Something Positive — Please Read

sorry for delay in replying sticky - have just moved house & t is screeching

Basically eliminated any high sodium / salt foods plus ones with added citric acid.. and I try to avoid sulphites & food high in nitrates. I don't drink tea anymore and I have found that most fish is too salty - although, suprisingly, anchovies (rinsed) don't cause a spike.

hope this helps

click

 

sorry to hear about screeching. moving can be super stressful. thank you for the details on foods

 

hi sticky

stress doesn't affect my T fortunately.. but journeys do.

I'm lucky because it has now gone back down again to almost nothing.

 

Here is one theory about the ringing that I think makes a lot of sense. Basically, after the dental work, I took a lot of ibuprofen (which is a salicylate). I currently cannot take ANY asprin, ibuprofen, etc without having my ears ring twice as loud. What I never knew is that salicylates occur naturally in food. There are high amounts in tea, and in fruit etc. So the healthier I have been trying to eat (i mostly eat no dairy or meat other than fish), the more salicylates I ingest. And a few months back I started using avocado oil as a moisturizer, and slathered that on myself after showers. So, my sensodyne toothpaste, my peppermint mouthwash, my shampoo, my avocodo oil moisturizer, and all of the fruits and veggies I ate or juiced, and the multiple cups of tea I drank all day are all high in natural salicylates.. which is a substance to which I've developed an intolerance as shown by my reaction to aspirin. It is just a theory, but I stopped eating / using anything with salicylates on Monday, and the ringing seems to have gone down some. With my family's extreme allergies, it is possible that I developed a intolerance to salicylates and just need to stay away from them for a while.

For example, I had this conditioner that I used all the time. I would coat my head in it to get the tangles out after swimming. In two years of using it, I developed a allergy to some chemical in it. My head would feel it was on fire. I had to learn the hard way to bring an allergy pill to the hair salon in case they used a product with the same chemical. I finally found that Aveda products were ok for me to use. Here it is years later and I can again use most hair products without a reaction. My whole family has super active auto immune systems. allergies, colitis, interstitial cystitis, sarcoidosis, so developing an intolerance to salicylic or some other food component would not be out of the ordinary.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12944546 This study looked at vegetarians, but the numbers would be higher for people who juice and/or do not eat dairy or eggs.

 

Yeah, I went through a period where a focused constantly on what I was eating and how that affected my T either later that night or the next day. I was pretty sure I could and was narrowing it down to at least identify some factors causing the worst spikes or dramatic changes in intensity. Long story short...I gave up. Sometimes I get a sudden burst in intensity after imbibing on foods containing cumin, paprika, MSG, spicy dishes in general, etc. Or when my intake of caffine or nicotine goes up. But...and a big but...at other times it makes absolutely no difference at all what I eat or when I eat it. If a spike's coming, it's coming. Period. The only common thread seems to be not enough good sleep and resultant anxiety. And when I string together a few days of relief, with levels relatively low and bearable, there is absolutely no pinpointing that cause either. Just gotta see that when life's good, appreciate it!

 

I know how you felt Paul. I have often felt like giving up on establishing what was affecting my T. It's just so hard! But the difference it has made for me has made it worthwhile. I can only report what it does for me - I can avoid spikes and loud days by avoiding certain food & drink and, for me, it's worth it. Having said that, if I travel long distances or get vibration from something then I would spike... so I'm avoiding doing that too.

Perhaps, overall, it's not a 'healthy' way to live and it is letting T control my life. But I would have done far, far more than change my diet to get rid of the loud days. I hated them. I wasn't enjoying life when my T roared.... I was only enjoying the quiet days. So for me it's healthier to let T control my diet... every day at the moment is a great day. Perhaps it will change but, for now & the last 7 days, it's brilliant.

 

Apologies sticky - didn't see this question until today...

I've eliminated anything high in sodium or salt - I try to stick to 1.5 g of sodium a day ... it's hard though! I've eliminated anything with 'citric acid' in the ingredient list. I never eat pork or bacon now because they make my T spike. I try to avoid anything with yeast - bought bread is pretty high in salt anyway. I cook more with millet and brown rice than I ever did before. I avoid normal tea and most coffee although I have found one brand of cappaccino that doesn't spike my T. I've also cut out all cheeses except organic goats cheese.

Gosh the list goes on and on - and there's more... but I'm aware of the fact that many new to T may latch on to this and try to avoid certain foods so I'm not listing them all just in case someone ends up very hungry!

On a positive note there are many foods that have never affected the volume of my T - fillet steak, eggs, brown rice, hazelnuts, brazil nuts, walnuts, cabbage, celery etc. etc.

You need to test it for yourselves. I think we've gathered that there are many different type of T. Mine is variable and food does affect it. But for others it may be different.

