I'm Right Now Sitting in Silence

I think there is a surgical procedure to remove them, right?

 

There is. Floaters aren't something that can't be resolved.

 

Yes, but absolutely not recommended. https://nei.nih.gov/health/floaters/floaters

 

Did your kiss on ear spike subside?

 

not yet, I thought it was, but it hasn't yet

 

Maybe that's a good sign that it goes and comes? Hopefully it eventually goes for good.

 

This makes me curious. When I drink alcohol my tinnitus always gets louder when I quit drinking. I don't understand why it wouldn't be the same for everyone. I have noticed people say to avoid alcohol. Now..while I am drinking...say after having an IPA it quietens but doesn't last long.

 

I want silence to be given to me as a birthday gift

 

Giving this a try, curcumin landed today and took my first lot.

Mixed it with black pepper, 1tbsp peanut butter and a small drop of maple syrup.

Sounds gross, but the PB/syrup took the edge off the pepper and make it really easy to mix into a paste/ball that I could get down in one go.

I've got enough to last me about a 5/6 weeks at approx 5g a day.

Let's see how it goes...

 

Yeah, I don't know what's up exactly, and or what the reason is, but, today I have not had my daily flare up, and my hearing is nice and clear, I noticed hyperacusis one time when I kicked my son's Legos on accident, and it was only once, I actually kicked them twice and the second time there was no hyperacusis. I have had a few seconds of fleeting tinnitus. I've been feeling like I am very slowly recovering. I do believe that the curcumin has something to do with it. I still have eye floaters though.

 

Out of curiosity, how bad was you T at the onset? IIRC from what I've read it was somewhat but intense at the start? Great that you're having periods of silence though

 

It was loud enough to hear over traffic while driving down the interstate with the windows down in my left ear.
Then it went down somewhat when I first started curcumin, then 2 days after I stopped taking it a year ago, I suffered another trauma that made it so shrill that I was crying after work almost everyday and I could barely tolerate my toddler's voice. Then I went to Minbo Shim's clinic and it is truly up in the air if that had any affect on my improvement and now I am back on curcumin daily and somewhat lately I've been getting more and more silence/near silence at a very gradual rate.

Right now, today, if my tinnitus stayed like this I would consider myself totally fine and having no problems in life other than my own personality defects. I wouldn't be going back to loud guitar playing or playing the drums, but that's okay with me.

 

Christ, that sounds...intense...

I'm also a guitar player (I actually own/run and effects pedal company too) and I think I kick started this whole thing from the first practice I did with a new band without using ear plugs...dumb, but I've more than learned my lesson. I'm totally fine with never playing live ever again.

Will post updates on this curcumin experiment...

 

I also had another noise trauma this summer, by a motorcyclist extreme noise Do you think I should take higher doses of curcumin after this or just stay at the normal dose of 2-3 grams per day?
Now I have identical tones on each side

 

I can't say for sure, but you should experiment. Very large doses of curcumin seem to be safe. I was taking 12 grams per day for several weeks.

It does also seem like this only works for a small subset.

 

Thats 24 * 500mg pills.. Thats a lot. Would you recommend taking it as a powder and where do you buy it?
Curcumin is working on me.

 

I take the 500mg Jarrow brand. Not turmeric, just pure curcumin.
Just take the pills with food.
I am very happy to hear that it is working on you.

How well if I may ask?

 

Thanks. When we talked earlier this summer I upped the dose from 200mg to 1,5 grams on your advice and I had a huge improvement. I would say 50% improvement like you. Then two weeks after I had this motorcyclist incident. Now it seems I must take a little more curcumin, about 2,5 grams, to bring it down 50% still, but from a worse level now. So it seems 50% reduction is the effect on me.

I can still read and think clearly, but quality of life is down and I am not as productive as before.
Once we have got this thing we have to be alert - it only takes a small motorcyclenoise to make things worse.

 

We got tinnitus around the same time, and I remember you described it often very similar to mine (mild during the first months). Did it started to get worse after a while or always after traumas?

 

after traumas. back to back PA blast and then some leaf blowers. That's when it went to nearly unmanageable.

 

That sucks, I‘m sorry. I remember yours was similar mild to mine in the beginning. Good news that you have improved again.

 

As of today, I am doing great.

 

What if the sudden damage to our hearing creates a positive feedback loop that creates the tinnitus hyperactivity which also inhibits the ability of the auditory system to adjust to the loss of input?

I bet that is the answer for many of us.

 

Yes, that has to be. The brain can adjust to lack of input, or recurring input. The brain can super adjust on the fly, quickly. It is not our brains doing this, it is the system between the cochlea and the brain.

By killing the hair cells really quickly, the middle man between the auditory cortex, the auditory nerve, the dorsal cochlear nucleas flips out and makes new connections haphazardly becomes hyperactive and the brain doesn't ever get a chance to filter this out because it is in fact coming from the peripheral nerves. It is a genuine stimulus coming into the brain. Also, the hyperactivity affects the visual system too. It has too. That would explain the disruption that causes floaters and visual snow. The answer is to restore the input, or retrain the auditory cortex like Shore and Lenire. The best thing is to restore hair cells I think. The rest of the auditory system just cannot adjust properly with the rapid adjustment from damaging the cochlea and cannot nor will not adjust properly except in a very small amount of cases.

I stand behind this 100%

 

I’ve long believed that onset of tinnitus has more to do with the sudden loss of hearing rather than the total hearing loss accumulated.

Which makes perfect sense as to why some people can have bad hearing loss without tinnitus and vice versa.

 

In case of tinnitus due to drugs it may be the drug that alerts the nervous system about an existing hearing loss. It can happen also with a ear infection. I had hearing loss pre-tinnitus but zero tinnitus. Then I got a ear infection while I was on pregabalin and the tinnitus started even if the hearing loss didn't change. As if the medication/virus had told the nervous system "hey, you have hearing loss, listen up". That's what the Ashton manual says on benzo withdrawal

 

What dose curcumin are you on? Are you still getting the same undulations as you did at this time last year?

 

No way. I'm almost back to normal. I switched to turmeric, about 6 grams per day. At one time I was taking 12 grams of curcumin per day.

 

I’m on this. Today was my first day with periods of diminished tinnitus (maybe a half hour at a time before the high frequency picked back up) although not “silent” or at all eradicated. 4 months in. I take it/pray this is one of those “small step” moments that begin to add up?

 

So what's your recommendation - turmeric or curcumin?