Noise Induced Hearing Loss/Tinnitus and Prednisone — Helpful or Harmful?

I’m new here, I did use the search function, and the flood of info is overwhelming.

I’m having trouble figuring out whether or not prednisone is harmful or helpful in the early stages of noise induced hearing loss/tinnitus.

This Saturday evening will mark 2 weeks since the offending event. I have a prescription for a 6 day pack.

Is there any danger in taking it? It’s from my family practice doc, can’t get to an ENT until March 7. Don’t think there are any hyperbaric chambers around I wouldn’t need an ENT referral for.

Looking to attack this hearing loss AND loud ringing head on.

 

Ask them to inject neurotrophin-3 into your cochlea, it's live saving medicine locked away behind FDA red tape that could completely restore damaged hearing in very early phases.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4842978/

Of course they won't do it, let alone even know about it, they'd rather sell hearing aids and habituation therapy.

But seriously your best bet is a prednisone steroid, just try to get back as much hearing as you can since it's about getting better not worse.

 

Any idea why some articles only suggest prednisone for non-noise induced hearing loss and tinnitus? Any concern that prednisone could worsen tinnitus? Probably not the right focus I admit as I’m still in the earliest stage of this, but I’m finding myself more concerned about the noise in my head than the noises I might not be hearing as well.

 

2 weeks is pretty late for oral pills.
At this point your best bet is intratympanic dexamethasone and HBOT.

How much prednisone do you have?
How many mg a day can you take until your prescription goes out?

 

Prednisone might be ototoxic and might spike tinnitus too.
But for some it helps a lot.

You can try taking one dose and see results for yourself.

I did steroids 4 times and had mild improvements.

 

I received a 6 day pack. A total of 21 tablets, 5mg each. Day one would be a 30mg does, and then drop the dose 5mg each day.

I’m in knots. It takes almost a month to get in to see an ENT around here, at which point I think it would be too late. How are folks getting hooked up with HBOT? Even that requires a referral from the ENT around here.

 

That's a useless dose. You can take it, but considering the time frame and the dosage it probably won't do anything. Most nerve cells die within a few days after exposure.

You need to take at least 90 mg a day for 4-6 days and then taper. In acute cases 250 mg of prednisone are prescribed.

If you can't get to ENT you need to go emergency room. Maybe they will help, but again 2 weeks after onset is too late in most cases.
You can always lie and say that you've been exposed to a gunshot recently. (Like 1-2 days ago)
Ask for HBOT directly. Don't wait around for some doctor to help you out with that.
Nobody cares. It's a cold hard truth.

 

I'm currently experiencing a spike (new tone) and I got a 250mg shot into the arm today. About 5 hours ago. Can't say the tinnitus is affected in any way... but I feel kind of heavy and shitty. Will keep you posted.

 

Last week I was at the hospital getting blasted with huge doses of dexamethasone IV and it resulted in very blurry vision (from -0.5 to -2.5 only after 3 days of steroids).
Thankfully it recovered, but I feel like my vision is still worse. I'll get another test in 2 weeks.
It also resulted in muscle spasms and they pumped me with myorelaxants. My neck is still kinda stuff and in pain.

I regained about 10 dB on all frequencies. Tinnitus got better, although new tones didn't disappear completely (for now, I hope they will continue to fade).

Overall it was a very scary and unpleasant experience.