I Had Some Success with Doxycycline Hyclate for My Tinnitus

I've had tinnitus for about three years now. While surfing the Internet, I stumbled on a page showing that tinnitus is associated with Lyme disease. I live in Connecticut where Lyme is prevalent and have had Lyme before. I remember a ringing in the ears when I had it. It was successfully treated with Doxycycline Hyclate and the ringing went away.

So, it occurred to me, that my current tinnitus might be from a reinfection of Lyme disease. There's some new research showing a correlation between Lyme and tinnitus. I had recently been bitten by a tick so I had a teleconsultation with a doctor and was prescribed Doxycycline Hyclate for 10 days at 100mg 2x per day. This caused the tinnitus to stop. It improved after about 24 hours and by the 5th day was pretty much gone. Unfortunately, about 24 hours after the prescription ran out, the tinnitus returned.

With this in mind, I've contacted a doctor that specializes in Lyme and am going to see what he thinks. I'm going to push for a longer duration (say 4-6 weeks) of antibiotics (Doxy, Amoxicillin, or whatever the doctor recommends) to see if this cures the tinnitus.

Anyway, for other tinnitus sufferers, you might try Doxycycline Hyclate for 10 days (it's extremely well tolerated) to see if the tinnitus improves. If it does, you're on to something and can try that or other antibiotics for a longer period. It could also be that other mild underlying bacterial infections are causing tinnitus. Anyway, you might give antibiotics a shot if nothing else is working for you.

I'll post again and let you know what happens.

Good luck,

Tim

 

I had some more Doxycycline prescribed - first two weeks of Doxycycline hyclate and then two more weeks of Doxycycline monohydrate. I'm very happy with the results.

The tinnitus improved within 48 hours of starting the Doxy again and continued to improve throughout the treatment. I experienced no serious side effects other than a little lethargy and little bit of mental fogginess. Throughout the treatment, the tinnitus occasionally occurred, but was much less severe. This may have been due to the Doxy as it's known to cause slight tinnitus. After the treatment ended, I noticed some residual tinnitus for about 48 hours. Now, about a five days after the last prescription ended, I rarely notice the tinnitus. It's still there when I lay down to sleep and when I wake up in the morning but quickly goes away. I'm hopeful this will continue.

Anyway, it's worth a shot to try Doxycycline. It was covered by my insurance as I remembered the tick bite, side effects were minimal to nonexistent, and it has greatly improved the tinnitus that had been plaguing me for over a year.

Good luck!

tbhale20