Chocolate/Cacao and Tinnitus

I mean surely it can't be that hard to cure tinnitus? Surely? I still can't believe it's taken them so long to discover it is in the brain, rather than the ears? I mean deaf people have tinnitus, is that not a clue?

 

Apparently it is.

Which is why my focus is on what we can do for ourselves today rather than on what research might be able to do for us tomorrow.

@Danny Boy, my opinions on these issues tend to upset some folks. I believe I'll back out of the thread at this point in the interest of maintaining peace in the house!

Be well -

Dr. Stephen Nagler

 

I understand your frustration; but to make it sound so simple is to not recognize how complicated the human body, and brain are. Often what seem like the simplest of problems turn out to be the most complicated.

 

If they can create computers, the internet, CGI films, video-games, iphones and send a man to the moon...I'm pretty sure they can cure tinnitus...

 

I agree with you Doctor there's no treatment as we speak and people treat AM-101 as some miracle, but sadly it's not.

 

You're assuming that those things are equally as complicated as the human body, which they simply aren't. The human body is vastly complex. Also, those things that you mention are subject to objective, empirical tests, where tinnitus isn't. Tinnitus is often subjective. Those things you mention aren't even in the same category as tinnitus because of this.

Anyone who has taken a human biology course can attest to the fact that the body is so complicated that it's not even funny. And then to top it off, the most complex part of the body, the brain, is where the tinnitus is at... I'm not at all surprised that it's not cured. I don't like it, but it's not surprising.

 

If it's that hard...How come Autifony has achieved this? And trobalt has been shown to reduce or cure tinnitus? The fact is, it is possible.

 

I never said it wasn't possible. And Autifony has cured tinnitus? If that were the case, then there you go.

 

Uuunnnnnnnnnnnnnnbelievable...

From:



To:

 

Is it rare? Why do I not believe this? I had NEVER in my wildest dreams considered suicide until T....In fact I thought it was just for crazies. If I commit suicide will it be documented as tinnitus related? I somehow doubt it.

Am I wrong?

 

So you thought about suicide. So did I. A LOT! Suicidal ideation is not all that uncommon in the tinnitus population. But actually committing suicide? That's a different story. Like I said earlier, there is not a shred of evidence to suggest that the suicide rate in the tinnitus population is greater than in the general population ... and there is one study suggesting that it may even be lower.

Dr. Stephen Nagler

 

my regular GP told me last week that its in the ears not the brain.... ok.........................................................

 

I don't care what anyone says. my tinnitus is horrible, loud and I cant habituate with the loud noise in my head or ears. just cant. its been almost 2 years.. every day is a struggle an I HATE it.

 

sounds like a statement from that joke of an organisation the ATA.

 

There is not a shred of evidence sure...is there any evidence to suggest otherwise? Or is there just no evidence either way?

If there is, could you provide a link/proof?

 

@Danny Boy--At first when I was terrified of my T --I actually used to take my computer to bed and put it on a pillow over my head to mask my T (ruined my laptop fan) --I didn't eat sugar, msg, aspartame or caffeine. Gradually, with the help of my CBT counselor I learned not to fear my tinnitus. I started eating normally again--including ice cream and chocolate and it didn't make a difference to my tinnitus. I still do not use aspartame as I am convinced it is poison, nor MSG because even before T it caused me headaches. I limit caffeine only because sleep is very important to me as I work everyday and it's easier to ignore my T when its loud if I'm well rested. On the weekends I'll have a real cup of coffee and totally enjoy it.

 

Yeah nothing seems to make a dif in my T. I eat all the things I refrained from in the past. I wish I could just change my diet and it would make a difference...this would give me some control. Since it doesn't, I eat all kinds of good stuff now! Food is truely something I can still enjoy 100 percent, even with T.

 

To get this thread sort of back on track, I'll quickly add my 2 cents about diet and tinnitus.

When I first got tinnitus, I would read countless articles that were mostly just badly written, regurgitated material from studies conducted literally decades ago. These articles would usually use some sensationalistic title like "5 FOODS YOU MUST AVOID IF YOU HAVE TINNITUS!", list all the usual suspects like: salt, sugar, MSG, caffine and alcohol. Then the article would usually be filled with advertisements and would also usually contain a link to some scam treatment. Even though I questioned the reliability of these types of articles, I was still worried as I was still so new to the tinnitus experience.

