My Experience: Aspartame and Caffeine Are Huge Contributors to Tinnitus

Hi, I'm Vicki and my tinnitus was brought on by a nasty bout of Shingles two years ago when I was 46 years old. My audiologist confirmed that Shingles can cause hearing loss and tinnitus. Shingles also brought on a severe allergy to NSAIDs. Anyway, I struggled a lot the first year I had tinnitus but then I did some research and tried a few things.

One of the number one contributors to tinnitus can be caffeine. It took 4 months of little to no caffeine in my diet, but eventually, I saw a significant difference. I used to drink 2 to 3 cups of coffee per day and caffeinated sodas every now and then, but I switched to decaf coffee or tea and cut out caffeinated soda. Tea has much less caffeine than coffee and with only 1 cup per day, my tinnitus stays pretty quiet.

But, the other thing I want to say is a contributor to my tinnitus is Aspartame. Aspartame can cause "aspartame poisoning". Look it up! Aspartame poisoning causes damage to the nervous system and inner ear and can be a HUGE cause of loud tinnitus. Sure enough, I cut all aspartame out of my diet, no more diet soda or foods with fake sugars and I started to see even bigger improvement in my tinnitus over just cutting out the caffeine. Aspartame should not be allowed to be consumed in my opinion. The FDA should ban it. Sucralose, Erythritol, and Stevia/Truvia seem to be ok as sugar substitutes... although I'm still skeptical of Sucralose and Erythritol.

My tinnitus is so much quieter day to day that once in a while I let myself have a caffeinated drink. But I never consume aspartame drinks or foods anymore. I read a lot of labels to make sure I'm not getting aspartame. My tinnitus is so quiet most of the time now that I don't know it's there, or barely there. I can say that after drinking a diet Coke (which I forgot and did by mistake a few weeks ago) my tinnitus was screaming later that evening and part of the next day. It has caffeine and Aspartame. Yuck.

I hope this helps some of you out there!

 

I'm going to have to try this, if not for the tinnitus then at least for the health benefits. I consume too much sugar, especially Diet Coke and Pepsi as it is. Having a sweet tooth is not doing my waist any good. Hopefully I've got willpower to say NO!

 

As someone who drinks a lot of caffeine and diet drinks, I need to try this. I know regardless of my ears, it isn't good for you.

I do know from giving up Aspartame in the past it had a huge impact on my dieting, I feel it really affected my metabolism, it's nasty stuff.

 

New Goal Set... I should probably taper since I'm already pushing 400 mg a day. And I agree, aspartame is nasty stuff.

 

I hope you don't mind me replying in this manner but I mean well.

Since these forums (for good reason) are always holding everything to the highest standards (needs to have peer reviewed, placebo controlled trials etc), please link conclusive research that either aspartame or caffeine causes or makes existing tinnitus worse.

If you google *anything* + tinnitus, you'll find at least a couple links that corroborate a link (backed by proper research or not).

In the end we'll end up drinking water and eating paper as the only two things that haven't been written about yet causing tinnitus.

For example: There was a "study" recently linking breast cancer with aspartame.
Completely debunked thereafter: French Artificial Sweetener-Cancer Study is 'Le Bullsweet'

Again - I hope you don't mind the tone of my message. Thank you for posting.

 

Please link peer reviewed, conclusive research that confirms your unproven assertion.

 

Coffee definitely made my tinnitus worse on many occasions. It would mess up my sleeping cycle and the next day my tinnitus would be louder. Caffeine stays in the blood stream for 12 hours.

 

I'm sorry if you don't feel what I've posted is scientific enough and therefore not helpful, but I'm just telling you what's worked for me and what I've read about. I think it's worth sharing if others want to try cutting out these foods, maybe some of them will be glad they did!

I have tried cutting a lot of things out of my diet (including lactose and chocolate and gluten and...) to see what impacts my tinnitus. For me, I know that when I consume a lot less caffeine and cut out Aspartame that my tinnitus is significantly quieter. Quieter to the point where it's not really a thing in my life!! It took me the last 2 years to discover this. I also notice that when I eat out at a restaurant and the food has MSG in it, my tinnitus becomes very loud within a few hours and stays loud for several hours. Usually by the next day it's better, though. So I still eat out, just not often.

 

Which assertion did I make?

 

Nothing wrong with you posting your personal experiences. I'm just interested what exactly have you read. If you could link the research, that would be great.

