Alcohol Quiets Down My Tinnitus

I didn't normally drink much, but once a got T and had a beer one night, I noticed a distinct improvement. Usually the effect is cutting the volume in half, sometime a bit more. Effect of 1 beer lasts about 2-3 hours. If I have one at 8 or 9 o'clock I am usually good till bed. If I have one at 5-6pm, then T may come back by 11pm or so.

But thank God there is something like this that helps.

I've explored some of the GABA and related supplements but can't say yet that their have improved things.

 

It works.

 

I've become a whisky/scotch/bourbon collector since this infliction. Alcohol seems to help me, temporarily...

 

Been there. It also helps me, temporarily. Used to drink either whiskey or rum before sleep, just to get a good volume reduction (and a nice buzz). But in the long run, they just f*** you up and the next day hangover is no fun.
So my alcoholic run lasted for about two months, guess I wised up - don't mean any disrespect to fellow drinkers, you do what you have to do, if it helps you get by.

Weirdly enough, only certain drinks worked for me. Whiskey, gin, rum, most sweet liqueurs (limoncello or mastic, yum) but not tequila or vodka or wine (tons) or beer (barrels). Strange.

 

Alcohol makes my T worse the next day. Not much effect while I'm drinking. I don't even get that feel good buzz most of the time either.

 

in the past i have drank a lot cause the tinnitus was making me go nuts and well as i drank and a little while afterward i can tell the tinnitus was subsiding a bit but if you drink 6 brews its gonna be a hangover more than likely the next day. so i try to keep it to a minimum since i have fatty liver.....(ugh) and a not very tolerant wife.....

 

Too much alcohol makes you overweight and is very hard on your body, my uncle is an alcoholic and it's really sad to see what that's doing to him. I'm not saying never drink, just saying that too much can morph into a bad and unhealthy habit. I have never had alcohol influence my T...but then again i am never drunk hehe

 

If I have a couple of glasses of wine, the tinnitus totally goes away.
Why does this happen and is it a good or bad thing?

I am sure my tinnitus is related to too much ibuprofen.

But I know I can heal because I have had some interludes of total silence.

But I really wonder why drinking wine would make it silent.
Any thoughts?

 

Wine does nothing for me but NAC makes it go away for 6-7 hours.

 

Tinnitus is related to over activity in the brain. Alcohol increases the effect of GABA receptors which suppresses brain activity. If you have very mild tinnitus it will most likely silence it.

 

Many people can have their tinnitus temporarily silenced by certain benzodiazepines, such as clonazepam. Alcohol and benzos affect the brain in a similar way, to each other. It goes without saying that there are substantial risks associated with the use of either or both of these substances, if we aren't careful.

 

Anyone else gets a spike after gin tonic?

 

I don't drink but gin tonic has quinine that causes the spike, check it out
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quinine
"Common side effects include headache, ringing in the ears,"

 

I drank three small bottles tonic water, no idea how much is in there. The restaurant was very quiet, no music, just a few tables so zero noise. Drank 2 glasses of wine and three gin tonics (I rarely drink anything at all normally). Came home and I had a horrible loud beep tone in my head, never heard such a thing my whole life. As if I sat next to a club speaker for a day. Just on straight tone. Normally my tinnitus is somatic, this tone I couldn‘t modulate a tiny bit.

After 1 hour sleep I woke up and it was gone. No idea what happened there but I was nearly in panic mode. Good to know, will avoid tonic from now on. Thanks

 

No problem I read they used to use much more quinine in the gin&tonic in the old days, I wonder how many people got ear ringing back then? They use less these days I mean. Good that it was only for 1 hour

 

Next time i order a drink i‘ll ask the waiter if it is associated with tinnitus....i forgot this time ahahah but i am quiet surprised that such a small amount can have such an impact.

 

Ye you gotta go to T bar. Like you kno how waiters have to know if some food contains peanuts or other allergies, same thing with tinnitus ;D

 

I just experienced something quite remarkable and feel I just have to write about it here. I have been experiencing TWO new sinus tones/spike for about a week now after a noise trauma last Saturday. One in my right ear and one in my left) It has been constant in volume and intensity all week, except for in the early morning when it's been better for a short while before I opened my eyes while waking up.

