N-Acetylcysteine (NAC)

I chuck a blender full with 200gr of blueberries every morning and then take NAC 500mg. I read 200gr of blueberries have 2000mg of vitamin C, source:
http://nutritiondata.self.com/facts/fruits-and-fruit-juices/1851/2.
Also I put a couple scoops of cacao powder in there for the natural occurring magnesium.

 

I don't see any overall benefit for NAC any longer, so I have stopped using it. However I do still take some if I know I am gonna be at a fairly noisy place for some time, but I'm not sure it helps.....it is more a compulsive act by now I think.

 

Hi @TheDanishGirl,

You may want to check out THIS POST on Sodium Thiosulfate. Below is just part of a testimonial (not mine) on that post:

""One of its uses, that can be found if you know how to search the literature, is as a protectant against hearing loss. I have found that this use extends to reducing, if not eliminating, tinnitus. Also, if you have any potential hearing damage from, say, prolonged exposure to loud music, taking some of this when you get home from the concert will do well to mitigate the hearing damage. This is confirmed by my personal experience. You can likely take it before as a hearing loss preventative, as well.""​

 

Great to hear it works or you, I just started taking it after a recent spike. I took prednison and it vanished, don't know if NAC also had a hand in it.
Wow, you make that stuff yourself? Interessting stuff man, im a bit clumsy so I think il skip concocting some of my own for now
So would you say your creation is more or evenly effective then store bought NAC?

 

Hi @John_415,

After reading your post, I edited my post to clarify that the testimonial on sodium thiosulfate was not mine, but one I found online. However, I AM very interested in what your experience has been since starting to take it (I've never tried it myself). Do you have enough experience with it to report anything? -- Thanks!​

 

O wait, I just tried N-Acetyl Cysteine (NAC) did not try that sodium thiosulfate, sorry for the mixup.
I can not find sodium thiosulfate online as a supplement btw, I just find it as an ingredient to soaps, otherwise if it was safe and store bought I would have tried it.

 

Our mutual mixups are starting to get a bit hilarious. -- I will almost assuredly be trying sodium thiosulfate, as I'm the kind of person who generally leaves no stone unturned (sometimes no matter how wacky or woo woo it may seem). Which sounds a bit like you as well. I just made another INTERESTING POST on the sodium thiosulfate thread, which strengthens the case for at least giving it a try for various hearing loss and tinnitus issues.​

 

I read its dangerous stuff that you should only take with doctors supervision and is used against cianide poisining. Its heavy stuff. It does apparently work then for kids with cancer, im not going the dangerous road, im to clumsy for that. I once overdosed on vitamin D by not reading the package right while wanting to take more then the recommended amount. No permanent injuries, but im warry now.

I was wandering the internet the other day and came across this document:
https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/abs/10.1089/act.2012.18203?journalCode=act
It shows some herbal remedy's which they state are hit-and-miss remedy's.
Some of the herbs over there I have not found mentioned on this forum so im looking into herbs like horse chestnut, melissa officinalis, aesculus hipocastanum (horse chestnut), Ruscus aculeatus (butcher's broom), Astragalus membranaccus (astragalus), ginseng and rehmannia glutinosa right now.
Of these I am now trying Rehmannia (tastes like coffee), no effect. And horse chestnut (I got the supplement and the drops.. the drops taste horrible btw) also no immediate effect.

 

I came across NAC by coïncidence. I take it together with methionine. I'm suffering from T for years. More extreme T and H recently (march). After some months i started taking NAC and METH. After 2-3 weeks my T and H where much better (600mg Deba NAC a day and 500mg Deba METH).
I was feeling so great a became overconfident and started playing music again (i'm a musician).
This was very dumb, because the next nights and days i had severe T and more extreme H again. I even had severe headaches in the morning which a never experienced before.
So i started taking double dose of NAC and again i'm experiencing great improvement after 1,5 weeks. T is much better but H only improved little so far. This will probably take more time.
I will decrease NAC dosis this next week again.

Of course i'm not 100% sure this is the result of taking these pills, but there was very little improvement for months. After taking it for 2 weeks improvement accelerated.

I'm 100% sure T improved a lot and that this is not just a mindset.

