I'd Like to Share How I Got Rid of My Tinnitus

Hi folks,

I'm not sure if this is going to help anyone because every person and perhaps every tinnitus is different, but I'd nevertheless like to let you know how I managed to make my tinnitus disappear.

I'm not sure how it started, but it was around two years ago (maybe caused by a mildly traumatic event back then: marriage that was about to crumble and then, a few months later, did; or maybe by starting to lead a more and more unhealthy lifestyle with ready meals and lack of sports; or maybe both). It had a different intensity/volume most nights and I could only hear it in a room without any noise. With earplugs in it was especially loud. It usually was in some kind of morse code pattern... very annoying.

In any case, a few weeks ago it has disappeared.

The reason: in February I started radically changing certain aspects of my life: I ate shed loads of vegetables and fruits, and started going to the gym daily, as well as surfing almost every other weekend.

I've cut out processed food, sugar and dairy as much as possible, and when I go to the gym I mostly use weights (it's important to feel the exhaustion of the muscles after a session, and to sweat, otherwise it's probably pointless).

The surfing isn't just good cardio, it's also great to be outside, in nature, for many hours, and to feel the sea water and air against your skin.

I also take supplements (I wish I wouldn't), but I'm not sure if they've made a difference, as I've also taken them during the years I had the tinnitus: Visionace Plus (Lutein, Vitamins.. B and some others, Omega 3, Magnesium, Zinc,.. not sure actually..), Osteocare plus Glucosamine & Chondroitin (I think it has Vitamin D, Magnesium, Calcium, etc.), and sometimes liquid Iron supplements as well as occasionally vitamin C tablets (I used to get a cold/flu very frequently so in my mind I keep thinking that perhaps Vitamin C might help prevent it). I should emphasize that I eat a large variety of vegetables and ingredients that are proven to have an impact on a person's health such as turmeric and ginger.

I usually add herbs and spices, which I think is also important (cumin seeds, cloves, cardamon, nigella sativa).

Sometimes I throw cumin seeds or cloves into boiling water and drink it as a tea. I also drink green tea every now and again.

Generally, I consume a lot of vegetables, fruits, herbs, spices and teas that reduce inflammation (maybe that was the key to ridding myself of that annoying tinnitus; or maybe it was the daily exercise; best to just go full throttle and change both aspects).

As I said, everyone is different and tinnitus probably varies from person to person, but if I manage to help even one person to get rid of his/her tinnitus that would already be fantastic.

Best wishes,
Daniel

 

Thank you so much for this post. It reassures me that i am on the right path with my new diet and lifestyle!
I'm happy for you and may the T never re-appear!

 

Glad to hear that the beast is gone and congrats on the healthy lifestyle. Thanks for coming back and caring about this community, as I see that this is your only post, but the post that is most needed.

 

A neuro surgeon who is visiting me now, a friend said this: I don't think that all the healthy food and vitamins made your tinnitus go away unless you had a deficiency from eating bad processed food with lots of salt.

It was most likely the exercise. It's appears that you had somatic tinnitus and from the gym or surfing; muscles or nerves in your jaw or neck were out-of-line and corrected or some other related aspect. ATD or sinuses, airway, a problem with your oropharyngeal region or spine correctness.

He also said that stress was also related and some aspect from exercise corrected a physical problem.

 

Please, stop arguing when someone says something about healthy food. Don't make excuses. As soon as i told that to someone else on PM, he said the same "I don't think healthy food helps." ... You miss the whole point! I will say exactly the same thing i said to him:

We are given one of the most powerful tools for healing - the immune system. But we constantly sabotage it by eating too much toxins, salt, meat(which releases toxins in our body too), stress ... So what you are doing is giving your immune system a fight chance by helping your body stay clean. Restoring the good health of your stomach is crucial. It's a long process. This is not a fiction! There is a lot of science behind it and you can find out that this kind of treatment is common in many cancer therapies. And not only ...

There is a lot of literature on that matter. People i know who did this, said they are feeling much better and they are not getting sick for years. They were even doing some hunger treatment from time to time, which fastens the detox process and not only. But the last should be performed under medical observation just in case. The sister of a friend of mine got cancer and went to some clinic in Mexico. She said that they are doing the same thing - giving the sick only fruits and water. Well ... not only because of that, but she got rid of the cancer.

Even if the healthy food does not "fix" your T, you can see only benefits by doing this.

 

@Greg. Very interesting. It could well be, I better keep exercising then... don't want "the beast", as Starlord calls it, to come back. However, a deficiency is also a possibility, which could mean that CaRd is also right (I ate ready-meals for lunch almost every day.. it didn't even occur to me that the manufacturers might not have the consumer's health in mind, but purely taste). It's interesting what you said about the jaw.. maybe I'm hallucinating but I do recall that my jaw used to feel more tense. Once when I was driving to or back from surfing and was listening to surf music I thought to myself "I should listen to this stuff all the time, it puts me into a more child out frame of mind and even my jaw feels less tense!", although it might have been the surfing or overall exercise rather than the music.. (In any case, I'm not listening to it much any more though, 'cause surf music can get really annoying after a while haha)

 

That's awesome, Daniel! I'm so happy for you. Maybe it was the diet, maybe the exercise, or maybe it was a just a combination of both of those things plus time. Exercise has been a challenge for me lately because the physical exertion causes a big spike, as does the loudness of either the treadmill or the city itself. I'm trying to just power through and do the exercise anyway.

