Tinnitus Began First Week of June 2020 After Wim Hof Breathing

Hi Dario,

My neuro prescribed them to me. At that time, it was for me feeling unsteady as my tinnitus wasn’t that obvious.

i cannot tell you if it worked because It had strong side effects on me such as tachycardia, exhaustion, weight loss, headaches so I stopped them very fast. Please note though that my neuro said that it doesn’t usually happen so I may just be extra sensitive to it. It may also be that some of the symptoms were also caused by other medicines I was given at the same time.

It’s true that in addition to my neuro, even the ENT recommended it. I might just try them again. Here s some research on it:

Betahistine in the treatment of tinnitus in patients with vestibular disorders

 

Hello everyone!

I'm long overdue with a reply for some of you about my state. I had so much to share that I found it hard to sit down and write them down, but here I go.

Not much has changed regarding my tinnitus. I still have it and I can't say there was an improvement, it's more like I got used to it. It's been 14 months now, so I had my anniversary with it, and made me reflect on a few things.

I think I'm or we are going to have it for a lifetime. Whatever the WHM has done to us seems very hard to fix. We can't even figure out the exact cause of it, and we tried many things, but they didn't prove to be effective. This sounds depressing, but on the other side, we got the mild one. Reading other people's comments on other topics, made me realize that the level of ringing we hear is not that terrible. At least if I remember most of us could sleep and do the things we need to do, we were not crippled by this, but frustrated and feeling lost. We wanted to be healthier, more relaxed with WHM and instead, we got tinnitus and ear pressure. Oh, by the way, I think the ear pressure feeling is gone now. So that's an improvement I guess. Anyway! My point is that the only solution ( so far ) is to get on term with it and forget about it. The less you care, the less you will notice it. But I'm sure you "veterans" experienced the same. So this is maybe useful to those who got it recently.

Also this one year I started to think of tinnitus as a useful tool, like a compass. I noticed every time I get anxious the tinnitus goes up. So when I notice the louder ringing I know that I need to take a few deep breaths and calm my nervous system down a little. Tinnitus got me into Prana breathing practices. I do it every day, and now I accumulated 79 hours of breathing sessions in one year. That's about 15 minutes of relaxation every day. And it really improved my mental health. Before tinnitus, I found it really hard to make "meditation" into a habit, but when you know you gotta do it, then it is easier. Also stretching. I suspected that maybe my neck stiffness contributes to the ringing, so I started doing yoga and daily stretches. All I want to say with this is that trying to make tinnitus go away, brought a lot of useful things in my life, habits that I find useful. This is one way to relate to this unwanted condition.

Oh and I too started to take Ayurvedic plants, Ashwagandha which I really liked and helped to relax and be productive. I didn't really notice its effect on the ringing though. But what I definitely know is that Cannabis certainly doesn't help, the opposite, it makes the ringing worse, at least for me. But even after I got off the high, days after. I guess it overstimulates the nervous system, and that's why. But I still don't think it's only because of the overstimulated nervous system, cause the physical part is there too, in the form of crackling ears.

Well, that's all for now. I have other things to share, but I have to organize my thoughts first. Hang in there and get active!

 

Hi everyone,

So my story is same as y'all, I did WHM on 17th of December 2021 and I've had tinnitus, sensitivity to very loud sounds like car horns and drums etc and ear fullness since then.

But I didn't try the regular Wim Hof Method like everyone here. I tried this one:

Breathing Techniques to Release DMT! (MUST TRY)

It was combination of a little Wim Hof Method and some more things. I really scanned all the comments in this video and not a single guy got tinnitus from it except me

I have been taking meds since then and also doing a lot of ear exercises, yoga, and ETD exercises too. I have not used my earphones or headphones since the onset.

I have been reading a lot on this thread but I couldn't understand so many of these terms you all were discussing so it would be great if you could give me a summary of any treatment, precautions, tips or anything that I should know.

I have a few questions:

1) I wanted to know if these ETD exercises are safe to do? Like the one in which you close your nose and try to blow air through your ears. I think all these exercises I have been doing have shown very little improvement.

2) What type of damage have we caused to our ears? Some says it's Meniere's or our nerve cells have been damaged? We can heal it over time, yes? Please God give me a positive answer with this one

3) Do you use headphones with tinnitus? Will they damage my ears more if I use them?


@MrC6688 and @Lukee, I have read a lot of your messages, I hope we can get through it. Luke, can you guide me what I can do next? Sometimes I am very tensed with this and I feel anxiety while sometimes I don't even notice the tinnitus.