So, I went a bit nutty and tried to control every aspect of my diet and did my best to avoid alcohol. I was especially convinced that MSG was evil and that I needed to avoid it at every cost. This was very hard for me since I live in a suburb of Melbourne that has the largest population of South East Asian immigrants - there's cheap delicious Asian food everywhere.

After a few months of being strict with my diet and having no significant results, I found that all I was doing was making myself and everyone around me miserable.

I resumed eating and drinking as I normally would and found it made absolutely no difference to my tinnitus. I believe that any spike I had previously linked to a certain food or meal was probably just me trying to make sense of the tinnitus thing while being in such an anxious state.

Having said that, I don't doubt for a second that there is a percentage of tinnitus sufferers (like those with BP issues) that do suffer horrible spikes caused by certain foods, but I also believe that most sufferers are way to quick to panic after reading a lot of unsubstantiated garbage that circulates around the internet.

I think the best approach in any situation is to eat a well balanced diet, exercise regularly and if you can identify any foods that continually mess with your tinnitus significantly, eat them less or save them for special occasions. Don't immediately rule out all the fun foods because you're worried about a possible temporary spike.

TL;DR: Lots of bad information on the internet, eat what you enjoy and listen to your body. Don't be too quick to drop everything that you've read will aggravate tinnitus.

 

Listening to your body is always best!

For some people, however, diet does make a difference. For people who believe their tinnitus is influenced by diet, it is reasonable to keep a food diary for everything you eat. If your tinnitus fluctuates, like mine does, it will be harder to ascertain which foods are increasing your noise. But it can be done. Just make sure you test a specific food several times before you decide it makes you spike. (You want to make sure it's the food and not just your tinnitus being randomly misbehaved; that's why you should test several times.) When you test a specific food, moreover, be careful to not introduce another new item on the same day.

Keeping a food diary is a good idea anyway, for it will encourage healthier eating!

 

An additional footnote here to what @jazz said.

I have a "3 out of 3" rule in relation to foods affecting me. No this is NOT for tinnitus, as I am in the Telis camp where no foods or drinks seem to affect mine. My issue is a "sensitive gut" and it has been maddening trying to figure it out for the past 20 years. Thus before I am convinced of any relationship to my condition, a food has to give me a clean three times of consistent reaction to take it seriously. Then I may try it again in a year or so and see it it is still the case. Mostly it is, but occasionally not, with the greater passage of time. T may behave the same way if "food reactive"...and yeah, you are your best judge!

Another point is worth mentioning, though this is "observational conjecture" from a long time T person here.
I have a sense that very early on with many people who get T, at the start the T is more reactive, period. To sound, to foods, to atmospheric pressure maybe, to whatever. It may even be that a dose of hyperacusis goes along with "fresh T". In retrospect only, did I realize this always had happened to me. I had never heard of hyperacusis until 2006 so did not make the connection.
I mean look at how freaked most of us are when we first get T! Yeah, maybe this reaction to stuff is a "psychological" phenomenon, but who cares? Result is the same in my book. Just because it may only last a short while does not mean it is not there. I'm guessing I had hyperacusis for just a week or two the first time I got T. Longer the second time, but it went away so I forgot about it.

I reckon the same may happen to "foods" possibly too. Maybe this overall reactivity is stronger near onset of T then dissipates over time? If so, the moral of the story here is, if coffee or "X" makes you head ring louder now maybe it won't in a year or so. Thus you may not have to "give it up" after all...Just give it a break, and try again later.

Best, Zimichael

 

I posted:

"So you thought about suicide. So did I. A LOT! Suicidal ideation is not all that uncommon in the tinnitus population. But actually committing suicide? That's a different story. Like I said earlier, there is not a shred of evidence to suggest that the suicide rate in the tinnitus population is greater than in the general population ... and there is one study suggesting that it may even be lower."

