Stopped Eating Sugar, Dairy, Bread

[Daveyrvancleef]

A week ago I stopped eating sugar, all dairy products, bread and white rice. I chose to remove sugar/bread/white rice from my diet, because I have a candida overgrowth problem and I want to lose weight. I stopped eating dairy products, because I have chronic urticaria (as a kid I had milk allergy). This diet was not meant for my tinnitus.

I have 3 tones:
- severity 8/10
- Left side high pitched
- Right side high pitched
- Both sides an air plane (motors)​

Since then my tinnitus is all over the place. I'm having weird episodes of tinnitus that changes with tone, position and level.

The first two days my tinnitus sky rocketed (10/10). After day 4 my tinnitus was decreasing to a normal level (8/10).

In the morning on day 6, after waking up, my right sided tinnitus (high pitchwas decreased for 75%.

Yesterday night my right sided tinnitus was spiking and after the spike the fourth tone remained.

This morning after waking up, I freaked out. The vibrating air plane sound that I always experience in the morning is gone.

I got a new tone, it was lower than high pitched ones, but higher than the air plane sound. After freaking out I was focusing on it. It was going from the left to the right and it stayed on the right side.

Then the new tone went away and I got my air plane sound back. But the air plane sound is decreased by 50% and I'm just typing right now and it's still very low.

 

[Paul10]

Hopefully it changes until it is gone! Mine changes also, I'm still relatively new to T.

 

[LoneRanger]

Daveyrvancleef, how did you get your T? Whats the cause of it?

 

[fishbone]

Diet helps to some degree, keep it up and see how things go.... Sugar and caffeine are the major ones to avoid. My tinnitus is already at max/horrible volumes and it's hard for me to give up my ice tea ..lol

Exercising is also very crucial, to fighting stress and lower the insanity of tinnitus.

 

[Jkph75]

I have a theory that there are a lot of us that actually have undiagnosed Hydrops. I'm curious to see what would happen to your low noise if you threw a low salt diet on top of what you are already doing.

 

[Daveyrvancleef]

Daveyrvancleef, how did you get your T? Whats the cause of it?

Hey LoneRanger. I don't know the cause. I always had T since I was 12 and I never experienced loud music at that age. Years later I went to allot of bars, clubs and festivals. I'm thinking sound induced, but i'm also thinking it's related to inflammation. As a kid I always had ear problems.

 

[Daveyrvancleef]

Diet helps to some degree, keep it up and see how things go.... Sugar and caffeine are the major ones to avoid. My tinnitus is already at max/horrible volumes and it's hard for me to give up my ice tea ..lol

Exercising is also very crucial, to fighting stress and lower the insanity of tinnitus.

I understand, it's horrible. My tinnitus is sometimes at max volume (10/10). I'm used to the spikes now. Now i'm back from work and I checked if my air plane tinnitus was still at 40%, but it's back at 100%. It was a weird experience. For the first time my head was not vibrating and the sound was gone. I have never experienced this. I'll let you know.

 

[Daveyrvancleef]

I have a theory that there are a lot of us that actually have undiagnosed Hydrops. I'm curious to see what would happen to your low noise if you threw a low salt diet on top of what you are already doing.

Thanks for your suggestion. I'll remove salt from my diet and i'll let you know what happens. Removing salt was also on my bucket list. Not for tinnitus, but for overal health.

 

[Daveyrvancleef]

Hopefully it changes until it is gone! Mine changes also, I'm still relatively new to T.

How are you holding up? I presume it's very hard to adjust to tinnitus if you're a newcomer.

 

[LoneRanger]

If your T is not sound related you have A better chance to cure then someone like me who got it from ear damage.

So I really hope the T will stay away from you.

By the way: are you dutch? Your name sounds dutch and i'm from Nederland☺

 

[Jkph75]

@Daveyrvancleef

I have T that is very similar to yours. When the plane sound isn't there, I usually have another low tone higher than the plane that replaces it. I read some other things that you wrote (hope you don't mind). I also get flashes of light in the corners of my eyes. I have had the boat feeling sort of dizziness too. Did you ever get anywhere with a diagnosis? I have been doing low salt the whole time. I recently tried to add no sugar and grains but I keep failing at it. I think that it helps but it's so hard to do more than a few days.

 

[Coyotesheaven]

You are likely going through what some people call a 'herxheimer reaction'. That means the yeast is dying from lack of food but releasing its toxins in ever greater quantities as it dies.
I would expect temporary increase 'aftershock' T spikes from this even for a while, and possibly, as you said, new tones as your body reacts to the dying yeast.
But I do have confidence it will decrease with time once most of the yeast dies off, so hang in there!