Thank you everyone.

 

Unfortunately, there isn’t much you can do right now. Reducing stress and avoiding loud noise is probably the best you can do for yourself at this time. I would not do ETD exercises and you’ll likely find that within a few months the pressure will get better but the ETD symptoms will likely remain, even if they are less.

You can try things like Curcumin for the ETD. Another thing that seems to help many people is a carnivore diet (also a low histamine diet). You can also try sleeping with a humidifier, that might lessen the ETD... it has completely cured some people.

I will warn you that you may start to experience jaw symptoms. An achy jaw or snapping or clicking jaw might start to develop over time. A few people seem to have success by treating these TMJ symptoms. But overall, taking good care of your health and ears and following the carnivore or low histamine diet will probably yield best results.

Good luck.

 

I went to a doctor today. He gave me a nasal spray and suggested me to do steam inhalation for ETD for 10-12 days. I will be doing that next. I think my hyperacusis is better than before. I can easily tolerate some loud noises which I wasn't able to do a month back.

And for tinnitus he said that he will give me my med again after a month if the noise is still there. I was on them for a month. It's called Ulticomb Folic Acid. Have you tried it?

Do you think my tinnitus is a permanent thing, or can it go away over time?

 

It’s good to try things. I think the steam will help but not so much the nasal spray. I don’t think 10-12 days will fix that much, it’ll likely take weeks to start to see any results.

So far the my opinion is that the tinnitus is likely permanent but with good lifestyle changes and constant work at it, you might get it to reduce considerably. The most important is loud sound avoidance and ototoxic meds and foods. Hopefully some of these drugs come through and can help us in the near future with the tinnitus.

 

Let us know how it works @Harshul16...

Meanwhile, can you share what helped with the hyperacusis?

 

I don't know what exactly I did to make my hyperacusis a little better.

I practiced a lot of humming bee breathing and massaged my ears with some hot mustard oil daily.

I also did some yoga related to ears and yea that's all I did.

I gotta sit in my class between 8AM-3PM and the speakers in the classroom are loud. Initially in beginning of January I wasn't able to tolerate that loud sound, I used to put some cotton in my ears when it was very loud. But I went to my classes daily and now I can tolerate the noise though sometimes I feel my hyperacusis is bad like I can feel my eardrum shaking or something.

I just need some hope that it will go away. My doctor never said that it will be chronic. He said that it will go away, that it may take time but it will go away. He agreed that it may have occurred due to the breathing exercises.

Do you also think the same? Yes?

 

Crazy. I thought me and a couple of others were the only ones to get hyperacusis from WHM but it seems we're not alone. I'm two years down the line and although I'm somewhat better, I'm still struggling and still unable to do a lot of things.

 

This is the thing I am worried about the most. I fear if I will be able to go to parties and other loud places again. If I will be able to use my headphones again... I haven't used them for 2.5 months now, I am afraid using them may stop my healing. For me tinnitus is just secondary.

 

A proof-of-principle study of the short-term effects of 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) on tinnitus and neural connectivity

MDMA seems to help with tinnitus... thoughts?

 

Some people seem to have had good results.

 

Hi. It's been a year since I've been suffering from tinnitus and hyperacusis due to Wim Hof method. Some facts:

- I've had mild tinnitus before, but it usually went away. After practicing WHM the constant ringing is deafening at times.

- It's about 10 kHz, I can hear it pretty much all the time, through any noise, except shower. Generally I don't think the ringing intensity has decreased.

- I have TMJ, I'm not sure if spikes of tinnitus are connected to the intensity of teeth clenching. If my tinnitus is intense it's usually together with mild pain in ears.

- I have stiff neck with cervical curve loss.

- My routine was WHM 2 times a day followed with 50 push ups and 1 cold shower in the morning.

- Nothing truly helps really. Xanax can dull the intensity, but it's addictive. The first 3 months were truly hell on earth. Cried a lot, lots of stress, couldn't sleep much. Absolutely the worst time of my life. Now it's kinda better, muscles on my face don't tense as much and my sleep time is improved. It's still difficult to focus though with the constant high pitch eee.

- I would love to sign a group lawsuit vs Wim, it's really crazy how he can do this to so many people without consequence. Constant discussions online, it's obvious there are real tragedies that are not resolved. My take on it is that it probably damages the hair cells inside the inner ear due to lack of oxygen exposure + it tenses the neck muscles due to through mouth hyperventilation, straining the muscles leading to TMJ.