 

I came across this interesting thesis from PhD Annick Gilles (Belgium):
https://expertise.hogent.be/files/15897332/PhD_AnnickGilles.pdf

"In conclusion we can say that the presence of hyperacusis has
a certain influence on the perception of the tinnitus as loudness and distress scores
are higher in tinnitus patients with hyperacusis as well."

Strange because i'm experiencing much more improvement in T than H.

 

Maybe a stupid question but I can't find the answer! I know that NAC can prevent tinnitus after loud noise but can NAC also help if you had tinnitus for years?

 

I've had T for many years and NAC did not improve or change it. I tried two different brands. One was a pharmaceutical grade produced in Japan.

Remember, my experience is only that of one person. So, don't come to a conclusion after reading only mine. Did you read through this 16 page thread in it's entirety? There should be enough posts in it to help to answer your question.

 

Yeah I agree. It won’t improve T but it just might offer some degree of otoprotection against oxidative stress such as from noise. That’s why I take it.
It has made my eyesight super sharp though.

 

I tried NAC for the first time last week after a huge spike from a window slamming shut. I took it right away for 3 days. I felt it did lower my T as my T got louder when I stopped. my question is, does it really help recover from a spike permanently and if so, how long does it need to be taken to help in the recovery of the spike?

 

How much do you take and for how long?

I am thinking of starting a daily intake of NAC because of this article: https://www.tinnitusformula.com/library/nac-for-tinnitus-and-your-health/ - but I am still a bit scared of the increased risk of kidney stones. I have taken NAC before but never for more then 3 days in a row, and I did not see any change in my T then (only the first couple of times I took it, but i think it was placebo) I want to take it daily to prevent further damage to my ears, and for the many other health benefits. I don't expect it to lower my T at all, but hoping it will further prevent it from getting worse.

 

Now maybe 600mg 2-3 times a week spread out. Sometimes I take a break for a while. Sometimes I take sublingual glutathione instead, as there’s research on pubmed that indicates it is a more effective way of boosting glutathione levels than NAC.
Some people say taking it with vitamin C is beneficial too.

With regards to kidney stones, I think drinking plenty of water would help reduce the chance of getting them.

I’ve never heard of it helping T. H maybe. But yeah fingers crossed it can prevent or reduce damage.

 

I reduced to 600mg a day as of 18/7 and was feeling good so did a trip with wife and daughter last sunday. But with earplugs in the car and in busy shops. Sunday evening a little tired. Monday i was feeling great so that was good but on tuesday i woke up with headache and earpain. I find this really strange. I stopped taking NAC since a few days completely because i have to go in for surgery on my left eye tomorrow. I'm still experiencing pain now since tuesday.
Can the pain appear after days when you have been exposed to 'loud ' environments?
I have been reading more about H and it appears pain caused by H and not T. Because i only have H for a few months and had T for years without any pain.

When you have pain from H, I of course might get the perception my T is worse. When you have pain you are more focussed on the T.

 

BTW: the NAC i'm taking includes 180mg vitamine C and Selenium 25µg
Deba NAC forte

 

Terrible day, took the train, noise everywhere, playing kids in the hospital, waking up from from narcosis with the terrible beep next to my left ear. What was I thinking not using my plugs.
On top of that my wife told me the brother in law of her friend has passed away. He chose for euthanasia because of... hyperacusis and tinnitus, 53 years old. I was broken, but at the same time i felt comfort because it is possible in Belgium.
I'm stressed out (170/110 blood pressure) and not looking forward for what might be coming next week.

Are there any painkillers that work with hyperacusis?

I took NAC and METH again as soon as I got home.

I'd prefer to be blind instead of having hyperacusis or tinnitus, bad thing is I almost became blind (right eye) also because of my retina tear and release.

btw: English is not my native language. Sorry for my english, I might not always express myself correctly.

 

Wait, so another person took his own life because of hyperacusis and tinnitus? I am shocked. Has he tried any treatments before making the decision? I mean, why did he do that? This is really shocking. Sorry

 

Its not that unheard of

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/may/05/inspiral-carpets-drummer-craig-gill-inquest-tinnitus

 

I know this, but I really get depressed when I hear that someone else took their own life bc of the conditions I have as well. It makes me wanna end my life bc it gives me no hope.... We need more positive stories. I am sorry, but this makes me and other people really hopeless and anxious...

 

I'm going to try that today, if Earthfare has it.