 

[Samantha R]

@Jkph75
I'm interested in your theory that a lot of us have undiagnosed hydrops. Would you elaborate please?
Also, how much sodium do you have daily?

 

[Daveyrvancleef]

If your T is not sound related you have A better chance to cure then someone like me who got it from ear damage.

So I really hope the T will stay away from you.

By the way: are you dutch? Your name sounds dutch and i'm from Nederland☺

I hope it's not sound related, but I have been going to clubs for 10 years. Every Friday and Saturday. After a night out my tinnitus would increase by 200% for a few hours and then it decreases. I also got a small dip in high tones. I tested this at the hospital. So I think it's also sound related.

Haha yes i'm dutch. Let's pray for a cure soon. If they find one i'll eat a frikandel.

 

[Daveyrvancleef]

@Daveyrvancleef

I have T that is very similar to yours. When the plane sound isn't there, I usually have another low tone higher than the plane that replaces it. I read some other things that you wrote (hope you don't mind). I also get flashes of light in the corners of my eyes. I have had the boat feeling sort of dizziness too. Did you ever get anywhere with a diagnosis? I have been doing low salt the whole time. I recently tried to add no sugar and grains but I keep failing at it. I think that it helps but it's so hard to do more than a few days.

Hello Jkph75,

Yeah your tinnitus sounds very similar, are you hearing the plane sound only in silent rooms or do you hear it all the time? Mine is only noticeable when there is not much background sound. BTW I don't mind if you read my other posts

No not yet. But tomorrow I'm going to do a test at the hospital for inner ear problems. The 29th of March (yes on my birthday) I get a MRI for my brain. 14th of April I will be getting hopefully some answers.

Yeah I also have tried for a whole year haha. After the 100th time I succeeded. It's day 8th now and I'm adjusting to it. The first 1 - 6 days was really bad (insomnia, aggressive, depression and mood swings). If you really want to try it again and you want some support, I would love to help you mate

 

[Daveyrvancleef]

You are likely going through what some people call a 'herxheimer reaction'. That means the yeast is dying from lack of food but releasing its toxins in ever greater quantities as it dies.
I would expect temporary increase 'aftershock' T spikes from this even for a while, and possibly, as you said, new tones as your body reacts to the dying yeast.
But I do have confidence it will decrease with time once most of the yeast dies off, so hang in there!

Thank you for your support! I can feel something is happening in my body. I'm feeling a bit sick. My eyes were hurting at day 3. At day 5 my shoulder joints were hurting allot (I skipped the gym, so no pain due to training) some skin diseases are clearing up.

 

[Jkph75]

@Jkph75
I'm interested in your theory that a lot of us have undiagnosed hydrops. Would you elaborate please?
Also, how much sodium do you have daily?

Sure. Keep in mind though that I have absolutely no medical training. I'm just speculating from all of the things that I have read. I shouldn't have said a lot of us just some. I've read many posts by people who have some of the features of Meniere's but don't fit the clinical picture. When this goes on and no one is able to diagnose them, I wonder if Hydrops is to blame. It is usually people who have some sort of health problem, unhealthy lifestyle, or previous ongoing problems with their ears. Then when people are able to effect their T or other symptoms by making lifestyle changes I wonder even more. But like I said, they're just thoughts.

I eat under 1500mg of sodium. I don't know what it is doing but it probably isn't hurting anything.

 

[Mario martz]

A week ago I stopped eating sugar, all dairy products, bread and white rice. I chose to remove sugar/bread/white rice from my diet, because I have a candida overgrowth problem and I want to lose weight. I stopped eating dairy products, because I have chronic urticaria (as a kid I had milk allergy). This diet was not meant for my tinnitus.

I have 3 tones:
- severity 8/10
- Left side high pitched
- Right side high pitched
- Both sides an air plane (motors)​

Since then my tinnitus is all over the place. I'm having weird episodes of tinnitus that changes with tone, position and level.

The first two days my tinnitus sky rocketed (10/10). After day 4 my tinnitus was decreasing to a normal level (8/10).

In the morning on day 6, after waking up, my right sided tinnitus (high pitchwas decreased for 75%.

Yesterday night my right sided tinnitus was spiking and after the spike the fourth tone remained.

This morning after waking up, I freaked out. The vibrating air plane sound that I always experience in the morning is gone.

I got a new tone, it was lower than high pitched ones, but higher than the air plane sound. After freaking out I was focusing on it. It was going from the left to the right and it stayed on the right side.

Then the new tone went away and I got my air plane sound back. But the air plane sound is decreased by 50% and I'm just typing right now and it's still very low.

