Hello!
This thread is a conversation about symptoms, treatments, and approaches to dealing with Tinnitus that is caused or aggravated by gastrointestinal issues (especially those afflicting the gallbladder, liver, pancreas, and stomach).
Background
Because Tinnitus is a symptom, and not a cause, many medical practitioners encourage us to find the causes of our Tinnitus and address it whenever possible; most causes of Tinnitus are very difficult, if not impossible, to diagnose because Tinnitus is a neurological response to some sort of aggravating biological condition. And while the causes of Tinnitus are open to widespread disagreement in the medical community, there has been considerable scholarship about how to narrow down what is causing your Tinnitus -- as elucidated
in the flowchart provided by @Fish in this thread.
Inflammation, a Personal Case Review
This thread focuses on inflammation and how to address through treatments, protocols, and regimens the various causes of inflammation. In my case, I've successfully diagnosed and begun treating chronic inflammation and/or infection as at least exacerbating causes of my Tinnitus, and I've been responding well to traditional treatments designed to help lessen this inflammation (antibiotics and steroids - namely, amoxicillin and prednisone). For more information about these approaches, please check out
@engineerLA's
protocols and supplements thread. But what actually set all of this off still left me wondering: what happened? Was this really just an ear infection that went inflammatory? It got me thinking, researching, and evaluating, and I'm starting to think there's a connection that I had previously dismissed. Aside from being generally 'unhealthy' (physically inactive, sedentary, and working in a high-stress job), the only medical conditions that I had for about 30 days prior to acquiring my Tinnitus on November 2, 2014, was a case of gallbladder "sludge" (gallbladder bilary dyskinesia) that has been causing heart palpitations. These episodes were pretty awful back in October -- they robbed me of weeks of sleep and surged my stress levels to extremely high levels for over a month. When I awoke on November 2nd, I heard the familiar high-pitched ringing in both ears (though more prominently on the left) that many of us do now. I have largely dismissed my GI issues as being unrelated to Tinnitus, but as I've been learning what is causing my Tinnitus and the sorts of medications, treatments, and protocols to which I respond (things like anti-inflammatory medications, neti pot irrigation of my sinuses and Eustachian tubes, at least eight hours of sleep a night, diet and exercise, etc.), I'm beginning to notice common conversations among sufferers of inflammation-aggravated (either ETD or TMJD-driven) Tinnitus:
Gastrointestinal issues.
Eastern Medicine and Tinnitus
@engineerLA first came across inflammation as one of the underlying causes that had given him 6 months of Tinnitus (which he later cured through a powerful anti-inflammatory regimen of norepinephrine) in
this thread on Tibetan medicine's take on Tinnitus, wherein he outlines some of Eastern Medicine's take on possible causes of Tinnitus and how to address them. An underlying theme here is
a connection between the gallbladder / kidneys / liver and the
vestibular pressure people have in their ears. There is a lot of conversation online these days about this connection, with people on herbal supplement communities noticing improvements to one of these systems impacts another, to even medical practitioners talking about the connection between alkali vs. acid-producing foods and their general allergic and inflammatory responses. For Eastern Medicine, there are several approaches to dealing with Tinnitus that is caused by G.I. disturbances:
- Acupuncture, to alleviate ear, neck, and head muscle pressures aggravated by acids and chemicals.
- Nutritional supplements, to improve the function of the kidneys, gall-bladder, and liver.
- Sleep, diet, and exercise.
While often dismissed by mainstream medical practitioners, Eastern Medicine has been known to help a lot of people and even cure people of chronic conditions. Some in the American Tinnitus Association suspect that there are underlying biological processes that most ENTs and Neurologists don't really understand that Eastern Medicine addresses through the lens of non-medical terms (such as "balance," "disturbances," "wind," and "chi"). And so, I'd like to start a conversation around how we can try and figure out what G.I. issues might be connected with inflammation and Tinnitus, and whether there are approaches to dealing with both of these through the same lens.
Questions:
- How many of you with inflammation have tried Agar-35, Bimala, or any of the other extract supplements that @engineerLA has previously discussed? Did you notice significant improvements, like he did? I am tempted to try this, because antibiotics and prednisone may not be enough to definitively resolve my Tinnitus, so I'm looking to find ways to more readily silence it.
- Has anyone else noticed a connection between G.I. and Tinnitus? Is there any good reading, scholarship, or research that you can point me to?
- What about chiropractors or acupuncture? Have any of you had success with these, while also having underlying G.I. issues? I am considering seeing an Acupuncturist and Chiropractor to work on my inflammation issues, because many of these are connected with muscular tension and acids or chemicals in the body.
- Following the diagnosis of my gallbladder "sludge," I will soon be seeing a surgeon for a consult on potentially removing my gallbladder (though I hope that won't be necessary and there might be other ways to resolve this disorder). Does anyone know anything about the connection between gallbladder issues / gallstones and Tinnitus?
Thanks for your thoughts. I would love to hear if anyone else has done research, thinking, or even treatments/experimentation on this vein of work the way that others have.
Thanks!