without earplugs. A severe case can absolutely drive people to suicide. If he had sinus/inner ear inflammation/damage that made his severe, I think it's entirely plausible.

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I'm sorry this happened to you but I do have some respectful questions...

I have five coworkers between ages 35-60 who have tinnatus. They saw a doctor and were treated and/or given hearing aids with white noise to balance them out.

Is this not available to everyone? Did this roadhouse founder not seek treatment? Was he in the military where there is a really good chance you will get tinnatus?

Also, I've never heard of tinnatus being a covid symptom. In my opinion everything is becoming a covid symptom. The ten pounds I've gained since February of 2020 might as well be a COVID symptom.

What are we doing here???? Are we (the media) starting to say that suicide is okay?

Everybody has pain from something but suicide is still one of the most selfish decisions one can make...

aTmAg said:

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A coworker had it pretty bad and got some sort of hearing aids that fixed it for him. I don't know how they work. Seems sorta counter intuitive to me.

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They probably work similar to noise-cancelling headphones. Dial in the frequency and amplitude of the noise and then create the exact same signal just with a phase shift of 180. So if they can figure out the tone and magnitude of the ringing in your ears, they induce a sound identical to it in the opposite phase.

Stumpknocker said:

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I've had a mild version of it for 10 years or so. That's about the time I started taking blood pressure meds.

Since retiring 5 years ago my doctor put me on low dose atorvastatin. It kicked up a notch with this med. Since then I have dropped 30 lbs, walking 40 miles a week and gotten my blood chemistry, BMI, in good shape. We are discussing cutting back on statins slowly. It's a marathon drug, not quick fix.

Full disclosure, I have played electric guitar since childhood. So I'm sure that has a bearing on the situation. But mostly VFW's across central Texas to pay for Aggie tuition. No heavy metal...

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In my case, I grew up driving tractors.

Some of them, especially the International 1206 was very loud and I had to wear hearing protectors like what they use on the decks of aircraft carriers. The hearing protectors would put enough pressure on the head around the ears that I didn't always wear them.

Also, like many teenagers and young adults, I thought I was practically indestructible and that the louder the music, the better.

Burdizzo said:

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aTmAg said:

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A coworker had it pretty bad and got some sort of hearing aids that fixed it for him. I don't know how they work. Seems sorta counter intuitive to me.

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They probably work similar to noise-cancelling headphones. Dial in the frequency and amplitude of the noise and then create the exact same signal just with a phase shift of 180. So if they can figure out the tone and magnitude of the ringing in your ears, they induce a sound identical to it in the opposite phase.

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I thought it was false nerve firings? If so, then I think doctors would have to wire it directly to your head like a cochlear implant. Not an external hearing aid like my coworker.

I've had tinnitus my whole life. Apparently had a number of ear infections as a toddler-2yr old and never had tubes inserted (not as common a procedure in early to mid 70's as it became later).

It definitely interferes with my ability to hear, especially if there are other background noises. I go to sleep with the TV on to give me some background noise.

Mine is a constant, somewhat high-pitched constant whirring noise. Having it my whole life I clearly have learned to live with it. But I bet if I turned off the background noise and focused on it, I could see it driving me crazy.

As I mentioned in my most recent post, not all tinnitus is the same. Some can be extremely loud, at pitches that are incredibly annoying, etc. Habitualization is key, but that can take months or years all while people sliip to a depression knowing this horrific sound will in all likelihood be with them every moment for the rest of your life.

I had covid, and my form of it was like a sinus infection, tons of sinus congestion and ear pressure. I was on preemptive antibotics and never developed an actual infection from the petri dish of congestion in my head, but I could see someone suffering inner ear damage that could cause or worsen tinnitus

As far as your "suicide is okay????" question. Calm down. I'm just saying this explanation of him being depressed and ending it over tinnitus is plausible. People do kill themselves because of tinnitus. This is reality.

aTmAg said:

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Burdizzo said:

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aTmAg said:

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A coworker had it pretty bad and got some sort of hearing aids that fixed it for him. I don't know how they work. Seems sorta counter intuitive to me.

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They probably work similar to noise-cancelling headphones. Dial in the frequency and amplitude of the noise and then create the exact same signal just with a phase shift of 180. So if they can figure out the tone and magnitude of the ringing in your ears, they induce a sound identical to it in the opposite phase.

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I thought it was false nerve firings? If so, then I think doctors would have to wire it directly to your head like a cochlear implant. Not an external hearing aid like my coworker.

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It is, but run the patient through a series of test to see how they react to different frequencies and phases of sound to see if they cancel the effect of the sound the nerves "think" they are receiving.

I don't know anything about the hearing aid so this is just me speculating and extrapolating how noise cancelling headphones work.

I've had tinnitus as long as I can remember. Never thought of killing myself over it...maybe it'd be different if I'd gotten it later in life