My Hyperacusis Reduced After Dietary Change

you're lucky. dairy always made my tinnitus scream bloody murder but I didn't are cause I loved yogurt so much. I read similar accounts most often from there member since dairy is an inflammatory. ugh, I miss yogurt.

 

I changed my diet a long time ago, leaning towards the "paleo diet", I think it is called. Anyway, I didnt look for a specific diet, but just listened to my body. I focused on eating food that made me feel good, and these were mainly vegetables, dry fruits, fish and fruit. Also green tea of good quality (leaves imported directly from India or China and not teabags).

However I regularly have milk or yogurt. Also cheese. I havent found any correlation myself between diary products and worsening of H and T. I seldom eat red meat, but there is liver in my diet, since it has vitamins that are specific.

I also eat chocolate, but not regulary, and drink a bit of coffee.

In my opinion diet makes a big change but the improvement derived from a dietary change, in my personal case, it is not enough to outweigh the damage made by exposure to loud sounds, mainly at my job, so I cannot avoid them. For me it is worse in terms of H and T to be stressed or be exposed to sound than eating cheese or having a glass of milk.

It is all a matter of striking a balance between what is healthy and good, and also trying to enjoy life.

 

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/diabetes/how-diabetes-affects-your-hearing/ar-BBAW9oC

Congrats on reducing the H. It may be due to an improvement in controlling your diabetes, more than the individual foods effecting the ears. Did you also have an improvement in your Hba1c?

 

yes, My tinnitus was stressful last year and I was eating a lot of ice cream. At the time my a1c was 1/10 of a point away from pre-diabeties at 5.6. After my dietary change its now 4.6. That was a wake up call. That and my fasting glucose was 110. now its back in the 80's low 90's. Diabetes is scary. It causes all sorry of cardiac problems, promotes infection, damages nerves. keep an eye on glucose everyone. Diabetes aint not joke.

 

@another sean

Congrats on the improvement in the Hba1c, and makes total sense. If we think about it, the ear involves nerves, and the higher glucose can damage that as well.

I found the H more disabling and annoying than the T when I had it transiently, so it is great that it improved.

Normalizing the glucose should be another item that the ENTs should be targeting, and yet another missed opportunity both for the H, and many other health reasons.

 

I can now handle playing the acoustic guitar without any spiking. Thats kinda shocking. It was so bad before that had I to put it back in the case the last couple of years. Now it's back on the wall, played daily.

 

So you didn't feel pain with hyperacusis before? Do you know how you got hyperacusis initially? I've had it for a couple months, and am curious if this diet thing could help.

 

no pain, just sensitivity and easily spiking. not sure how I got it, it just came with tinnitus.

 

My wife and I have pretty much gone vegan about 10 days ago and I think this is going to stick. I say "pretty much" because I am not super fanatic about it. I'll still have fish once in awhile, and maybe an egg here and there if I'm not home. But red meat, poultry, and all dairy, are out. Zippo. Nada.

The reason for going this route was not because of my T/hyperacusis, but rather because of my wife's very high cholesterol level. They said it was critically high and wanted to put her on statin drugs, but she convinced them to allow her to first try and bring it down by diet because she had done that before with pretty good success a few years ago. So,....this time we are going to stick with the plant based diet, and now I am wondering if it will have a positive effect on my hyperacusis or tinnitus. Whether it does or doesn't, we are pretty excited about going all plant based. It's amazing how easy it is these days. There is so much more information out there now to support this way of eating. To encouraged us to take this way we watched a couple of informative video's, one called "What the Health", and the other one called "Plant Pure Nation". Wow, after watching those vids, I am really encouraged. There's another video were looking forward to watching called "Heal".

Anyway, it's amazing how good vegan meals can be. We bought one of those ultra powerful blenders, this one is called a "Vitamix" blender that we got at Costco. It wasn't cheap, but holy moly, it is powerful. It could turn hardwood into a blended drink! That aside, an example of a blended vegan drink that I prepared this morning included, water and some almond milk, a scoop of turmeric, a scoop of vegetarian protein powder, a squirt of raw flaxseed oil, a couple ounces of apple cider vinegar, half a banana, half an avocado, half cup of frozen blueberries, and a handful of raw spinach. Yumm... That seems like a lot of work, but if you are doing it virtually every day, it goes very fast. Taste great too. Sometimes I will sweeten it just a little bit with a little squirt of agave. We are having fun learning about all the different vegan hot meals we can prepare for dinner time. There is so much support out there now for this.

Only time will tell if this new way of eating will have an impact on my T/hyperacusis, but I have no doubt it will benefit us in other ways health wise. If this brings my wife's cholesterol down, that will be worth it, and Im pretty sure it will.

