MemberHi, I luckily stumbled upon this support forum in the midst of a mad internet search for something that would help my recently invigorated ear noise. I've been dealing with tinnitus since the summer of 2008 (or '09?). I woke up one morning with vertigo and a plugged up right ear. Eventually, the vertigo subsided, but the ear remained plugged. My first weird hearing issue was hypersensitivity, the kind where the rustling of a newspaper is unbearable. Needless to say, this put me at odds with most of the world, and the people around me were mystified. A day or so later I was doing some work on one of the cabins my partner and I own, and without thinking, I banged on a nail (I was cleaning up after some construction work that had left lots of nail heads sticking up where people could potentially get snagged on them.), and voila! The very loud and metallic sound of the nail being struck set up a vibration in my already vulnerable ear, and that's when my unbearable tinnitus started.
Conventional medicine had nothing to offer me, except to assure me that my ear structures were normal. I didn't stick around long enough to hear that oft-repeated common wisdom that the condition can't be cured and I'd have to learn to live with it. When it first began, it sounded like someone was running a vacuum cleaner in the next room. At other times it was such a high pitch, and so loud, that I thought I was going to go crazy. Believe me when I tell you, I curse, I prayed, I despaired, and then ... I went to my naturopathic doctor.
She did a few things that really helped calm down the whole situation. First, an acupuncture treatment cleared up the hypersensitivity. Then, with an herbal salve on her gloved finger, she gently rubbed a pressure point behind my last upper molar, the spot, she explained, where the eustachian tube empties into the throat. She said if there was any congestion there, that would help drain it, and she said I could do that, too, at home. It seemed to help. She also told me to do hot and cold packs on the right ear, alternating, daily, beginning and ending with hot (warm). She said this would increase circulation to the ear. She also gave me a dropper bottle of hypericum oil, which is a remedy for nerve damage and one of the major ingredients in a product called Ring Relief, which I use sometimes with mixed results.
Needless to say, and I'm sure you can all relate, dealing with this has been quite a journey. It's almost as if the tinnitus is a barometer for something that I don't even know exists, until I stop and think about any of the following: my general stress level and emotional upset, my diet, my sleep, and my connection with my spirituality. You won't believe some of the things that help, and I'm sure you will believe some of the things that make it worse, prime among them: Aspirin and aspirin products, including Aspercreme, a topical analgesic, and anything with willow in it. (Aspirin is derived from white willow bark, but a Native American friend gave me some red willow oil, and I couldn't believe how it exacerbated the tinnitus!)
Lately, I've wondered about the following and wonder if any of you have any input on: peppermint, salt, caffeine, other NSAIDS (alleve, ibuprophen, tylenol). I've been looking into the magnesium stuff that a few of you are talking about in another part of the forum. Lastly, does anyone have experience with the Tinnitus Miracle (tm) product that's out there, a pdf book with a regimen that's supposed to help eliminate it in 30 days, and is also apparently top secret until you pay the $37 bucks. (grrrr.)
OK, that's me.
Thanks, you guys.
Phyllis
Conventional medicine had nothing to offer me, except to assure me that my ear structures were normal. I didn't stick around long enough to hear that oft-repeated common wisdom that the condition can't be cured and I'd have to learn to live with it. When it first began, it sounded like someone was running a vacuum cleaner in the next room. At other times it was such a high pitch, and so loud, that I thought I was going to go crazy. Believe me when I tell you, I curse, I prayed, I despaired, and then ... I went to my naturopathic doctor.
She did a few things that really helped calm down the whole situation. First, an acupuncture treatment cleared up the hypersensitivity. Then, with an herbal salve on her gloved finger, she gently rubbed a pressure point behind my last upper molar, the spot, she explained, where the eustachian tube empties into the throat. She said if there was any congestion there, that would help drain it, and she said I could do that, too, at home. It seemed to help. She also told me to do hot and cold packs on the right ear, alternating, daily, beginning and ending with hot (warm). She said this would increase circulation to the ear. She also gave me a dropper bottle of hypericum oil, which is a remedy for nerve damage and one of the major ingredients in a product called Ring Relief, which I use sometimes with mixed results.
Needless to say, and I'm sure you can all relate, dealing with this has been quite a journey. It's almost as if the tinnitus is a barometer for something that I don't even know exists, until I stop and think about any of the following: my general stress level and emotional upset, my diet, my sleep, and my connection with my spirituality. You won't believe some of the things that help, and I'm sure you will believe some of the things that make it worse, prime among them: Aspirin and aspirin products, including Aspercreme, a topical analgesic, and anything with willow in it. (Aspirin is derived from white willow bark, but a Native American friend gave me some red willow oil, and I couldn't believe how it exacerbated the tinnitus!)
Lately, I've wondered about the following and wonder if any of you have any input on: peppermint, salt, caffeine, other NSAIDS (alleve, ibuprophen, tylenol). I've been looking into the magnesium stuff that a few of you are talking about in another part of the forum. Lastly, does anyone have experience with the Tinnitus Miracle (tm) product that's out there, a pdf book with a regimen that's supposed to help eliminate it in 30 days, and is also apparently top secret until you pay the $37 bucks. (grrrr.)
OK, that's me.
Thanks, you guys.
Phyllis
