DISCLAIMER: This post is not medical advice. Please consult your doctor before trying any of the alternative treatments mentioned here. I will not be held responsible for any damages, physical or otherwise, resulting from anybody trying these treatments.
I thought about not writing a success story but I feel I have valuable knowledge to share, knowledge that I wish I had when I first got my horrific tinnitus.
I have mentioned only ototoxicity in my profile but thinking back I was abusing my ears for years with loud music. The antidepressant I was on for 6 years probably made my hearing loss a bit, if not a lot more easily acquirable, but a lot of the damage was from noise exposure as well.
I had mild tinnitus that crept up to a higher volume within 6 years, but still in early 2018 it was very manageable. I could listen to music and ride in a car without protection and it wasn't a huge problem. I almost never thought about my tinnitus. I sort of had bigger problems in my life, all that changed in March 2018.
I was put on a very new medication in February that year. At first things were great, but I soon found out what real intrusive tinnitus was. I had 2 things going on, what we think happened was the new medication caused rapid ototoxicity and also I had a bad cold and there began my severe tinnitus journey.
Within a couple of weeks my tinnitus ramped up to what I call "suicide levels". It was absolute torture, even for Tinnitus Talk I think I'd been a very bad case. I also acquired very severe hyperacusis. I soon found myself in the ENT office and it was discovered that my hearing loss was 85 decibels at 8kHz.
Even the ENT, who probably sees bad cases all the time, was visibly shocked at how bad my hearing was at my age(late 20s). I just got told the usual, "you're gonna have to live with it".
At my worst, I could not read a book because of how loud the tinnitus was and my hyperacusis was so bad I had earmuffs on when using the tap. I was up 3 nights in a row(meaning not a minute of sleep) taking 6 times the dose of sleep med each night that usually knocks me out cold. Riding in a car with double protection spiked the tinnitus a lot.
Dishes were incredibly painful. The worst were "synthetic" sounds, meaning sounds from speakers. Listening to music so low I could not hear the words would spike the tinnitus within 3 seconds to crazy levels.
My doctor who prescribed me the med told me that this medication should not cause tinnitus and to not even quit it. Against her judgment I did quit the medication and my tinnitus stopped getting worse. After coming back from the ENT I was not phased, I thought for sure on the forums or online there'd be talk of effective alternative treatments.
It was only after I had read some forum posts from newbies who came to the forum with their plight and veterans who said the same thing my ENT had told me that I became really worried. I don't think I could have habituated to my tinnitus, it was too loud.
Also, had I not taken the steps I will soon talk about, it would have surely gotten worse, because even though I have lived like a hermit to protect my ears, I was still exposed to several loud situations. What I will say is, incredibly good recoveries are possible, in 2020, before regenerative medicine and without neuromodulation devices.
At the moment, though I don't have silence, and probably will not have it for a while, things are not far off in my right ear(the reason my right is better than left is because of me doing one of the treatments wrong, something which I will get into soon).
There will be people saying "the things you have done to treat yourself didn't work and it was just the normal habituation and healing process that happens". Part of the healing was normal plus habituation, but I'm absolutely sure I accelerated and amplified the end result of my healing by a lot.
I think had I done even more research and found some very beneficial things sooner and tried them, I would have made a complete recovery. My diet could have been better, could have exercised more, many things like that as well.
I joined the forum on the 29th of April 2018, the reason for that was that my sign ups were caught by the spam filter and thus I was unable to sign up. Changing my email, my IP, the device I registered from etc didn't enable me to sign up. That is why there were no hysterical posts by me on this forum early on, I was panicking pretty bad and thought there's a very good chance my life is over.
It came clear to me early on, from reading the forum for a couple of months, that what you do early on is very important, like with HBOT or other things. HBOT was unavailable for me. Back then the laser threads were more active so they caught my eye fast. 2 months in I realized I probably will have to buy the laser, but put it off because almost everybody, including a verified doctor, said they were snake oil scams.
2,5 months in I had a spike to my tinnitus due to loud noise exposure and it became clear to me that I had not much to lose, because if the laser didn't work I'd be dead anyways and the 800 euros I was going to spend on it, well, I could not have taken it to the grave with me. I ordered the laser and started lasering 3 months from my initial spike.
I didn't have much faith in the treatment overall, I was just hoping to get some relief for the years before regenerative medicine comes out. The tinnitus spiked at first and again I was unable to sleep even with sleep medication on some nights, it was also summer and very hot so that didn't help sleep.
Gradually things settled down and got better. I was very careful with protecting my ears and super diligent with the laser. Then I found out I had made a horrific mistake, where I missed or at least exposed the cochlea in my left ear to much less of the laser. You can read more about it here:
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/low-level-laser-therapy-lllt-for-tinnitus-%E2%80%94-long-lasting-everyday-home-practiced-experiences.25110/page-7#post-390133
This inadvertently and unfortunately proved to me that the laser worked and worked well, that it wasn't only the normal healing process.
I continued doing research and scouring Tinnitus Talk for different things that could help, because with tinnitus, the sooner you try things the better. Here's everything I tried in my tinnitus journey, I tried to make the list chronological but I'm not sure it is:
Ginkgo - made tinnitus worse.
Betaserc - did nothing.
Apple Cider Vinegar - did nothing.