This is very very interesting,
i have candida overgrowth since 2009.
could tinnitus be related to candida in some cases?
im starting a new diet tomorrow, i need to loose weight
but with candida its almost impossible, im ready to get rid of this shit

 

[InfiniteLoop]

@Daveyrvancleef

The diet is not enough to eliminate microbial overgrowth and it will only make a difference in very benign cases. One needs to add antifungals (there are many natural ones), prebiotics and probiotics. In my case is taking about 2 years to get real improvement, but that depends on the specific strain and how your body reacts. You can follow my misadventures at:

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...ng-cured-after-taking-anti-fungal-drug.11142/

I am not done yet, most of the other subtle symptoms are gone, and only the T is left that I believe is hardest focal point to heal because of the middle ear isolated location.

 

[Bill Bauer]

Several months ago, I read on this forum that excluding dairy products from one's diet might help some T sufferers.

Several weeks after that I had a spike, and the only thing out of the ordinary was me eating some yogurt the day before. I stopped buying dairy. Then I completely forgot about the connection between dairy and T. The next time I bought and had some yogurt was yesterday. Today my T is louder and more high pitched.

There might really be something to it...

 

[Melike]

Several months ago, I read on this forum that excluding dairy products from one's diet might help some T sufferers.

Several weeks after that I had a spike, and the only thing out of the ordinary was me eating some yogurt the day before. I stopped buying dairy. Then I completely forgot about the connection between dairy and T. The next time I bought and had some yogurt was yesterday. Today my T is louder and more high pitched.

There might really be something to it...

I don't think there is a direct correlation but avoiding/limiting dairy in your daily diet may help decrease the overall inflammation in your body as far as I know. I only eat cottage cheese and drink kefir for the probiotic benefits.

 

[walkthroughwalls]

Several months ago, I read on this forum that excluding dairy products from one's diet might help some T sufferers.

Several weeks after that I had a spike, and the only thing out of the ordinary was me eating some yogurt the day before. I stopped buying dairy. Then I completely forgot about the connection between dairy and T. The next time I bought and had some yogurt was yesterday. Today my T is louder and more high pitched.

There might really be something to it...

I'm not sure if dairy consumption can be directly linked to spikes, but it does influence the production of mucus/phlegm which in turn may influence tinnitus. I agree with @Melike that the greatest advantage is the decrease in overall inflammation, but I don't think the health benefits of kefir or cottage cheese outweigh the fact that these products are still dairy.

Dairy is meant for babies, who will switch to solid foods at some point and lose their tolerance for lactose. It makes no sense to then switch to the mother's milk of another species with completely different dietary needs.

 

[Michael Leigh]

Several months ago, I read on this forum that excluding dairy products from one's diet might help some T sufferers.

Several weeks after that I had a spike, and the only thing out of the ordinary was me eating some yogurt the day before. I stopped buying dairy. Then I completely forgot about the connection between dairy and T. The next time I bought and had some yogurt was yesterday. Today my T is louder and more high pitched.

There might really be something to it...

I believe that you are treading on dangerous ground, and advise readers of this thread to be cautious when linking tinnitus to food and drink. I pursued this route many years ago when I first got tinnitus. All it done was made me miserable. Please read the post below.

Food, drink and tinnitus

Many years ago when I first got tinnitus, I wanted to learn as much as possible about it. I believed acquiring the right knowledge and being proactive was the best way forward in finding a cure. Like many people new to the condition I was desperate and going through a very difficult time. My appointment to be seen at ENT for the first time was six months away and it couldn't come soon enough. Whenever I could manage it, I read books on tinnitus and it wasn't long before I learnt certain foods and drinks could make it worse.

The advice given was to keep a food diary and over a period of time, slowly omit certain foods and drink from one's diet to see if there was a reduction of the tinnitus, and if there wasn't reintroduce them. One of the main concerns was to avoid excessive salt and where possible reduce its intake. Cut down on red meat and avoid dairy products. Limit the use of sugar and refrain from drinking anything containing caffeine. It would mean missing my regular cup of coffee first thing in the morning but it would be worth it since I was on a mission and determined to succeed.

Alcohol was best avoided. I wasn't a regular drinker but enjoyed a glass of wine or brandy occasionally. Surprisingly, with the onset of my tinnitus I found a glass of wine during the evening helped to relax me. Everywhere that I went I had my notebook and pen writing down everything I eat or drank. At first there was a lot of enthusiasm but as the days and weeks passed this began to wane.

Constantly reading the ingredience of every food item bought at the weekly shop can get tedious after a while, especially when there was no noticeable reduction in my tinnitus. I began to feel miserable and at times felt life wasn't worth living. Having to cope with raging tinnitus and hyperacusis on one hand and monitoring every morsel of food and drink that passed my lips on the other. It just wasn't a pleasant experience.

