A Cold Medicine with Ibuprofen Silenced My Tinnitus

[Sisyphus MEF]

I've had tinnitus for about 20 years... there was no know event that I can attribute to its start. I remember lying in bed and thinking I could hear the blood running through the ear! The sound I experience is closest to the sound of cicadas on an August evening. It is a continuous noise that never ceases. Sometimes it is louder than others, and since there is no cure, I decided to live with it.

About 10 years ago, my wife and I were driving to Phoenix for a week... when we started the trip (4 am), my nose was running like a faucet continuously, I was sneezing, and basically felt horrible. Stopping in a small town on the way, I picked up an over the counter cold medicine and ibuprofen... took two of each, let my wife do the driving, and slept in the car. I probably redid the dose again during the trip, and continued to sleep.

By late that afternoon, we stopped at the Painted Desert just off I 40. We got out at one of the scenic overlooks and that is when I noticed... there was absolutely no tinnitus... it was perfectly quiet, and after having a constant noise in my ears for a least a decade, the silence was startling.
I'm convinced that a drug in the cold medicine, perhaps in interaction with the ibuprofen, silenced the tinnitus. I am curious if anyone else has a similar experience... I do think I remember the name of the cold medicine.

 

[JohnAdams]

What was the cold medicine?

 

[Sisyphus MEF]

The cold medicine was Dristan.....I did a quick search and it appears that one of the Dristan cold pills was taken off the market 10+ years ago. I find that intriguing. A little research may confirm this.

 

[Zud]

Very positive story Sisyphus MEF. It must be amazingly relieving to be free of tinnitus after suffering for so long. I hope you can look forward to a tinnitus free future.

 

[RaZaH]

Well..did it stay away ?

 

[Rockrose]

Wonderful story! I love the thought of looking over a beautiful desert vista and realizing it was perfectly quiet. Did the cold medicine combination knock out your tinnitus for good? I looked up Dristan Tablets and sure enough they are discontinued in the US, though they are available in Canada. The ingredients are:
chlorpheniramine maleate 2 mg (antihistamine/ Chlor-Trimeton), phenylephrine Hydrochloride HCL 5 mg (Decongestant) , Acetamenophine 325 mg along with the ibuprophen you mentioned. All of the separate ingredients are available in the US at Wal-mart.

 

[JohnAdams]

This is just further evidence that there is a way to silence tinnitus for multiple subsets and the belief that there is "no cure" is just completely wrong. If doctors would actually take the time to understand this condition and figure out why a patient has tinnitus then I'm sure many of us would not have it.

 

[Chris_P]

Well..did it stay away ?

Would like to know also...

 

[Sisyphus MEF]

No, it did come back. I wish I could find that balance of drugs that shut it down, but I haven't taken the time to do so...on an different note, the volume of the tinnitus varies ….makes me think a contributing factor may be external...

 

[JohnAdams]

No, it did come back. I wish I could find that balance of drugs that shut it down, but I haven't taken the time to do so...on an different note, the volume of the tinnitus varies ….makes me think a contributing factor may be external...

Try curcumin.