Why Does Alcohol Seem to Reduce the Severity of My Tinnitus? Coincidence or Not?

Hi all,

I've have had tinnitus from around 2015 but generally it didn't bother me during day to day life, only at night. However, around August 2021 it became significantly worse in my left side. On another note, I've drank quiet heavily during my 30's (41 now), a few attempts at sobriety but nothing more than a few months at a time.

Now this kinda brings me to October 2021. I'd started drinking on a evening quite regularly again and I had found that when I was drinking on an evening, I would totally forget about my tinnitus. Another period of sobriety followed in January 2022 to April 2022. During this time I made an appt to see an ENT specialist as my tinnitus was heavily impacting on my mental health and ability to live/work etc. Pretty much from my first appt with the doctor (beginning of May 2022) I had next to no issue with my tinnitus, at the same time drinking slowly crept into my life again. From May 2022 until present, I have been drinking heavily and tinnitus is no longer a problem. Until 2 days ago, I decided I needed to really try put in a good period of sobriety and within 1 day my tinnitus is just as bad as it ever was. This weirdly (or possibly not) coincided with a final appt with a hearing specialist. I had said that my tinnitus isn't really bothering me currently so we decided that CBT therapy wasn't suitable at the moment.

Am I going mad and seeing correlation/causation that isn't there? My thoughts are:

1. Alcohol distracts me enough to forget tinnitus?
2. Alcohol has some other effect on my body that is actually reducing the severity? (I read that it's blood thinning effect could possibly improve blood flow to the ear and reducing severity of tinnitus.)
3. Psychologically, because I was going through a process of getting checks on my hearing and hoping for a solution, I'd allowed myself to put it aside but now that process is over, the tinnitus it back?
4. Complete coincidence?

I should say during January-April 2022 I was very active (10 hours a week for an event), eating well, no alcohol, no smoking, lots of weight lost, very low stress (except being annoyed by tinnitus) and no improvement in my tinnitus.

Apologies for the huge post. Any insights or suggestions much appreciated. Thanks.

 

I once read a story about a guy who could only reduce his tinnitus by drinking whiskey daily.

He figured it was better living as an alcoholic than suffering with tinnitus.

I'm guessing for a very few lucky folks, alcohol hits the right receptors to silence tinnitus.

 

I'm the opposite. I had 4 oz. of wine because my doctor suggested it might relax me. I had a spike in my already high-pitched tinnitus for 3 days. I wish I could have some alcohol once in a while to relax. I know one thing, each time I have taken a drug, my tinnitus got worse. So I live a life in pain and fear b/c I'll never take another medication again Spent thousands on all types of therapies. Doesn't work. The fear of ototoxic drugs is real. That's the worst part of having tinnitus.

 

"Alcohol is believed to mimic GABA's effect in the brain, binding to GABA receptors and inhibiting neuronal signaling. Alcohol also inhibits the major excitatory neurotransmitter, glutamate, particularly at the N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) glutamate receptor."

 

Hmm... so maybe drinking more might help my tinnitus? That's an experiment I'd be happy to try! So far I haven't noticed any adverse effects from a glass or two of wine every night. Maybe a few more glasses are in order!

 

Drinking alcohol lessens my tinnitus. Very rarely will my tinnitus will lessen on its own, very rarely. However, a few cocktails seem to lessen it considerably... for a short period anyway. I'm not advocating 'converting' to alcoholism, but when all else fails, you go with what works, occasionally...

 

The problem with drinking alcohol regularly, is it depletes the brain's ability to synthesize GABA and may potentially increase your tinnitus over time.

 

Is there any research that shows a direct link between alcohol and an increase in tinnitus severity?

 

Alcohol, especially wine, makes me relaxed enough to tune my tinnitus out, or at least not care about it so much. Anything that helps really.

 

I usually don’t drink alcohol, but when I do have one, it definitely spikes my tinnitus for a few minutes.

 

The chief medical officer of the UK stated that any level of alcohol consumption carries an increased risk of a range of cancers. Personally I try my best to avoid alcohol - the fact you start to feel woozy in the head after a drink tells me all I need to know about its impact. However - I may be tempted to try this out - maybe a glass of wine or small bottle of beer to see if there is a reduction. I will report back.