Beautiful Silence After Elimination Diet — Cutting Out Gluten, Oils, Chocolate Relieved My Tinnitus

Elimination diets are great to try. I have eliminated all oils, wheat, barley, rye, chocolate. Chocolate was the last item that made my ears ring...

I also do not eat potato skins, sweet potato skins or tomato skins/seeds. NO FRIED FOOD, no processed meats. I am going to try eating oats again soon to test.

I love the beautiful silence that I have now after 10 plus years of crickets to whirring.

Petey

 

@Petey, such a great outcome after so many years. Good for you. Do you know what caused your tinnitus so many years ago?

 

Think I'd rather have the tinnitus...

 

Isn’t dark chocolate supposedly beneficial anyways? It’s a good antioxidant and there are potential benefits for the brain last time i recalled

 

And I'm opposite. If I eat sourdough bread specifically I can have a huge reduction.
I do have a lot of diary generally, so I am eating less of that when having more carbs.
Could be anything, hard to do eliminations when trying to exercise, work, survive with this hellish shit.

 

Wow great to hear, but what type of meats do you mostly eat? An what type of snacks? I may give it a try.

 

I cannot eat wheat, barley or rye anyway, as I have Celiac Disease, an autoimmune condition that is controlled by a strict adherance to a gluten free diet.

@Petey, have you been tested for Celiac Disease?

 

I eat dark chocolate quite often @ZFire, as it rids me of my cravings for unhealthier, high sugar commercial brand chocolate.

However, what I'll say is, that while dark chocolate is rich in flavonoids, they can also found in high quantity in most fruit and vegetables, which are obviously a better source, as they don't contain added sugars (something that any dark chocolate that doesn't taste like mud, will).

For me, dark chocolate is simply the lesser of two evils, but I'd probably be better off eliminating it entirely.

The positive spin on dark chocolate reminds me a lot of the studies that are done for red wine, which are clearly all just marketing paid for by companies that have investments in it.

"Red wine contains resveratrol, so red wine is good", but then you can also get resveratrol from grapes and peanuts without consuming any alcohol that is going to heighten your risk of: heart disease, high blood pressure, liver disease, or just getting drunk and making an "ass"/arse of yourself.

So to conclude: pretty much all chocolate is bad for you, to some degree (albeit a minor degree where dark chocolate is concerned).

That said, whenever I hear about a connection between diet and tinnitus, I pretty much fall asleep; because prior to my onset of severe tinnitus, I hadn't touched added sugar in eight years. I was eating the healthiest I ever have in my life, and then boom! 2009: welcome to your new life on Pluto (the loneliest planet ever to be demoted from being a planet, to a dwarf planet).

So simply put: I have yet to notice any positive effect on my tinnitus from making my life more miserable than it already is.

Things being what they are, I intend to continue eating whatever the f*ck I like (and that includes doughnut Santas: https://www.tinnitustalk.com/posts/626589/).

 

The elimination diet has solved many tough medical problems where standard medicine has failed. I have participated (myself, my wife, friends, co-workers) in success stories eliminating migraines, dangerous continuous ear infections, debilitating colitis, debilitating arthritis, etc. I have read many more dramatic stories of near death situations like a young child who was allergic to the yellow dye in his vitamins. Easy fix in this case. Or nightshades for arthritis. I can live without eggplant. This only works if there is a food intolerance responsible for the issue at hand which is not always the case. If you discover a link and it fixes your tinnitus but you don't want to eliminate that item because having tinnitus is better, that option still always exists. Coffee spikes the shit out of mine but today I drank a full cup of high test, today that worked for me. Got a ton of shit done and the spike will be gone tomorrow.

George

 

Been thinking about this thread.

I tried the rare food elimination diet for the first time in the mid ‘90’s. I ate lamb, bok choy and organic brown rice for 10 days straight. It was hard at first, everything and everybody looked like a pizza or burger for the first few days. Then something interesting happened. I started liking cleaner food, that’s all my body wanted and all that other stuff started sounding disgusting. Even better I started feeling good, the best in years. Once you stabilize you add things back every few days until the offending item hits you like a sledge hammer. Then you know.