 

I always thought a lot about this as I used to chug 5-6 litres of Pepsi Max (sugarfree Pepsi, has a lot of aspartame) every week for several years. Now I'm down to 1 litre a week but I'm thinking of cutting that too.

 

Thanks for your post. It is always good to hear anecdotal accounts and I think most of us are aware of the claims relating to caffeine and tinnitus. You say it took 4 months to make a difference - that is quite a long time - maybe long enough to include the possibility that your tinnitus simply got better. I am not saying this is the case - but it may be.

I got tinnitus in February this year and fairy quickly did what you have done. Decaff coffee and 1 standard tea bag per day from which I make several cups. I cannot tolerate decaf tea.

In August this year I concluded that there was no significant difference and now drink standard coffee.

The British Tinnitus Association have concluded the clinical evidence is not good enough to warrant eliminating caffeine from one's diet. I already knew about this before my 6 month test but tried anyway.

I am glad it worked for you.

As for aspartame - I try to avoid all artificial sweeteners - including sucralose. Though I have not read up on the studies - I just hate the taste and aftertaste.

Personally - I have not found that any element of my diet makes a difference to my tinnitus level.

The only thing I did test and seemed to have success was liver. I ate 400g of liver over 2 days - on day 3 and day 4 I noticed very low level tinnitus. I need to try this again and see if I can repeat the results.

 

I sent an email to Dr. De Ridder to ask about this because I'm extremely curious about this. I've been wondering about this for years. I cut all aspartame very recently - tinnitus got a lot worse after a few days and it's been a constant nightmare instead of fluctuating. I haven't had any relief in a while now. I also asked his opinion on whether the Dr. Shore device will work for non-somatic tinnitus or not, although I might not get any meaningful answer there. If Dr. De Ridder says that aspartame is most likely completely irrelevant I'll put it to rest but I have a feeling that's not the case.

 

Tinnitus was caused by a virus. I doubt foods will have any real influence unless it was the foods themselves that caused the tinnitus.

I am at a point where I've just stopped caring. I'll eat whatever the heck I want. I am tired of being a slave to this noisy bitch.

 

Dr. De Ridder won't know either. At this point he is basically doing a kitchen sink approach when you visit him. He put me on all kinds of things (Deanxit, amongst others), just to see if anything works.

That's why my initial comment in this thread still stands. If there is no research backing up the Aspartame <> tinnitus connection, Dr. De Ridder will have nothing to add either, until he himself conducts research on the topic, which as far as I know, he hasn't.

Sorry to sound a bit harsh, but I'm a bit fed up with doctors. They don't know either. Not even Dr. De Ridder, one of the leading tinnitus 'experts' in the world - he is also just going off of research papers, exactly the same ones we have access to online.

Currently Dr. De Ridder is researching Ketamine as a cure. I haven't heard any results there.

 

I have to disagree on that. My tinnitus was also caused by a virus, and now loud noises spike it, which never happened pre-tinnitus.

My theory is once you've activated those neurons/synapses, they become much more sensitive to stuff that never was an issue before.

 

Yet if you look at research from biobank data and Dr. Dirk De Ridder's presentations, high coffee drinkers have less chance of developing tinnitus.

Aspartame is a different story.

 

Hey @Ben Winders -- I have to completely disagree with you that these forums are held to the "highest standards" you reference. I post stuff all the time that doesn't meet those kind of standards LOL. But that doesn't make what I post (or @Vicki Leavitt) any less worth consideration than some of the often irrelevant trials that are so common these days.

So many of these trials are very narrow in scope, have a myriad of conflicts of interest, and quite often (usually it seems) designed to achieve a desired result. There are so many pitfalls to so many of these peer reviewed, placebo controlled trials, that I'm surprised more people don't realize it. A former editor of the New England Journal of Medicine resigned her post because of the increasing unreliability of so many of the trials they report on.

Something to consider: I've heard that it's quite common for mothers who take their children to pediatricians and describe what's going on with them, are told that it's simply not possible. That the "peer reviewed, placebo controlled studies" don't support it. Isn't it a sad commentary on conventional medicine thinking when it leads to no longer believing what their patients/clients are telling them? Especially when mothers are told they can't be right about what they're noticing about their own children???

 

I see what you are getting at. Truth be told: I'm getting so tired of apparently everything anecdotally possibly making tinnitus worse.