Will keep you posted on the results. My wife gets her blood work done again in about 2 1/2 months to see if there is a change in her cholesterol. By then, maybe I'll have noticed a change in my hyperacusis. Or maybe not. Anyway, so far we feel really good about the changes we have made. More later....

 

I stopped eggs and now eat the egg white only that comes in cartons. It is very filling, super low in calories and without the yolks they are low in cholesterol.

 

If your body can handle a vegan diet then that's terrific. I tried twice and know my body is not made for it. On a vegan diet, vitamin B is often supplemented since its not found in plant based diets. my issue was my body was not recognizing B supplements and was causing issues with oxygen being transported in my blood stream which would my make my heart work over time to pump enough blood to get enough O2 thorough my system. just rolling over in bed would make my heart pound. As for the theory of avoiding sugar and carbs to reduce inflammation, thats one thing a vegan diet might not help with because most everything in a vegan diet is sugar and carbs i.e. fruit and plants. And be careful about soy. I have met a few ex vegans who had their thyroid destroyed because they were eating too much soy as a protein source and ended up on life long medication for it.

 

I just looked up this thread, since I wanted to try this again (last time I didn’t push through), and saw this comment, and I wanted to say that I used to have that exact same experience with my heart function in relation to food. That’s also why I thought for a long while a vegan diet would not be possible for me, since my heart would only function in a normal fashion as long as I ate full meals of meat and vegetables. I didn’t know about the relation to vitamin B, though, I just knew it was linked to my diet. I just knew that when a friend came over and we only ate pizza and chips, and drank a beer, my heart would keep me up most of the night.

However, over the years I came to realize it wasn’t just what I ate, and it wasn’t just meat. For example, it’s also related to physical exercise, vegetables and fruits. For example, I’m right now eating extremely low amounts of meat (after reading Foer’s Eating Animals, I want to minimize it as much as possible) and I’ve noticed it’s not a problem at all at the moment. This is because I exercise regularly (I run at least twice a week), and every evening, I have a salad of greens. That’s the most important part; green vegetables, and fruits with potassium, like bananas and citrus fruits.

I also notice that when I reduce my running, greens and fruits, the problem returns, so as long as I’m on that schedule, I can afford to reduce meat and dairy without my heart protesting.

Have you tried Alpro Soya’s plant based alternative to yoghurt? I switched over to it the last few weeks, and I’m not missing yoghurt at all any more! They have an unsweetened version with no carbs, no sugar, that is completely fulfilling my yoghurt cravings in the evening.

https://www.alpro.com/uk/products?products=plant-based-yogurt-variation

For me, it’s especially the combination of a well filled salad meal every evening, often with some nuts, and an hour before bed I take this plain, unsweetened yoghurt alternative with Cruesly. Combined with regular exercise, I haven’t had heart problems in months.

 

During that period I exercised regularly already. Lifting weights 4 times a week and cycling 6 days a week. I was also eating greens and fruits. especially bananas and broccoli and I still had the heart issue. The day I ate meat again, and not a lot, the issue went away.

As for the soy yogurt, I avoid unfermented soy after seeing what a high soy diet did to 2 of my vegan friends. It destroyed their thyroids and they are on meds now, permanently. I avoid fermented soy because it builds up too much histamine in my body. I used to love Tempeh.

Thanks for sharing your story, though.

 

Ah ok, in that case it’s better to stick to meat, then!

And haha, damnit, just when I thought I found a good alternative... Since it scared me a bit I looked it up, though, and according to research I found the link between Soy and thyroids is only an issue in women, especially of a certain age. Are your friends women, perhaps? The research, backed up by the Thyroid institute, showed no negative effects in men. I could understand if you’re still weary about it - I know I will reduce my Soy intake and limit it to the yoghurt alternative, and for the rest stick to Almond products - but just so you know.

 

Great thread Sean, I'm about to embark on the great diet attempted cure and everything you've done makes sense with my research of these last days. I'm just using my neck/jaw moving to tinnitus sound ratio to gauge how suppressed I can make my inner brain ;0. I'm not convinced actually being in Ketosis is the way to go for Tinnitus. I've done extended trips in ketosis for months at a time (granted I was taking a break and being stupid with sugar after a long run of good health in ketosis when I got Tinnitus) But.. I don't see much evidence from either people having had success on keto or research showing it will increase GABA levels enough. No sugar.. yes, that should help. But I'm going all out on increasing GABA levels. I don't know if you guys have read up on foods which have the highest content but tomatoes looks like a very strong and good source. As for the recent posts about veganism... DO NOT do that. I was Vegan most of my life and know many vegans... you have a 95% chance of ending up mentaly ruined and or and in hospital over the long term (10-20 years). It's a very bad diet. The human needs way more and better saturated fat than veganism can provide.