- Lesser known fact: "About fifteen years ago Wim was swimming at a fountain in Amsterdam and decided to give himself an enema on the nozzle of the jet. He says he has done it before, but a few weeks earlier the city altered the jet to have a more powerful spout. So when he sat on the hose the water cut through his colon and intestines like a water knife." f that guy, and all the people who gave him a spotlight.

 

Sorry to hear your troubles. You’re in the same boat as most of us. My symptoms are almost the same.

It’s too bad that fountain didn’t cut him in half back then. We would’ve all been spared this hell.

 

I'm sharing the same problems like you now. I've read the whole topic and I am sad but at the same time glad to know other people with it!

What's strange, when I jump up and down or go jogging, it affects the high pitched eeee, every shock is audible then. Afterwards, the tinnitus gets louder.

Does that sound familiar to you?

 

I haven't been on the forum in a while but have now returned. I'm very sorry to hear about your experiences. As for the lawsuit, this bastard should be sued for millions for all the misery he's caused people. None of the side effects were mentioned in his promo videos he sent out in 2020 and a lot of us were caught off guard when we were struck with tinnitus. I would gladly join such a suit if a lawyer was willing to take it on.

Re: the fountain. Yes, it's too bad it didn't split him in two. The guy is a self-promoting narcissist who doesn't care about people's well-being at all. Other sufferers have addressed the tinnitus with him and he doesn't acknowledge it beyond "something must be wrong with you, go check with your doctor". Wim is an evil person in my opinion because he knows his method ruins lives and he does nothing to help those who get hurt.

The high-pitched ringing for me has not gone away since it began, back in June 2020. It's at its worst when I wake up in the morning. I've tried everything... nothing has cured it as of yet.

 

@MrC6688, did the steroids not work for you? Do you have ringing in one or both ears?

 

The steroids helped but only temporarily. Once the cycle was up, the ringing came right back. I no longer have ear pain but I still can't unclog my ears (as if I'm in a high altitude). The high pitched ringing never stops either. I don't know which ear it originates from. It could be from the brain / hyperactive auditory nerves. I'm not sure.

 

I'm another victim of Wim Hof Breathing.

I'm using Tebonin/Ginkobil. Not sure if it helps. I got cortisone injections into the veins for 3 days. I didn't have the impression that helped.

Now I'm doing Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy (HBOT), I have had 6 sessions so far.

On Monday around ~3 am I woke up and my tinnitus was quite loud but something was different, it was like "I don't care" (more from my brain than actively from myself) and maybe after 10 minutes the eeeeEEeeee sound faded away within a few seconds, that was crazy. Almost like my brain decided that's not important anymore, let's turn it off (I could hear it very, very quiet, like a 0,2 out of 10). I can not say if this is in any relation to the HBOT.

Other sounds are still there and I guess they are now more present as the most annoying sound is gone and my brain is now concentrating on those (or maybe parts of the muted sound came back, not sure, it's difficult to distinguish).

It's a constant up and down. I will do more HBOT sessions. I've read improvements can take 6 weeks, so I will update you later if there are any changes.

Otherwise, I try testing if reducing certain ingredients like sugar makes a difference.

One tinnitus sound is now like an old spinning hard drive or maybe the sound of sparkling water.

I also had the impression eye floaters increased in my right eye.

 

Only just joined this forum.

I did WHM last week, one session, once, and my already existing tinnitus got way worse.

I have a theory about it I'd like to run past you.

I've been suffering from an illness for the past 2 years that I've recently discovered is due to a fungal colonisation in both the gut and the sinuses. It's a severe illness with a lot of inflammation. When I consume antifungal foods or substances, or spray antifungals up my nose, I get an exacerbation of my symptoms. This is due to the fungal cells dying, rupturing and spreading their toxic contents into my system.

Is it possible that those who have tinnitus, or an exacerbation of it, from WHM, have an underlying inflammatory response ongoing? It would make particular sense if that response originates in the sinuses. Perhaps some of us have chronic infections/colonisations which are causing this inflammatory response and the WHM, somehow, caused it to trigger tinnitus. Perhaps some of you don't have it bad enough to have my illness, but just enough that it causes tinnitus in the very sensitive ear nerves.

I'm hoping that by treating my fungal issues that this goes away, or gets better. It will take antifungals

Can I also ask if anybody's tinnitus has gotten better? I read one person early in this thread who said their tinnitus went back to baseline after 2 days. But I'm past that already. Is it possible that because I only did it once it would go away on its own? It's so hard to believe a breathing exercise caused this nuisance of a thing.