 

I'm not closely related to this person. I never met this person. Because my wife talked about my problem to her friend she told her about her brother in law. But she didn't know how severe his problem was, it also came to her as a shock. I was actually interested to meet the guy to talk about his and my problem because as you probably experienced yourself, not a lot of people have a clue what you are going through having T and H. But actually i was a bit uncertain because i fucked up my ears myself playing music, for him it was caused accidently. What i know is that he was 53 yo and has T as a child (14yo) caused by an accident with a bycicle. He was treated with divices (my wife thinks) and he must have been good because he became a teacher. Strange choice if you ask me but i don't know for how long he has been a teacher. I also know he and his wife didn't have any children because of his T and H.
I also find it strange that this happened so quickly. Of course this is not positive news but every person copes with this differently. His H must have been very severe apparently.
I can live with the T but the H really sucks, it controls your whole live. Luckely i work at home in my own office (small company) but i also have a passive income, i could even quit my job, but all you can do is life like a hermit.
My H also became really bad in a single year, but i still have hope for recovery, because it did previously. You can find many cases where it did online. I'm 52 and still have many plans, i like to design, create and build stuff, i hope these plans don't all fall apart.

 

On topic regarding NAC.
My problem with T in the left ear started about 14 years ago because of a noise trauma at a concert. But the T also came with H, but i actually didn't know about H. However after this trauma i wasn't able to play music without plugs. Now 14 years later i noticed i even had problems with -25db custom made plugs. I went to a concerts while using these plugs and played music and each time there were warning signs from my ears, i also noticed when in restaurants without plugs i couldn't cope well. In march this year my T became really bad (whizzing) left AND slightly right and together with more severe H. Currently i'm at the point when i speak a bit loud myself it hurts my ears.

In most cases NAC seems to help prevent damage and not curing T but it could improve H. But in a study i read that when you have H the patient experiences T louder. So maybe NAC is indeed good for treating H and thus it only improves your T experience. This would be plausable because when you have pain or fullness feeling from H it's normal you focus more on T and experience it louder.

I'm on double dose again both NAC and METH, fingers crossed.

I'm going to give my ears rest as much as possible for the coming days, doing relatively OK today, i hope i don't get a setback from yesterday. Do you (boys and girls) experience this, a setback that comes a few days delayed?

 

I'm also 'blessed' with high blood pressure, yesterday they measured 170/110 and weren't able to lower is with medication, this was just stress related. Today 131/82 ! Double NAC may be influencing this also.

But now i'm experiencing this pressure feeling in my ears like when descending in a plane. It doesn't go away when swallowing or sniffing. Wierd.

 

My wife said something about him having elektrodes implanted. This will probably the ones from Dr De Ridder, I know he was therapy with a doktor in Antwerp. (see @Hania thread). Apparently they stopped this threatment, maybe this increases H?

 

Ear fullnes feeling and almost all pain is gone. Maybe this just was moisture because when we drove back friday from the hospital it what the hottest day since registrations started in 1883 here and i was sweaty and using my plugs, so ears couldn't get ventilated.

I also went to an emotional roller coaster last night. I woke up at 3u30 and heard a varying lower tone buzzing in my right ear like sort of a mosquito but not really the same. I freaked out and thought this was another tinnitus sound caused by the stress and noises on friday. So i went to the toilet and still heard in my walk towards it and on the toilet. The door was on my left ear but i heard it right (my better ear). Went back to bed and still thinking this can't be real, god please no! I noticed my wife was also awake and asked if she heard the mosquito too, still hoping it was a real mosquito. No, she said, not the answer i wanted to hear! Still not sure what it was, i stepped to the window in the room which is open and there i heard it more clearly, it was coming from outside from probably a factory machine nearby varying by the wind. I was so releaved it wasn't a new tinnitus sound that i was crying of happiness in bed.
It is unbelievable how you can panic from hearing noises when you suffer from tinnitus

I told this story to my daughter and she confirmed she heard the same and also thought it was a mosquito and that she waving her bedsheets all night!

 

I take it daily since more than a year ago. 600 mg in the morning and 600 mg in the evening. Sometimes when I am exposed to loud noise/day I take 1800 mg at once. I've read that below 5000 mg/day you normally won't have any adverse reaction.

 

Has it helped??