 

@danielLondon What a great post to read today! You inspire me to do better, especially with the exercise. I'm kinda lazy lol. Thanks for sharing Daniel! xoxo RM

 

@CaRd @danielLondon CaRd, I don't disagree with your views on eating healthy food and anything that you pointed out in your post. I posted many times about the benefits of antioxidants and the immune system. B12 and NAC has benefits. No one has talked more about detox methods than I have in the last months. Detoxing as I pointed out in the last three months helped me totally habituate the first time that I had T at a 10/10 level.

Bad eating habits which contain lots of chemicals and salt will not help anyone with a medical condition improve. The proper changes @danielLondon made with a proper diet gave him the change to physically help correct a condition that was causing his tinnitus to be worse. He lowered his stress factors in two way. One was a change in diet and using supplements, but that did not alone bring his tinnitus totally under control. Exercise and having a positive attitude did. Without having proper antioxidants, the exercise probably would not have helped. I know this, as I have a degree that focuses on cells, nerves, veins, muscles, and bones within the body.

Look at it this way, your car is running like a slug, then you run out of gas. Running out of gas is a lack of needed nutrients and your car won't move without proper cellular health. Since the car was running like a slug before running out of gas, something mechanical was wrong with your car - a mechanical condition beyond malnutrition. Vitamins and proper cellular health will seldom cure tinnitus. It did help him enable a physical exercise program. Something involved with his exercise corrected a problem that greatly lowered his Tinnitus. It could a hundred different things, but on top on the list would be jaw muscles leading to the neck - stem cell.

 

@Greg Sacramento i totally agree with you. I am not saying that diet itself helped all the way. I just don't like people easily dismiss it just because they heard that noone got T reduced by it. It's just a minds game. I do know the positive effects of sport. I used to do fitness with heavy weights myself. But now i have problems with my knee and my lower back, so i have to change some things. Probably will try Thai Chi. Also cycling a lot and a lot of walking. Maybe will try to go in the gym again, but this will wait for now.

 

I live a very healthy lifestyle and it doesn't effect my T the slightest. I honestly just think it was coincidence. But good for you

 

That is great you don't have t anymore. I was curious though how much carbohydrates you take in. Is it possible that your body is using ketones instead of blood sugar for fuel and that could be making a difference?

 

@JasonP: I've massively reduced my carbohydrates intake, yes. Roughly speaking: low carbs, low sugar (apart from fructose), cutting out dairy products apart from meat (I'd struggle massively with meat-free living), cutting out wheat as much as possible. Unfortunately my meals nowadays fluctuate between boring and outright disgusting, but I guess they're healthy. My hope is that over time I find better recipes and get into the habit actually using them, hence improving the taste.

 

@Rosemerry
I'm intrinsically lazy, too, but the change of nutrition and daily exercise routine has made me become less lazy. Kind of self-perpetuating I guess.

 

@danielLondon , That is GREAT news. I appreciate your sharing, and I appreciate your humble attitude. This is a great discussion.

As analogy, what is the answer for Type 2 diabetics, diet or exercise?...BOTH, of course, and meds also, if the tissues are too damaged. What's the answer for tinnitus, Diet, Exercise, Stress reduction, Supplements, CBT, Auditory Therapies, Hearing aids, Trigger Point Therapy?...All, I would contend.

Can people benefit from just one of these approaches? Absolutely, most do, in fact. Can everyone benefit from combining them all? Absolutely, and most do.

Just as with diabetes, there are factors of genetics, tissue health, cause, and present lifestyle that will factor into which solution will be most helpful and what combination of solutions will be MOST helpful.

Now, to add a twist: What if a diabetic is eating lots of sweets? He starts eating fabulous, and the diabetes goes away. Of course, we know why he got better, the tissue damage was not excessive for his full symptomatic recovery. Does the clear, simple connection mean that those with more extensive damage, or stronger genetic predispositions, or even Type 1, autoimmune, diabetes will NOT benefit from the same approach. Of course they would benefit, but that solution may be insufficient to realize significant symptomatic benefit for THEM. ...And so with tinnitus.

In my research study, I found that those with a "Healthy Brain Lifestyle" tended to respond better to the auditory therapy.

So, I contend that the solution is not either/or, but rather both/and.

My work focuses on finding the assessment that identifies the right combination of solutions for the maximum relief, then applying, or providing solutions for self-application of, the best combination. And, of course, continuing to find better, more simple, most cost-effective solutions.