I will leave this here as an interesting read https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4530592/

 

Sugar and nuts is a killer combo no good for anything.

 

Hmmyeah, I was trying to move into a vegetarian lifestyle and then this came along and @another sean warned against dairy. But now that I'm seeing how restrictive my current diet has become, I'm back on biological meat.

I'm currently following the Paleo diet, since that basically encompasses all that @another sean did (no grain, no added sugar, low carbs but not thát low, and of course no dairy) and gives a good guideline on what else is or isn't allowed. Also got myself some quinoa, two eggs a day and an avocado daily (horrible - but Hyperacusis is worse). Thanks for mentioning tomato - I did have a tomato regularly, but now that I know it's apparently a good thing, I'll be more strict in having a full tomato daily.

I've been researching myself as well and saw many people on boards saying they used to have terrible anxiety problems or depression, but after going on Paleo they stopped taking their meds. So it is doing something with the brain. And it makes sense - sugar tends to make children hyperactive, so going low or no sugar should give more rest to the reptile brain to calm down.

Also, I spoke to my sister who said she had a colleague with terrible hay fever - went to a dietician, prescribed him a Paleo-like way of eating, and now - no hay fever.

 

I noticed that the salads, avocado’s, eggs and blueberries instead of my pile of bread left me seriously fatigued throughout the day which is jamming up my hyperacusis, and cooking for lunch is hardly an option. So I got gluten free and low carb bread to bring back my energy, with pure peanut butter (only peanut and butter, no added sugar). Hopefully it won’t mess too much with the schedule. I’m still sugar low, no added sugars and dairy free and such.

 

My own experiences with this diet seems to be giving a bit more insight (at least to my own personal condition). As the cutting down on food is giving me less energy, my hyperacusis is ramping up. Also, it has always been at its worst in the evening, and at its best in the morning. As it’s getting worse and worse the deeper I get into the diet, the more and more I notice my hyperacusis also gets worse by using iPad and iPhone screens.

As I see it, it’s all got to do with energy. Sugar gives you a temporary rush, and with the amounts of sugar ‘regular’ food is providing, you’re basically running on sugar all day, but ultimately drains your body of energy. As you get used to a more sugarless lifestyle and healthy food, it ultimately gives your body more fuel and energy, but you need to get through the initial withdrawal first. What helps is to combine this with plenty of exercise, either running outside with noise protection or using my Nike Training app.

Also, try to minimize your screen use in the evening as I’m seeing its VERY clearly taxing on the brain. Simply scrolling through Twitter is ramping up my hyperacusis. Whereas, if I read a book during the evening when all the world had quitened down, my hyperacusis becomes more manageable, and I get more sleepy for bed. And if you need to use a screen, at least set it to night mode all day. This drains the blue light out of the screens, making it less bright and more manageable for your brain to handle.

Anyhow, my two cents.

 

Do you think that glutamate had anything to do with it?

 

It could very well be. I didn't notice a significant change in my condition when I cut out dairy, or reduced my sugar intake, but hey, I've only seriously been doing it for a week and a half or so. But my deterioration kinda went hand in hand with cutting out my daily bread. Since I usually ate about 3 to 4 leaves of bread at my breakfast and my lunch, so 6 to 8 daily, that's quite a lot of it that my body was missing all of a sudden.

Glutamate is an important substance you get from bread, which I wasn't conscious of to compensate. I just thought "gluten are bad". Now that I see it's also in products like tomato, meat, mushrooms - hmm yeah, I did eat somewhat more tomato, but definitely not enough meat, so not nearly enough to compensate what I usually got from bread. Now that there seems to be some link here, maybe I should consciously up my intake of glutamate through natural ingredients, like tomato's and mushrooms, to see what the benefits are.

(I did take a big risk in noise exposure about 3 weeks ago, so I prescribed my deterioration towards that day and was scolding myself for it, but on the other hand - during the first week and a half after that incident, I did have a setback, but not that bad as it's now. Looking at my phone history, I did listen to a podcast since, I had a half an hour phone call for work, called with my mother, had a friend over, ánd I had one night during which I woke up to near silence. It was really the past week when I really deteriorated, which can't be a product of that day anymore, right? So the other big change would be my daily bread).

 

I'm wondering though - I got Huel lying around here, the artificial meal that is supposed to be compiled of everything the body needs, without whatever the body doesn't need. It's a liquid meal, and it's possible to survive just on that. I ordered it a few months ago because I thought it'd be the ideal way to change my diet, but stopped eating it after I noticed how foul it tasted. Maybe it'd be worthwhile to start eating it again...

https://eu.huel.com

 

Glutamate is different from gluten.