My Hyperacusis Reduced After Dietary Change

I thought I would share a discovery. Recently I have noticed my hyperacusis for the past 4 years has become non-existent. I never had pain from hyperacusis but around certain sounds, my hearing would.

A few examples are:

1. My clothes dryer doesn't bother me at all now. For the past four years I had to wear earplugs and ear muffs when using it the entire time while in a different room with the door closed. Now I don't need any hearing protection even when standing right next to it.

2. When walking in my neighborhood, I had to do it at night with no cars. If one drove by, I would need both ear plugs and ear muffs. Now I can walk during the day only needing ear plugs, no ear muffs, even when a car drives by. I have also had no ear plugs when no cars were around which I thought would never be possible, but it is now.

I noticed this change about a month ago and the only thing different is I changed my diet in a big way. I eliminated all diary, anything with added sugar and reduced my carb intake to less than 150 grams a day. I started eating more fats like an avocado daily, a couple spoons of coconut oil in every meal and no simple carbs. This change was all started to control my blood sugar. Which did drop 25 points. I don't think its a coincidence since this was in issue for 4 years.

Maybe the reduction in inflammation could be a key player here since sugar is notorious for it and it comes from carbs and dairy.

 

Really happy for you.
Diet is so important...

Congratulations.

 

Good thing your hyperacusis has decreased!

Maybe there is after all just a small, undetectable inflammation somewhere in our ear...

I am addicted to Cola drinks so my sugar intake is ridiculous. Trying to cut it down though...

 

I think my most recent spike is sugar related, will report back later as I'm switching to a veggie fast /diet for 6 weeks to see how things will change. I'm open to try anything at this point.

 

Try to replace your sugar craving with things sweetened with Stevia. They make candy and all sorts of things with Stevia. Even chocolate bars. Another alternative is Monk Fruit sweetener. Both natural and can be found in organic forms. Try flavored Sweet Drops too. Liquid flavored stevia you can drop into anything, even your mouth if you want. Chocolate and Carmel favored even. Go nuts on that stuff and get off of sugar if you can.

 

I do know that diary does affect hearing. I know several musicians who attested that when they drank milk, they couldn't hear their mixing tracks as clearly. Milk has a lot of sugar, people don't realize. 12g of sugar on average for 1 cup.

 

There is not much stevia flavoured cola-drinks... I've been addicted to those since I turned 15... It's a miracle my teeth are still in perfect condition. Aspartame is not good, I used to drink aspartame drinks but those mess up my head and I start eating like a horse.

But I will check into it! I forgot about stevia. There could be some kind of juices etc. that you can mix yourself. Or then I just move on to cans...

 

I think sugar makes tinnitus crazy, I noted that every single time I eat Nutella my tinnitus spikes. Every single time. So bye bye Nutella.

 

Congrats on killing your hyperacusis !

What about your T? Did it change at all after your dietary changes?

 

Not really, just the H. Although it is less reactive after the change.

 

Are you sure its not just the caffeine in the chocolate? Caffeine is a common problem. Maybe compare fruit juice to black tea and see which ones makes it worse. Then you'll know for sure if its sugar or caffeine.

 

The thing is that when I have a couple of espresso shots my tinnitus remains as is, so it has to be sugar!

 

This is awesome, thanks for sharing!

So you basically did the Keto diet?

I just stashed on low-carb bread, low-carb salads, no-carb cheese, tomatoes, cucumber, avocado, and whatnot. Let's see what this does!

Especially what you said about, that your T has become less reactive. I believe my T currently exists because of its extreme reactiveness. If cutting out carbs and sugar will lower that, it will probably lower the T as well. This in addition to my Curcumine supplements, should have some effect, I think?

 

Keto is a lot more restrictive on carbs. Like 50g a day. Im still doing 150g a day so you can still have a full suggested serving of carbs per meal. I would cut 0ut all diary, such as cheese, to properly test this. Dairy just causes all sorts of problems that people don't realize. Eating nuts is a good replacement as well.

