I should probably start every post on this site with how my tinnitus is 95%+ gone thanks to heavily researching into the causes of tinnitus and how you can treat it with supplements, diet and lifestyle changes. Although I think I'm just going to give up coming here all together trying to help.
Thats not what a scam is. A scam is me saying "I have a miracle treatment and you need to send me money" Then I don't send you a product. A combination supplement made of ingredients that are proven to address various mineral + vitamin deficiencies and increase blood flow is not a scam. If something doesn't work for you its not a scam, its simply a dead end you can cross off and learn from. I personally don't recommend buying these bulk supplements and recommend instead to buy individually because they have different absorption times and many minerals use the same absorption channels but to flat out say these don't do anything for tinnitus is just plain wrong.
I sincerely wish you well. Moreover, as someone who's had
some success with supplements, I second the fact that -- anecdotally and for certain causes -- they can help. For example, if you have a chronic, systemic inflammatory disease that is driving the problem, supplements that reduce inflammation may indirectly help the process.
But we need to be careful.
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Notice several things. That spans 1,788 subjects,
53 countries, and is not placebo-controlled. That means the evidence was weak even for people who really wanted supplements to work. There needs to be a scientific standard; otherwise, we feed the stereotype that severe tinnitus and hyperacusis are mostly mental blocks that can be overcome with supplement placebos and habituation.
You and Contrast can both be right. He's right that there is no scientific evidence of supplements treating tinnitus, but you are right that everybody's different and one may work out for you. I am taking supplements right now, and these studies don't bother me one bit.
The elephant in the room is that supplements are often pricey. Some people are not financially secure enough to take unproven, expensive stabs in the dark, as opposed to just giving it time.
That is an absolute failure of a test and precisely the main reason why tinnitus research has gotten next to nowhere the last few decades. It lumped all 1788 subjects together. Tinnitus is a symptom, not a condition. You can't treat everybody the same way and expect the same results. Which ones had noise trauma? Which ones had poor blood flow because of NO disruption, high blood pressure etc? which ones got it from medication? Which ones have muscle problems in their neck and jaw triggering somatic tinnitus? You can't just put everyone together giving them supplements and judge whether they are working.
Examples: Being a vegetarian can cause you to become B12 deficient. If you had tinnitus because of this then taking magnesium, melatonin, NAC etc isn't going to solve it.
Same way if you have noise trauma taking B12 isn't going to solve it but for some people taking Zinc has cured their tinnitus. But then if someone takes Zinc and has a diet high in phytic acid it may be impairing absorption, taking calcium 2 hours before and after Zinc can also block it.
There are many reports of Vitamin D supplementing causing tinnitus. One theory is it bottoms out your magnesium. taking B vitamins and Zinc isn't going to do anything but many people report magnesium supplementation after Vitamin D induced tinnitus cured their tinnitus.
If you have poor blood flow down to poor Nitric Oxide production then taking NO boosters like Ginkgo, Aged garlic extract, NAC, Turmeric, B-complex etc can given you relief and even cure your tinnitus for a lot of people. But its not a one way street. If your diet is high in salt and sugar that can cause vasoconstriction and impact blood flow then your supplements might not make a difference. This was the biggest eureka moment for me. Soon as I cut down salt dramatically my tinnitus went way down.
But then if you have an ear infection blood flow can worsen your tinnitus and ear pain. Same with hypercusis its a tricky one. You can also get bad headaches from the boost in blood flow to your brain and many report their tinnitus gets worse if they take to many supplements so you need to find a right balance.
But then if your tinnitus is caused by muscles in your neck and jaw then supplementing NO is going to do very little if anything. Sure you can take supplements to calm your mind and nervous system but the biggest breakthrough people with somatic tinnitus is getting mouth shields to stop teeth grinding, seeing physiotherapists to get jaw exercises or treatment for the TMJ, doing stretches and correcting posture etc.
I said in another thread that aspirin can cause, spike, relief and cure tinnitus. It just depends on what caused your tinnitus and that's precisely why you can't treat all tinnitus the same.
I could keep going on. I don't mean to be blunt but I'm just pointing out the flaws in tinnitus research and how its only stunted treatments.