Welcome back to the All About Audiology podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Lilach Saperstein and I’m so excited to bring you today a topic that is highly, highly requested about tinnitus, also about some vestibular things with balance. These are topics that we get lots of questions about as audiologists. A lot of people think it’s all about hearing, but our ears do a lot more than that.

So, we have a very special guest today, Joey Remenyi, from seekingbalance.com.au who is an Australian vestibular audiologist and author of her new book, “Rock Steady”. I’m so excited to talk to her all about tinnitus and vertigo and neuroplasticity and bringing it all together to make people feel stable and safe and productive and happy and all the good things.

So, welcome Joey!

Joey Remenyi: “Thank you so much. It’s just really beautiful to meet another passionate audiologist and I can hear it kind of just radiating out of you so it’s a delight to be here.”

Dr. Lilach Saperstein: “Thank you. Exactly. I felt the same way when I stumbled across your videos, specifically about tinnitus. Tinnitus is one of those things that has so many misconceptions of what causes it. Do we even really know what causes it? How do you treat something you don’t know the cause of? Then there are all those scams and all sorts of supplements that they are trying to sell you stuff. Then there are all of the maskers. Do you use noise or not use noise? It’s such a big world and to have a grasp on it, and a lot of success. So, tell me everything! Hahaha. That’s a good question, hahaha.”

JR: “Before we do get started, I want the listeners to be reassured, I cover all of this in my book, my new book. And the reason I wrote the book was for everything they’re lacking. So, we get these questions, there is a lot of confusion amongst professionals, therefore there are mixed messages when people talk to various health professionals, doctors, audiologists, surgeons, neurologists. The thing is that everyone is trying to do their best and everyone is trying to be helpful and getting the information they have but that information is all over the place. So part of my mission in writing my book, is to have one simple, easy to understand, conversation that a neurologist will understand and the mother of a child with tinnitus will understand it. It covers that full spectrum.

So, tinnitus are sounds that we hear in our inner world. They could be in our body, in our head, in our ears and no one else can hear it. Nine out of ten people in a sound proof booth will notice what’s going on in their body. Our bodies do generate noise, healthy noise, and you can think of that as like the idle of a car or even when the fridge is running and there is a little hum. Or the washing machine in a spin cycle. This is really healthy, mechanical noise that if the washing machine is doing a good job, it will be making this spin cycle noise. If the washing machine is broken, it would be dead silent. So, humans are actually a little bit sane so it’s good to rephrase things and actually generating noise, means you have moving anatomical pieces in your body that are genuinely creating a mechanical noise. As audiologists, if we really want to get geeky, we can measure them with our DPOAEs.”

LS: “I think another way to think about that is that you’re tummy gurgles when you eat and when you are digesting your food. Sometimes,