 

@danielLondon

It looks like the root cause of your T is not hearing loss, head trauma, TMJ... that are well known to be nearly impossible to cure. In fact, you do not have a single mention to your audiogram. Your outcome suggests that the T is coming from a metabolic issue. Note that the low sugar/low carb diet, and some of the supplements that you are taking like turmeric and ginger are the common treatment for yeast overgrowth. In my case, I suspect that my root cause is somewhat similar to yours, but it is taking a very long time to heal (2 years following diet and supplements). You can read my long and unfinished story at:

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...ng-cured-after-taking-anti-fungal-drug.11142/

 

I wonder if it is somewhat like a ketogenic diet. Of course, you eliminated dairy which makes it different. Milk though contains lactose which would be a bad idea anyway for a ketogenic diet I would think. According to Wikipedia:

"The ketogenic diet is a high-fat, adequate-protein, low-carbohydrate diet that in medicine is used primarily to treat difficult-to-control (refractory) epilepsy in children. The diet forces the body to burn fats rather than carbohydrates. Normally, the carbohydrates contained in food are converted into glucose, which is then transported around the body and is particularly important in fueling brain-function. However, if there is very little carbohydrate in the diet, the liver converts fat into fatty acids and ketone bodies. The ketone bodies pass into the brain and replace glucose as an energy source. An elevated level of ketone bodies in the blood, a state known as ketosis, leads to a reduction in the frequency of epileptic seizures."

Interestingly, it is used to treat epilepsy. Some epilepsy drugs have helped people with tinnitus. I am really happy for you. Before this diet, how loud was your tinnitus? Did you hear it when you were outside? Also, I imagine when you first switched your diet, you may have felt depressed. If so, how long did this last?

 

Hi, I noticed you were a doctor which is really great. I have been thinking of something for a while but I am no doctor so I don't exactly if any of my ideas are true but maybe you could help. I have a theory that the loudness of my tinnitus is partly due to increased glutamate in certain sections of my brain. I noticed that the drug Riluzole is supposed to enhance glutamate uptake. I also read somewhere where it is considered a glutamate inhibitor.

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0014299907011818

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/9750003

The reason I think it is partly due to glutamate is that sometimes Lamictal lowers my tinnitus though not all the time. From what I understand Lamictal works on glutamate somehow but not quite like Riluzole. Unfortunately, my doctor would't prescribe me it because it is used for ALS and I'm not asking you to prescribe it for me but I was wondering if you think this drug would be worth studying for tinnitus. Thanks for any help you can provide.

 

@Dr. Jay Hobbs

First, everyone on this thread provided great information. Daniel and everyone else take care.

Dr. Hobbs I read about your studies and watch your video. You have some excellent knowledge.

It's a pleasure to have someone with your expertise, who is probably very busy within your profession to take some time to post here.

During a recent dental implant, I had the mandibular incisive or inferior alveolar canal damaged. I had thought that this was the cause of my somatic T, the next day when somatic T reached a 10/10 - a siren 24/7. I did know that treatment had to be performed immediately within minutes after damage. This damage was confirmed by a private 3D CT scan that I went and had done.

I had habituated from 10/10 noise subjective T from seven years ago. It lowered to 6/10, and I went on with my life and never thought about my T. This time it's going to take a lot of therapy, but I hope that someday I will get back close to former baseline.

 

The T was only there at night when noise from the street or neighbours was almost nonexistent. I guess during the day I was either surrounded by enough noise or too distracted to notice it; or both. I'm not sure if I would have heard the T during the day (as I never thought of trying to pay attention to it).

It was always in a morse code pattern, sometimes so loud that I got up and punched the wall in anger (it could have been that I was also annoyed by other additional factors such as poor sleep in that moment, etc.). These might have been moments in which I experienced elevated levels of stress, but I'm not sure. Perhaps it was a 8/10 level in those moments.

However, very often it wasn't that loud (maybe 3-4/10) and allowed me to fall asleep again straight after waking up. I noticed it was there, was mildly annoyed but thought to myself "what the heck"..

What might have exacerbated the T was the fact that I have to sleep with earplugs in (I started wearing earplugs at night 14 years ago when I moved to a city with a high night-time noise level, and have never managed to get rid of this habit).

Regarding your question on depression: I find it difficult to (self-) diagnose depression, so I can't say much about that. I definitely felt somewhat lethargic/ depleted almost on a daily basis. This has changed. In hindsight, my impression is that my body used to feel kind of inflamed, even the brain (it felt slightly foggy or at least it was tougher to concentrate than it is these days). Nowadays I feel like this inflammation has vanished.

Re 'turmeric' it was fascinating what @InfiniteLoop wrote in relation to yeast overgrowth. Moreover, I recently heard about a scientific study in which they measured changes associated with anxiety/depression, arthritis and cancer in people who ate turmeric on a daily basis. That could also have contributed; i.e. lower anxiety/depression and therefore higher resistance to stress or not tensing up so much, who knows. Btw, the study only found an effect in people who used turmeric in their cooking, rather than those who took it in supplement form.

 

Diet is definitely part of the process. Every time I eat cereals my t raises. I was to the point that my T was so bad it made my heart rate go through the roof. Tinnitus would sppike even more I counldnt sleep very well which also brings on more tinntus. My DR. recommended atenolol 12 mg. I still have Tinnitus but I can deal with it. My heart doesnt freak out.