 

What you said, "victim of Wim Hof breathing" is exactly the case. Wim is recklessly harming people and he doesn't care at all. The guy is a real piece of sh*t.

Please let me know how the HBOT affects your tinnitus. I've had this high-pitched ringing since June 2020 and I'd be quite interested in methods that could bring it down. I don't notice it as much when I'm outside or among family/friends, or out doing something. But when I'm at home watching tv, reading a book, or trying to fall asleep it's very noticeable. And it seems to be at its loudest upon waking up for some reason. I also hear it while exercising but it is what it is... I enjoy my workouts.

A few pages back some of us were posing the idea of using meditations or stimulations of the vagus nerve to bring the body into parasympathetic, since Wim's method does the complete opposite (puts the body into sympathetic response). I know I didn't do enough with that. I'd be curious if anyone else had some success with it? I know I've tried craniosacral therapy and that did help somewhat, but you have to keep it up.

Thanks for the heads up on Tebonin/Ginkobil. I was curious about that since some people said it helps their tinnitus. In the United States, it's very difficult to get unfortunately.

On the positive side, I found out that two of my coworkers were doing Wim Hof and I told them about my experience and both of them stopped it immediately. They said they hadn't yet experienced tinnitus and were grateful I had warned them about it.

 

@MrC6688, this might be a bit too much of a personal question, so feel free not to answer it, but do you have either a white coating on the tongue and/or gut issues? I extend this question to everybody.

I only ask because I'm exploring the possibility that candida is the basis for the inflammation (which seems to be the cause of the tinnitus) and that WHM just changed something in the ear to be more sensitive to that inflammation. My tinnitus is much worse when I'm actively treating my candida and I suspect this is because that causes a die-off reaction which increases systemic inflammation.

Have you ever been exposed to water damaged buildings and/or mold?

It's possible we had existing inflammation in the sinuses caused by a mold colony or some other sinus related issue which was aggravated by WHM.

 

Luke, when you said this, did you mean "I would do" rather than "I would not do"?

If not, what is wrong with these exercises? I actually found some relief from them.

 

If you get relief from them then it might be ok to continue but just be cautious. There are videos and exercises that tell you to blow your nose very hard for example. Do not do this. Anything gentle should be ok but I generally say stay away from them for a while.

 

I do have! Every morning I scrape it off with a copper thingy made for this purpose.
When I lived in England many of my rooms windows were covered with black mold, and at that time I developed chronic sinusitis, but that was many years ago, it got much better now. A few years ago I had Candida due to eating to much sugary food.

 

Right! Well, if you have that on your tongue, it's possibly in your sinuses too. And I'm not a doctor, but I think you still have candida (I do as well).

I'm treating candida with a very strict low carb, no sugar diet and antifungals like coconut oil, lactoferrin and a whole bunch of others. I had planned to treat the gut before I started treating the sinuses, but because of all this pressure and tinnitus I brought the latter forward.

So two days ago I began using my nasal sprays (Xlear - which has xylitol and grapefruit seed extract) and an aromatherapy diffuser with antifungal essential oils (I've only used thyme oil so far).

The interesting part is I had expected this to worsen my tinnitus initially because the die off would cause more inflammation. However, it has actually improved my Wim Hof condition significantly. There are no weird pressure differences, I can't hear my tinnitus during the day and it seems to be somewhat better at night. The effect does wear off after a while, but I've been very conservative using them because of the die-off I experience. I'll need a while longer to see whether there is a compound effect.

So, obviously it's not the antifungal properties that cause this improvement, because that would take weeks or months. But grapefruit seed extract and thyme essential oil are anti-inflammatories and this is my conjecture as to what causes the improvement.

I believe this is evidence for Eustachian tube dysfunction caused by the fungus in my sinuses, which was precipitated by whatever effect on the immune system WHM has. The fact that the only road to the ears from the sinuses is the Eustachian tubes leads me to believe this.

I'll be keeping this up and will report back.

 

Interesting! To be honest, I never checked out fungal issues as a culprit but I have been using the Xlear sinus rinse and when I rinse with it, and blow my nose, I hear a squeaking noise as if my Eustachian tubes are being temporarily opened up. I did try the nasal spray and can try that again. My exact problems are 1. inability to pop my ears and 2. high-pitch "eeeeeee" tinnitus. Also, last summer I tried to go surfing and could only last 15 minutes on the water before I felt extremely nauseous. That never used to happen before I was stricken with this Wim Hof tinnitus. I have to believe there was ETD related pressure damage caused by the breath hold.