Ear Tone by New Nordic, pills - Did very little, maybe 10-15 percent reduction, not worth the steep price.
ACRN - made tinnitus worse(maybe did it wrong).
Notched Sound Therapy - helped a bit.
Konftec Laser - responsible for, I'd say, at least 75 percent of the recovery, if not more. I'm still lasering every day and have for almost 2 years now.
Turmeric With Curcumin – helped but had to quit very soon because of side effects (psoriasis worsening rapidly).
Nicotinamide Riboside - very good effect, but I'm very sensitive to supplements and couldn't tolerate the side effects. Took only 10 doses. It is the most undervalued alternative treatment on TT imo.
NAC - Good effect, got very bad heart trouble and had to quit.
R. David Case Tinnitus Mix sound file - definitely worth a shot if you
don't have hyperacusis. Seemed to work the first time around at first but second time I tried it about a year later didn't have the same effect.
Lion's Mane - Did nothing.
CoQ10 - mild effect, potentiates the laser.
Oxygen Concentrator while doing cardio (exercise bike) - HBOT was not available, had a good effect but again had to quit soon because of side effects.
Intermittent Fasting - helped a lot already, even though lots of time had passed since I got tinnitus.
Cold Showers – Similar to intermittent fasting, helps with cumulative effects. First month or so I noticed no difference, but almost 6 months of intermittent fasting and cold showers seemed to have worked well. Had to quit cold showers but still doing IF.
Hemp CBD Oil – massive temporary spike.
Probiotics – I didn't take them for tinnitus relief, took them to heal my gut as I had pretty bad GERD. Surprisingly, in addition to my GERD being fixed, they helped tinnitus quite a bit as well.
(All of these things have a thread on Tinnitus Talk)
I also have my eye on BPC-157, a synthetic peptide. I probably won't try it because my situation is already so good I can go out without hearing protection to quieter venues where they play music and the peptide has its dangers, but it's good to know I have an ace in the back pocked in case things were to get bad again after an accident. Though it would be interesting to see if it would cure me completely.
That is all I can think of right now, probably missing a couple of things and it's not a comprehensive list of everything worth trying, just the stuff I tried. Obviously there's things like PRP, stem cells and Lenire, which I am not opposed to trying, but I didn't have the money or in the case of Lenire the hearing ability necessary to try it.
Not counting the countless vitamins and minerals I took, most helpful of which have been Magnesium and Zinc. As you can see, I had to quit half or more things that worked well, because of side effects. Most people, almost all people, won't have that issue. I am still improving, after over 2 years since my spike, but the gains have gotten really slow because of the amount of time passed.
Had everything been tolerable, I would easily have made a complete recovery from 10/10 tinnitus with both ears I believe, maybe even silence. I've noticed over the years that all sorts of treatments have good effects on me more often and usually yield better results than for the average person, but I also have much worse side-effects than the average person.
Even if out of the things that had a good effect that I had to quit 2-3 had worked without intolerable side effects, or if I hadn't messed up with the laser, I would be resuming usual life probably. Yes, the tinnitus alternative treatment options are rife with scams, one needs to exercise some common sense, but there are things that help. If they don't, it's a small investment for big potential gains.
I believe my recovery isn't too impressive. In my opinion, most people, had they tried all of those things within the right timeframe (meaning soon, within 3 months or less) after getting tinnitus while being careful and protecting well, would have had a better recovery, because I had to quit so many things. Some things on that list are obviously more worth trying and sooner than others, a couple might not be worth trying at all.
My tinnitus in the right ear(which I would also have in my left had I not made the mistake) is back to pre spike levels, perhaps even better. I'm hoping to make some gains still with the left one which is worse. My tinnitus switches ears daily and fluctuates a lot. If I had to put numbers to it, if in my right, it's 0.5-1.5 severity and in my left about 2-3.5. My hyperacusis is virtually nonexistent during day to day activities.
More recently my left ear has been catching up to the right, it's still much worse but the right ear isn't improving much, not sure if it has improved at all within the last half a year or so. I attribute that to the right ear probably being already at the level I had before my horrific spike where it was at a very low volume tinnitus for 6 years.
Because I had the mild tinnitus for so long I doubt my right ear will improve much anymore, but it doesn't have to, it's at an amazingly low level at the moment with almost no hyperacusis and very mild reactivity.
I'd say I did TONS of things wrong with my recovery. I waited a bit too long to buy the laser, because people(most of whom hadn't even tried it) said it was snake oil, messed up the left ear, I should have done even more research into things and tried more things, sooner, better diet and exercise routine, etc.
There was a thread a while back where people could vote how much money they would spend on a cure, can't find it now. Most people were willing to pay 10 000 dollars or more for a cure. I have spent less than 2000 dollars on my ears.
One of the most important things is also how well I protected my hearing, most people would have called it overprotecting over here. I was willing to basically have no life for almost 2 years in order to recover from this.
It seems to me that a lot of people try a couple of things and then give up, if they even do that. In my opinion that is not the way to go. If you get relief of 10 percent from 1 thing that is already very good, if more then even better.
Combine a few, as long as they're safe, and you'll have a significant improvement of your situation. And remember, the first couple of months are crucial.
In my opinion people are too stingy with spending time and money on their health, it is the greatest investment you can make.
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