@Telis responded:

"There is not a shred of evidence sure...is there any evidence to suggest otherwise? Or is there just no evidence either way?

If there is, could you provide a link/proof?"

..................

There are several studies that have looked at the issue of suicide in the tinnitus population. They have been cited on this and other boards a number of times - but right now I do not have them at my fingertips. Perhaps do a pubmed search as a starting point?

Here's how the Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry at a major university medical center once explained it to me. I'll liberally paraphrase it in lay terms ...

Basically, you've gotta be crazy to commit suicide. With very rare exception, well-balanced people might think about suicide, but they do not carry out the act. Tinnitus does not confer immunity to craziness. So if somebody who is already predisposed to suicide develops tinnitus, he or she might commit suicide - just like with any other stressor. There is nothing unique about tinnitus - even severe intrusive tinnitus - that predisposes one to suicide. It is craziness that predisposes one to suicide.

Dr. Stephen Nagler

 

@Telis I am in the same camp as you. Once and awhile I may skip my cup of coffee if my T is feeling extra loud in the morning. But most of the time I eat what I want because I don't like having my T control my life.

However I have noticed that I eat healthier now because of my T. Haha so I guess it isn't all that bad sometimes

 

I would have thought it was more to due with the actual endless suffering than being crazy. Some people can not habituate, that means 24 7 non stop suffering until you die.

It seems the opposite to me...you would have to be crazy to endure this type of pain and suffering 24 7 for say the next 40 years. That in my eyes would take a mad man.

And it would also seem to me that this type of suffering for years on end could turn a perfectly sane person completely crazy.

I feel like I'm loosing it, was I always crazy!!?...no chance. I'm isolated and in a ton of pain...I don't think you have to be crazy to begin with for this to make you crazy. In fact I think most people will crack under constant isolation and pain..it's just normal human reaction as far as I understand.

 

Not according to the literature, it isn't.

@Telis, best I can tell you are not crazy. And best I can tell you have not committed suicide. (Let me know if I'm wrong on that!) What I am saying is that tinnitus or no tinnitus, it is highly unlikely that you will commit suicide unless you are crazy. You might think about committing suicide, but you will not go ahead and actually do it ... unless you are crazy. And while tinnitus can for sure make you miserable, it cannot make you crazy. It sometimes might make you feel like you're crazy - but that's another matter.

Not true. You are describing my average patient there. And the overwhelming majority of them do just fine. People do not come to clinics like mine because they are getting better. They come because they aren't!

Then they get better.

Dr. Stephen Nagler

 

oh well, who needs any other sort of assistance, we all just along to his clinic and we all get fine afterwards.
Can anyone else just advertise their business interests on here at all ?

 

@Telis made the condition sound hopeless. It isn't.

You call it advertising. I call it an appropriate response to a cry of desperation. The operative words were "clinics like mine." There are a number of people who do the kind of work I do. And who do it well. To deny that fact is to deny legitimate hope to those who feel hopeless.

Dr. Stephen Nagler

 

This is a bullshit statement that I think should not have been allowed to remain in this thread.
It is one mans bullshit opinion that is against all known research into suicide!

I am absolutely disgusted that a doctor would place this quote in a support board!

 

Every seventeen minutes, someone in the United States commits suicide. Each day approximately 86 Americans commit suicide, and 1,500 people attempt suicide. Suicide is the nation's eighth leading cause of death. For those 15-24 years of age, suicide is the third leading cause of death. More Americans, an estimated 31,000, kill themselves than are killed by homicide.

For every completed suicide, there are twenty-five attempted suicides. An estimated 750,000 suicide attempts annually affect the lives of millions of family members. The number of survivors grows 186,000 each year. For every suicide, at least six other people's lives are affected.

Theirs a hell of allot of crazy's in the USA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TONGUE FIRMLY IN CHEEK!

 

So their we are, the good Doc believes that if we suffer from depression, we are crazy!

Geeeeesh!

 

Well Im not saying it is hopeless, I see numerous people move on, just saying that in some cases for various reasons some don't move forward and suffer endlessly. In these cases I'm not sure it takes a mad man to kill one self...it may just take being fed up with endless suffering. If that makes any kind of sense?