Most recent example: I'm in this thread about a guy that was taking baths in Epsom salt and was getting reduction in his tinnitus. I went out and bought it and before actually trying (water was literally running) I googled "Epsom salt Tinnitus Talk" and lo and behold, 3 threads popped up stating taking Epsom salt baths caused spikes...

I guess I just want to have an ideal world where all this stuff can be peer reviewed so I don't end up in bubble wrap eating paper because that's the only thing that doesn't have a thread on Tinnitus Talk

In short: I see what you mean, but I'm just tired. I hope both you and Vicky understand.

 

I was going to make a profile update on this but I doubt I could fit the message. So I decided to put it here instead.

I've recently seen a lot of new studies on Aspartame. They've finally begun to really dig into this stuff with more serious experiments. So apparently Aspartame:

1) Can give you cancer
2) Is bad for your GABA receptors (important for a balanced mind)
3) Can give you memory loss

I quit Pepsi Max in April this year and that almost immediately terminated my severe stomach pain. I thought I had IBS. Now I'm wondering what else can improve. I highly suggest everyone stays away from this stuff, just in case it's all true.

 

Any references/links of this research?

Anything about tinnitus?

 

Face it, almost everything and anything causes tinnitus, including worrying about what causes it.

 

I gave up all soda pop 14 years ago due to ulcerative colitis. Five years ago I gave up red meat, milk and cheese. I'm pretty much on a Mediterranean diet now. I stopped taking meds for the UC at about the same time. I had my colonoscopy last July. No ulcerative colitis was found.

 

I occasionally take Epsom salt baths to relax and hopefully get a good night's sleep. I have never noticed a reduction in tinnitus from the bath, except for possibly getting a better night's sleep.

Over the long term, mellowing the sympathetic nervous system and boosting the parasympathetic nervous system may be helpful in achieving a gradual reduction in tinnitus. That would be a long term systemic change that may create conditions so neurons are less apt to overfire. For example, Epsom baths, warm comforting foods in winter, elimination of cold ones like ice cream and excess sugar, self-massage, etc. may all help calm an overstimulated nervous system and perhaps allow the neurological overdrive to eventually settle as well.

And, folks here seem to react differently to various stimuli, e.g., caffeine bothers some and not others. Wine, even a glass, seems to exacerbate my tinnitus the next day. There are probably others who have a different response to a drink or two.

I get the exhaustion part though. I pretty much have a routine (that I don't always follow). If I see something that somehow clicks for me and/or shows promise (ideally with research to back it up), then I take a look.

For me, one particular acupuncturist has helped, as has a craniosacral therapist, ayurveda, hypnosis, Klonopin, Gabapentin, getting to bed by 11 (which is a challenge), exercise if only to keep up my spirits, meditation on the beach (as simple as gazing at the water and doing basic pranayama - yogic breathing)...

Just my two cents.

 

Coffee definitely worsened my tinnitus likely by causing inflammation. It took almost a month of not drinking it to get my tinnitus to permanently settle into a state where I don't get spikes above a 5. Other sources of caffeine like soda and tea do not have this same effect. I might get a temporary tinnitus spike when I drink a lot of soda, but it doesn't cause the ear pain and the inner ear muscle spasm that coffee does. These make the tinnitus a lot more unbearable. Quitting coffee is probably the one thing that's helped my tinnitus the most.

 

I drink around 6-8 cans of coke a day - aspartame and caffeine make zero difference to my tinnitus.

I gave up coke for two months where I was having pretty much zero caffeine and zero aspartame, I have also switched to caffeine free coke for a period of a month and for both case studies I had zero change in tinnitus, so I eventually switched back as I enjoy them.

Not saying aspartame or caffeine doesn't spike others, but just a counter argument that it doesn't for everyone - as otherwise you really can become fearful of taking, drinking and eating EVERYTHING - like I was in the early days when I signed up here and started reading through posts.

It isn't a one-size-fits-all, and you have to personally experiment to find the good and the bad for you.

My tinnitus does seem quite different to most on here though, so there could be that.

 

I was drinking about 3 cups of regular coffee every morning at work but not on the weekends. It never seemed to affect my tinnitus. Then I cut the caffeine at work completely and no change in my tinnitus. I haven't noticed any change with Aspartame, either. I actually cut way back for a few weeks on it - no change to speak of.