I missed my regular cup of coffee because the caffeine free substitutes weren't doing it for me. After enduring this for five weeks I decided enough was enough. I put my notebook and pen away and returned to my normal eating and drinking. I now looked forward to having a sirloin or ribeye steak without thinking is this going to increase my tinnitus, or eating a sugar coated jam doughnut or having yoghurt. One can easily be drawn into a world of paranoia over such issues if they aren't careful. I became less stressed and I was no longer plagued with headaches, which can be a symptom of caffeine withdrawal.

The result was no difference in my tinnitus or hyperacusis. Although they were still intrusive I felt life was more tolerable and I wasn't constantly monitoring them to see if there was any reduction or increase as a result of what I eat or drank.

There are many books on food, drink and tinnitus and the Internet is awash with this information. My advice to anyone that is new to this condition and wants to pursue this route then please do so with caution. In the early stages tinnitus can be very stressful and emotionally draining. Do you really want to put more pressure on yourself considering what I've mentioned above?

It is true that some people are allergic to certain foods and drink and the addictives present withing them. Therefore, it's important they be aware of what they consume. I had taken no such precautions before the onset of my tinnitus other than to eat and drink in moderation.

Michael

 

[walkthroughwalls]

I believe that you are treading on dangerous ground, and advise readers of this thread to be cautious when linking tinnitus to food and drink. I pursued this route many years ago when I first got tinnitus. All it done was made me miserable. Please read the post below.

Food, drink and tinnitus
[...]

It's a bit of an early warning, isn't it?

I agree that continual monitoring of tinnitus in relation to something else is not constructive, but there's no harm done if you happen to notice a potential pattern. Of course, obsessing over anything is not good, but I'm a strong advocate of making informed decisions about what you eat. Adopting a better diet will lead to being healthier, having more energy, being sick less, etc. This will, in turn, helps dealing with tinnitus.
Especially cutting out dairy is one of the best changes you can make when you're on a standard western diet.

 

[Michael Leigh]

It's a bit of an early warning, isn't it?

I stand by my comment: I had taken no such precautions before the onset of my tinnitus other than to eat and drink in moderation. It is obsession and reinforcing negative thinking about tinnitus and hyperacusis that often makes these conditions worse.

Michael

 

[Bill Bauer]

The result was no difference in my tinnitus or hyperacusis.

You found no difference. My advice is for people to experiment with this and see whether it makes a difference for them.

 

[CaRd]

If you explore that path, you should know that making such changes does not work like magic. Your stomach and your health will begin to improve over time, but not in a week or two ... And yes, it might not cure your T directly, but healthy body means less stress. And who knows? You might get rid off some inflamination that was causing T to get worse ... One might try, but it is a lifestyle. It's matter of choice. If you feel it like torture - then don't do it. That simple.

 

[Bill Bauer]

Several months ago, I read on this forum that excluding dairy products from one's diet might help some T sufferers.

Several weeks after that I had a spike, and the only thing out of the ordinary was me eating some yogurt the day before. I stopped buying dairy. Then I completely forgot about the connection between dairy and T. The next time I bought and had some yogurt was yesterday. Today my T is louder and more high pitched.

There might really be something to it...

An update to the post above. I am now sure that dairy foods increase the pitch of my tinnitus (making it harder to ignore). I managed to forget (again) about the reason why I stopped buying yogurt. Yesterday I bought and ate some fat-free Greek yogurt. After a couple of hours, my T's pitch had increased. I was shocked - as I couldn't think of what might have caused it, and I was worried that this was going to be permanent. Eventually I remembered that I had yogurt and that it had this effect on me in the past too.

 

[dpdx]

An update to the post above. I am now sure that dairy foods increase the pitch of my tinnitus (making it harder to ignore). I managed to forget (again) about the reason why I stopped buying yogurt. Yesterday I bought and ate some fat-free Greek yogurt. After a couple of hours, my T's pitch had increased. I was shocked - as I couldn't think of what might have caused it, and I was worried that this was going to be permanent. Eventually I remembered that I had yogurt and that it had this effect on me in the past too.

what affects me is sugar and foods high in sodium.

 

[JasonP]

I understand, it's horrible. My tinnitus is sometimes at max volume (10/10). I'm used to the spikes now. Now i'm back from work and I checked if my air plane tinnitus was still at 40%, but it's back at 100%. It was a weird experience. For the first time my head was not vibrating and the sound was gone. I have never experienced this. I'll let you know.

How did things go? Did your diet make long term differences?