Lately I have been hearing some popping noises every once in a while, as if my ears are trying to open but nothing beyond that. The best way to explain my inability to pop the ears is when you're up in an airplane and you're swallowing in an attempt to clear your Eustachian tubes, but unable to. That's exactly the feeling. Not sure if you're experiencing that also.

Question... how many days are you using the Xlear nasal spray? And how many times per day?

As far as diet, I could certainly stand to cut back on sugar. I eat a vegetable / fruit heavy diet with an occasional day where I'll eat chicken. I also eat some dark chocolate if we have it in the house. I was going a few months where I was very strict on not eating any fruits and only stuck to fish and vegetables and didn't notice much of an improvement, but I'm open to learning about others' diets if it's helping their Wim Hof recovery.

Part of my deal is I've been dealing with this crap for nearly 2 years and I've experienced some periods of anger and burn-out, to the point where I felt like nothing was going to change my situation. But if there's a way to recover from this garbage I'm willing to try something new! Thanks for contributing to our forum btw.

 

So that has the xylitol, which should have some antifungal capacity, but it doesn't have the grapefruit seed extract which has the anti-inflammatory properties, as well as antifungal. How long have you been taking this?

I used it ages ago, before the WHM, but I've only been using it again for 2 days. And once per day, one squirt in each nostril. You can go a lot heavier than this and I will work up to it, but I have to be careful because of my pre-existing condition. I would have waited a while to report the benefits, but seeing as I've gotten some replies (and at least one with fungal/candida exposure), I thought I'd mention it.

I try to direct it at the Eustachian tubes by angling it perpendicular to my face and then lying down on my back after, and tilting my head to the side while I sniff it gently up (but not so much I swallow it).

I don't know whether the diet I am on will benefit everybody with this condition. My diet is purely for for treating candida. But I have a feeling that this crap only happens to people who have pre-existing inflammatory, or immune-mediated, conditions, even if these are unknown to the victim. Lukee was on asthma medication when he got this, I have severe fungal issues (Csani possibly does too, these are very diverse and can cripple one person while only giving another a white tongue), I have seen one person with Lyme disease and another with Hashimoto's thyroiditis (on reddit). Many others on reddit had pre-existing tinnitus, which studies are showing can be mediated by the immune system and inflammation and particularly TNF-alpha.

I know these are highly anecdotal data points, but it's all we have. More anecdote comes from the fact that most people get this after one of their first sessions. It's very rare for somebody to be going months and years at WHM before they finally "go too far" and inflict this upon themselves. That says to me that this isn't some inherent damage that is possible with the method. If it was, a lot more people would be chasing the high they get, going flat out and ending up on this forum. But they don't tend to. I've heard of people passing out and all they've done is take it easier next time.

No, I believe some source of inflammation (and your source may differ from mine) is at play here, but WHM somehow exposed our Eustachian tubes and middle ear to it. Kill the inflammation and we have a chance at killing the tinnitus. I do have a feeling though, that it's possible we all (or a lot of us) have inflammation from pathogens in the sinuses, purely because this is glaringly obvious in its relation to the middle ear. Sinusitis is a cause of ETD. I have never had sinus issues but my systemic illness has been contributed to by the fungal colonisation in my sinuses, so you don't necessarily need to have issues here.

So it's possible that I've been very lucky to have already understood a lot about my inflammatory situation in this area, and I hope it's a fortune that everybody takes advantage of. However, I can't be certain that I am right about this. I just hope I am.

 

Your insight is excellent, thanks! Ok, I bought Xlear nasal spray and am trying it tonight for the first time. I'll let you know how it goes. If I see any improvement in time I'll be extremely happy.

 

I was recently doing a breathing exercise kind of similar to Wim Hof breathing. It was a "breathwork" exercise involving rapid deep breathing. I only did it for 10 minutes. Towards the end, my entire body was buzzing and my hands and feet felt like they were vibrating intensely. These side effects are considered normal for this kind of breathwork. When I stopped, my hands and feet were still tingling and my tinnitus had spiked.

I have been suffering from peripheral neuropathy, tingling/pins/needles in my hands and feet that started at the same time my tinnitus started, around one year ago. I don't know for sure what caused the tinnitus and neuropathy but I think it was either my second Pfizer shot or the high dose of vitamin B6 I was taking.

Regardless, doing this breathwork made my neuropathy and tinnitus flare up. It's been 2 days and I still haven't recovered, so I'm starting to get worried.

Does anyone else here have tinnitus that started around the same time that peripheral neuropathy started? And for people who got tinnitus from Wim Hof breathing or similar breathwork, has anyone found a cure?