 

Ok, thanks! Hmm... this really cuts out all of my previous habits . Usually, I’d eat pasta, rice, yoghurt and bread, which is now all restricted, hehe. But I really want to do this properly, so yeah, will do!

Could you say what kind of hyperacusis you had? Your sentence on that seems cut off . I believe you had terribly reactive T, right?

(And here I was, thinking I was doing so great with my low-carb bread and cheese).

 

I'm glad you found some relief. This is interesting to me. I've noticed my tinnitus often temporarily seems worse after eating a big meal.

How long has your hyperacusis been gone? Are there any other factors; are you sleeping better too?

 

About a month, now. sleep is the same. Head seems clearer. Ive read similar results from people on Keto diets. My changes isn't exactly Keto and I don't think Ive ever hit ketosis, but its in that direction. Been piling on the coconut oil every meal as well. The only other difference is I lost 30 pounds. Cutting sugar and not eat carbs in between meals all day makes the fat fall right off. I haven't been at this weight since just out of high school. I seriously need to buy new pants. My current ones keep falling off.

If anyone is interested in this direction of diet, check out Grain Brain and Fat for Fuel. This type of eating is very focused on igniting the mitochondria of you cells and it also increases ATP which is interesting as it maybe be a possibility why my H improved because the theory behind LLLT is it too increases ATP which they say repairs hair cells.

 

Thanks a lot for this information. This gives me hope. I have H (and what seems to be TTTS) for almost three and a half years and it's barely shifted from the start, perhaps a small drop after a few months, but it's plateaued since then.
I eat plenty of dairy although I try to keep it to good quality dairy, grass fed and raw where possible.
My sugar intake isn't crazy but I'm sure I could do with lowering it.
I'm interested in trying what you've suggested to see if it will help me.
What's your take on meat? and alcohol? (I take both daily, although neither in huge amounts)
It's fascinating to hear about LLLT, increased ATP and the possibility of restoring hair cells, I didn't realise this was possible.
I'll do some reading on the books you've mentioned.

 

@another sean , what's some examples of easy diet meals?

 

breakfast:
2 hard boiled eggs
blueberries covered with pecans

Meals (can be used as lunch or dinner)
ground turkey, broccoli, quinoa or barley with salt, pepper, lime juice, toped with 2 spoons of coconut oil
salmon with kale and spinach, quinoa or barley with soy sauce, pepper, lemon juice, toped with 2 spoons of coconut oil

1 cup or quinoa is good for 4 meals
1.5 pound of turkey is good for 4 meals
so you really cook every 2 days

snacks:
nuts

 

My H seems to still be improving. I can now handle the washing machine.

 

the only meats I would eat are organic ground turkey, wild caught sockeye salmon or organic grass fed beef. Turkey being the main one and beef and salmon once a week. Tempeh is a vegetarian option as well. And when it comes to eggs, they have to be organic pasture raised and never fried. Ideally it should be hard boiled (placed in already boiling water) for 7 minutes. Thats just the right time to harden the egg white but keep the yolk as close to raw as possible. Fully hardening the yolk oxidizes the cholesterol which is no bueno.

I stopped all alcohol a while ago due to its link to cancer.

 

@another sean
I’m very happy for you Sean. Great news

 

Interesting this helped your Loudness hyperacusis.

I will need to keep an open mind, maybe cochlear nerve inflammation or something from a poor diet? Or something going on at a neurological level? I wish we knew why.

 

Hearing this stuff about dairy has encouraged me to cut down this last week as well (pretty much to nothing--hard as a cheese lover!) Really trying to reduce sugar intake as well. Can't hurt!

 

Now there is more attention to something called the brain-stomach connection, and to the microbiome, that could play a role in conditions and health problems not specifically related to the stomach. Maybe there is a link to the nervous system too.

 

There definitely is. Check out the book Grain Brain.

 

Congratulations Sean! I eat a lot of carbs and dairy.... maybe I should try this.

How long after changing your diet did you notice these improvements? Was it 1 month after starting the diet?

 

1 month feels about right. 1-2 I'd say.