Half a Tinnitus Success Story / Regimen

Hello,

So, here’s my personal story with tinnitus as of today. On 02/04/20 (curious, as every tinnitus sufferer can always say when their trauma/problem happened) I woke up with a moderate but constant medium frequency drone in my left ear and probably another one in the right ear that I didn’t perceive at once because it was way weaker and only hearable when the left one temporarily subsided. The day before, I had sustained many hours of audio recording with the headphone on, as is often the case (studio recording conditions). My ears have been vulnerable for a long time, so I thought I knew what I could do or not do. As it seems, the problem was not so much peak volumes as exposure time. And probably EQ (too much treble there). After the recording: no hum or buzz whatsoever in my ears, no “full” ears or anything, or at least, nothing I remembered. The problem arose on the next day.

Of course, I freaked out. So: emergency department (I knew about the cortisone protocol), then ENT doc within 2 days (slight hearing loss, but probably predating this episode) etc. Tinnitus was not very strong, but enough to sap any energy from me, i.e redirect it solely toward the search for a “cure”, with habituation preferably out of the question given my musical activities. I will try to make a long story not too long by saying that these 3.5 months have been a bumpy ride, with plenty of trials and errors on the way. And a lot of depression. I think I have improved enough to give you my “recipe”.
The first advice I’d give any tinnitus sufferer, whatever the actual or suspected cause of tinnitus, is to experiment with their sleeping position. The very night I decided to do exactly that brought big progress though my tinnitus seemed to be noise-induced and nothing else. You simply never know what tensions, or insufficient blood flow can do to your ears. So, try to sleep on your back or any side, but with your head aligned to the rest of your body. Get your ears in the straightest line from your belly, heart and liver. Don’t sleep in distorted postures, and above all, don’t sleep on your stomach, face down or not on your pillow. Give yourself a few days to see if it makes any difference. Of course, it may not, but who knows.

And now, to the treatment I’ve been on with some success and that is widely inspired from ThomasW (whom I thank) in https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/my-ototoxic-stress-induced-tinnitus-is-nearly-gone.38880/. (the “From day x” mentions signal when I introduced each item into my diet, but I’ll leave it to you to decide if you want to try more than one thing at a time or not):

-Prayers (sorry, but yes, if you can) (from day way before 1…)
-sugar-free, salt-free, alcohol-free diet, at least as much as possible. I hope you may quickly get used to that and not crave too much since the main danger remains depression. But frankly, I’m not too sure that diet will make such a difference if you remain reasonable. It’s only that absorption is favoured by a clean one.
-Ginkgo Biloba: 1200mg a day (yes) in three takes from day 1.
-NAC: 600mg 1 hour after 2nd meal (from day 55)
-Garlic powder: 2x600mg (from day 90) and fresh garlic at all meals (from day 5)
-Vit B12: 2x1mg sublingual (from day 55)
-Valerian: 6x200mg (from day 10)
-Hawthorn: 3x250mg (from day 1)
-Zinc picolinate: 22mg in a meal with no carbs or dairy (from day 50)
-Resveratrol: 200mg (from day 90)
(What didn’t do much, i.e probably nothing: magnesium supplement, lemon balm, piracetam. As an initial treatment, cortisone made things worse)

And now to the topical part:
Prepare the following (and store it in the fridge): in 25ml almond oil, put 1 ml essential oil of Helichrysum italicum (from day1), 1ml of EO of Artemisia dracunculus (from day 1), 1ml of EO of Lavandula angustifolia (from day1), 1 ml of EO of Citrus aurantium (from day 90). Massage 1/3 ml of this oily mix on and around (not inside) your both ears 3 times a day (from day 1). You may have to apply some emollient cream in-between the EO applications, depending upon skin sensitivity.

Regarding Ginkgo: 1200 mg is some dose. You may have to work your way gradually up since Ginkgo is a vasodilator and may make you experience a little shortness of breath. Nothing too unpleasant.

The improvement has been negligible until day 50, then gradual, then faster around day 90. I’m not cured (+ I still have some old but high static hiss in my left ear, dating back 2012/13, but to which I have long habituated to). If my left ear’s tinnitus had been rated a 10 three+ months ago on day 1, it is now around 3-4. My right ear’s tinnitus has not completely vanished but I have to search for it at the right frequency to hear it. I am still depressed though, but not as much, and for the past 3 months have not played or sung a single note of music without a 37dB cutoff soundproof-helmet on (you know, the ones they use to mow public lawns). I intend to make some “little” changes to my playing, recording procedures… when I gather the needed energy to resume. I have no hyperacusis I know of, or suspect.

Any questions welcome.

Thank you and good luck if you try this regimen. I fully sympathize with all of you and pray for us sufferers, given what tinnitus is and makes us feel like.