Tonight I had one 5% 50cl beer and about 30 minutes later one 4.2% 33cl beer. About 1 hour later, now sitting at my computer, the new tone in my right ear snapped into a higher pitch and then started fading away and have now seem to settled about 60-70% lower in volume than to what it was, in a matter of a second! I am by no means drunk or even tipsy, but I do feel the alcohol loosened up my nerve system somewhat. And I'm 100% sure that this is not a subjective change, because the other new tone is as loud as before, only one of them changed.

Nothing like this has happened to me before after a spike. My best case scenario is that the new tones are here to stay once they appear and just gradually looses a little bit of intensity and then settles in after 2-3 months, never going away.

I don't know if this lowering is temporary obviously. I'll give an update tomorrow here. But hey, if you're experiencing a spike, try having 2-3 beers and see what happens. Maybe studies like the one below does have some merit.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11037015

 

My TRT therapist said that tonic water is the one food/drink item that people need to avoid, which is so typical as it's my favourite drink!

 

Yeah that shit was brutal. My tinnitus stays normally even during spikes in certain limits but after tonic water I really felt like having an air raid siren in my head. Luckily it took just an hour of sleep to subside... but it gave me perspective.

 

Quinine causes tinnitus.

Tonic water is quinine and water.

 

Yeah I did not know that before. But even if I knew, I never could have imagined that three small bottles would cause such an extreme spike.

 

When I first developed Tinnitus, I tried to avoid drinking because I noticed a bit of a spike if I was hungover or dehydrated. Having said that, it's great after a couple beers or a nice whiskey.
I do also LOVE gin and tonic so reading that quinine causes it is a tragedy that I think I may need a drink to recover from.

 

Hard for me also. It's my favorite drink. I still have one on occasion.

 

Consuming drogs, cigarets or alcohol may in best case have temporary positive effect on tinnitus, but in long term it is unhealty for our body and will most probably leave negative cosequences also for tinnitus. According to my experiances changing lifestyle to as much healty as possible is the way to make tinnitus go down. If our mind set is always the same, always set to our old habbits, always getting the same old imuplses it is very difficult or even immposible that it would habitate and stop making us problems. Our brain should get some new (positive of course) impulses.
Yes its not easy to change life style, and its not one day or one week process, but if someone has enough will and inspiration to change him self overall as person that would gave him inside peace and happiness and tinnitus will not be his enemy anymore. It will be more like friend who is alway there, not making any trouble. It will be percieved as a friend on long run, because of positive overall impact on our body and mind.
That is in brief my understanding of how one can live peaceful and happy life even with severe tinnitus. At least untill someone develops succssesfull cure, which we dont know when and if it would even happen.
And even with available cure for tinnitus, changing life style to as healty as possible is good way for which our body, mind and soul will be thankful.

 

I don’t really drink alcohol but went from severe tinnitus last night needing Benzos and Diphenhydramine to sleep waking up to moderate tinnitus this morning.

This afternoon I had two glasses of wine and it’s barely there, 2/10 noise, and 2/10 annoyance.

I’m not advocating that we should all start drinking but does this happen to anyone else?

 

2-3 glasses of wine or shots of scotch almost completely silence my tinnitus -- but the next day it comes back as bad as it gets. I've given up on alcohol for now.

 

For me eating out at a fairly noisy restaurant with drinks is sort of the epitome of crutch therapy because with my ears plugged there's just enough noise coming in to mask and then add the alcohol buzz on top and even if I do notice ringing I no longer give a crap. By the time I get home I've digested/metabolized to the point where I pretty much fall right asleep. But if I'm not careful I'll get up at like 2AM and then I'm not able to fall back asleep. This is because the alcohol changes to sugar so it's like a powernap followed by a sugar high. So it's really not a healthy rollercoaster to be on.

 

Thanks @GlennS for the feedback.

 

Hey! I experience the same thing, recently my tinnitus has spiked for the past week and have been lowkey looking forward to the weekend to see if having a few drinks will make a difference.
Hopefully I can get some good sleep soon too.