As I wrote in a recent thread about supplements, things like this won’t help everybody, maybe not even most but a few people will get a profound positive effect. Our condition has no consistent treatment or cure, the medical community cannot offer us much, maybe even harm us further if uninformed. The good news is that for some of us, something like this will help. It’s a lot more work than a pill, an instant cure but for most of us it’s all we have. Only you can decide if your in a place where doing this work is worth it to you. Just know that you may be pleasantly surprised at how much better an idea it may look to be once you get over the hump and for some, how much better you feel. Even if it’s just in how much better you are able to deal with all of this.

George

 

Sad...

 

Fried eggplant with honey is one of the best dishes ever. And for me it feels great! No impact at all on tinnitus or hyperacusis. Actually I feel better after eating fried eggplant.

 

Oh, I better reconsider.

George

 

Some other members finding relief through diet:

Has Anybody Noticed a Connection Between Tinnitus and Wheat?

George

 

I think there are some food items that worsen tinnitus, and these are mainly junk food (greasy burgers, pizzas and the like), eating things that are objectively not healthy.

Other than that, there are individual differences, and the amounts of a food item are also important. I think there's no need to make our lives more miserable than they are (with tinnitus and bad hyperacusis), and that most dishes and food items are ok when had in moderation...

For me coffee usually spikes my tinnitus but I sometimes have the odd coffee. Dark chocolate does nothing to my tinnitus, no impact. Fruit is good. Vegetables are good. Smoked salmon is good.

I don't really see how a dish like sliced eggplant fried in olive oil can spike anyone's tinnitus... it's just a vegetable fried in good oil.

 

I was not trying to pick on eggplant. I was remembering my rare food elimination diet experiences in the 90’s where nightshade vegetables would come up as a potential inflammatory irritant for arthritis. Back then when I was really sick potatoes would make my heart race. We’re all different and sometimes a given persons food sensitivities can be quite odd. If you enjoy eggplant and it doesn’t bother you then carry-on soldier.

George

 

Hello, this includes extra virgin olive oil? I really like it...

 

Food sensitivities are very individual. Other people’s lists are of little value. Same thing with other people’s supplements. What is of value is going through the rare food elimination diet process to find out if you have a "list" and then modify your diet to feel better. Of course as some posters stated above, they would not eliminate their favorite foods to eliminate their tinnitus and if that is the case then do not bother going through the process because it would be of no value. In that case tinnitus is not high enough on the list to compete with say chocolate and that's OK, everyone has their own priorities. Sometimes I drink high test coffee and spike all day. It’s a day I get a lot of shit done. What I can tell you is that your attitude towards your "favorite" foods may change when you start feeling significantly better without them, at least that is what happened for me. They were no longer my favorites and I happily gave them up because I felt so much better. In one case it stopped my heart arrhythmia (aged cheese). I don't like cheese enough to die for it. Literally.

George

 

Hi Peter, can you share how you did the elimination diet? I’m not sure how to start and how it works.

 

I cut out gluten for 2 months - and gave up on that - no difference.

Salt I keep down as much as I can.

Sugar - never tried a 0 free sugars diet - should try that to see. I usually get by on 20g a day which is not ultra low - but way lower than maybe 80g a day before my tinnitus started. I did go mad one day and eat a 100 gram milk chocolate hazelnut choccie bar - and I did not notice any effect better or worse.

The problem with some of these elimination diets is you might be missing out on something essential.

What I am keen to try is intermittent fasting - eat in a 6 hour window - I have heard people getting great results from that - even if their levels are not dropping - they are feeling a lot of energy. And then there is full fast for 1, 2 or 3 days - I have read that day 5 is when your body starts eating up all the toxic rubbish cells in the body.

 

Eat only clean foods that you’re not accustomed to eating for 10 straight days. Then re-enter foods back into your diet every two days and watch for a reaction. I ate lamb, organic brown rice and bok choy for 10 days when I did it 25 years ago. I sure did learn a lot, it was a very worthwhile process. It can be a little painful especially if you travel or work in the office but you can learn a lot.

George

 

I think most should try something like that while getting their jaw and neck checked for good measure. Never hurts.