If You Have Fluctuating Tinnitus, a Journal May Be Able to Help You Identify Something

I just wanted to put this out there. I had loud T for 3 years. However, after taking a mood stabilizer drug I noticed I had drops in T that I hadn't had in years. However, the T shot back up and I got upset, did some things and got the T to come down somehow. Then it went back up. The problem was, I was taking so much stuff I had no idea what was doing what and how. I took a journal for 4 months and wrote down some things:

The time I took each supplement or vitamin
The time I took each drug
Usually the time I went to bed at night
Sometimes I recorded what I ate

A mistake I made was not including naps I had taken during some days. I probably also should have recorded how much water I drank each day and stress levels as well. This may sound stupid, but sunset and sunrise times may be helpful, especially if you go outside because light and darkness can have an effect on hormones.

If you are interested, look up circadian rhythm on the internet to find out more.

You all might benefit from adding a food journal as well and also other things you think could be important.

Now, my journal was mostly done from March to the end of June this year. I thought I had figured some things out with the medications and supplements and had a great month in August but even as I was leveled, I wanted to "get more energy" so I cut back on a couple of supplements and a few days later, high T again.

From that point it had been fluctuating for a couple of months again after trying some things so I went back and wrote down what was going on again in the journal, read the journal quite a bit, studied, thought, and trying to figure out what was going on.

I thought I saw a pattern so I came up with a specific time and order for each supplement and medication. It was a little different theory than I had months ago and it seemed to work the next day. It has worked for a couple of days now but I need to give it some time to make sure this is going to work in the future.

I can tell you that sleep has a role in my T and it seems to be what I take before sleep and what I take after sleep has an effect on it. There seems to be some hormone related things going on, neurotransmitter stuff, biological processes, etc. Tinnitus is different so what may work for me might not work for others but this could aid you all. If it does help though, it might take a while to figure something out.

 

Okay, its been a while and I was curious if anyone tried this and found out anything. If so please post.

 

This is the first time I am seeing this thread. Did you find out anything that helped you to avoid spikes in your T?

 

I wrote down a lot of information about supplements and medications I took and what times I took them for a couple of months but didn't keep a food diary. I have looked through it quite a lot but still have found no pattern or surefire way to lower my tinnitus. Hopefully someday I can figure out what's going on.

 

You may consider looking at moving averages. In other words, something you do on any given day might not make an impact. However, what you had done in the past x days might have an impact...

You could also hire a freelance statistician to see whether they could make any sense of your data set. But be careful, make sure the statistician knows what he or she is doing.

 

My tinnitus fluctuates a lot, no matter what I do. It’s been always like this, at the present and in the past. During months, long time ago, I once wrote down everything I did or took, and my only conclusion was that the more I cared for my condition the most confused I was. Nothing worked permanently, only a good night sleep and keeping away from noise and certain foods seemed to help, even phone calls had to be short till I started using “free hands mode” and now I can be hours on the phone without spike problems, for the rest, I have given up. My conclusion is that many things can worsen tinnitus but non can make it better permanently. Time might bring the severity down for most of us as far as we keep away from noise exposure and toxic medications, the rest is an illusion that we all want to achieve but like all the illusions is more a wish than a reality. Honestly, I’m an old man and I feel lazy to keep a diary that, at the end, will bring more confusion than help to my little knowledge about this horrible symptom that afflict us all here. I enjoy reading everything you post, Jason, I mean it, you are a very well documented person from whom we all can learn a lot, so don’t take me wrong, I think you are doing very well and all your conclusions will be of great interest for me, but the journal I once wrote was more confusing for me than helpful, probably it was my fault and my method was wrong, the thing is that I felt it was useless and I stopped writing. Go on with your work, you are by far better than me doing this, I also whish, like you do too, that someday you can figure out what’s going on and we all can get a profit from your work. Thanks very much for your smart posting, I really enjoy reading every thing you write. I wish you well.

 

Thanks so much! Those are very kind words! I guess with some people this might help but with others it might not. I think it gives me a little hope that if our tinnitus is lower sometimes that maybe something will be able to be done to make it lower more often.