I also hate my T even when it's very very low. It annoys the hell out of me. I can't habituate because it goes away completely and then comes back. It changes in volume all the time when I have it & I know that after 15 months of testing that most of the changes are due to food - for me. So I am happiest when I am keeping the volume low through my diet.

@stickywicket

 

@Sybs

I would like to thank you for the encouraging words, no matter what approach we have to our T I believe in positive thinking as part of habituating. That's my only hope after all since we don't have any cure. I'm struggling to accept it but I have two choices as I see it:

1. To accept it and try and lead a normal life
2. To fight it with mental resistance, stress and lead a bad life

It's quite easy to choose. But it's not easy to do. First step is choosing and I've only just come to that.

 

I met one of my old neighbourer a few days back about 50 years of age. He told me that he had high frequency hissing in both ears about 3 years back and was initially disturbed but later let go it. After one and half year of starting , he could no longer hear the T.

 

Wow that is great news! I have the same type of hissing for the last2.5 years and even though I am doing better, I can still hear it all the time. I just wish I knew when my habituation would take place. I know it can vary from person to person but it seems like I am taking a long time. As mentioned in an earlier post this does worry me. Are there any tricks that people can share.

Kind regards ML.

 

Every report I read is suggesting that the severity of hearing loss decides the T volume, cause when its an absence of natural environment sounds the T seems louder. I have never believed in this, your story about your father in law prove them wrong. I can't really say I have seen any similarities between the amount of hearing loss and T volume. I had a chat with a guy that got T back in 1985, his hearing loss is quite severe but his T is moderate and even. I define my own T as severe but according to the one hearing test I've done my hearing is quite okay. Don't know if this is true cross frequencies cause I haven't measured the whole bandwidth yet. But still, it makes me doubt the theories many "medical people" are stating.

 

Have the people using maskers explored the notched and neuromodulation experiments? I would recommend it.

I'm a long time T sufferer, and have used a fan at night to help with sleeping for years. Now I'm trying neuromodulation sounds that I downloaded from this forum, to see if I can do more then mask.

 

try rooibos if you are looking for a tea replacement.

 

Points well taken.

Please tell me what the neuromodulation sounds are supposed to do.

Thanks.

Stephen Nagler

 

here's a pdf explaining it: http://iospress.metapress.com/content/r771875822464323/fulltext.pdf

i hope i don't butcher a summary but here it goes: the idea is that T is a misfiring of neural connections that occur because of a loss of stimulus in the ranges of hearing loss. The other areas overreact trying to compensate. The neuromodulation is tuned for the user, for the range of their T sound, and modulates tones around that range which stimulates those overreacting regions and is supposed to reset the misfiring.

Hopefully everyone from the support section here is also looking up in the treatments area too, some great info and experiments up there. there is a website you can play around with it made by member generalfuzz:http://generalfuzz.net/acrn/

If you find your T frequency people on in the treatment section can make mp3s for you.

be proactive!

 

Thank you for the link and the nice explanation. It's an interesting theory.

I don't know about you, but I always get just a bit concerned when the primary investigators in a published study have a financial relationship with the sponsor of the study as is the case with the work you cited. Are you aware of any truly independent studies that have corroborated the findings?

I try to be! Thanks much.

Stephen Nagler

 

yes that is something to be concerned about, esp if you have to pay for said solution. I personally tried listening to the sounds for free on youtube then here and was impressed enough to keep on trying them. I don't have any more studies, that pdf is from the long thread up in the alternative treatments thread.

Anyone can try the sounds for free and see if they get results. The first time I listened for like ten minutes and my T wasn't as intense, it was still there but it was a less aggressive sound.

The notched music is also interesting, I encourage you to check it out.

 

Thanks much for the excellent suggestions.

I am familiar with notched music, Neuromonics (which is sort of the opposite of notched music), and neuromodulation as well. But for me, I guess I come at the problem a bit differently. The important thing is to find something that works for you - and if these approaches get the job done for you, then you are well-ahead of the game.

sp

 

I see you've had it for a long time too.

what techniques have you found successful?

 

Me? I sort of come at this differently.

I have, indeed, had tinnitus for a long time - like you, from the middle 90s.

My tinnitus is incredibly loud, 24/7 like a cross between a screaming teakettle and a roaring jet turbine. But no matter how loud or pitchy it might be, I no longer react to it. And since I no longer react to my tinnitus, I need no techniques.

My tinnitus used to drive the bus. Now I do.

I wish you the best on your journey. I hope you find the technique that will deliver to you what you seek.

sp

 

thanks. I wish that for everyone here.

Everyone should take your advice about driving the bus.

except for some anxiety after a plane ride induced T spike in Dec, I do a pretty good job ignoring mine and not letting it control me.

your T sounds particularly annoying.

 

My tinnitus is very loud and very high-pitched, but it is in no way annoying.

It used to be annoying - indeed it pretty-much put me in bed for a year. But since I no longer react to it, the same tinnitus that put me in bed for a year is now not annoying in the least.

sp