Tinnitus Forum - Mytinnitus

Hey all,

You might remember me from some posts I've made throughout the past year.

I have some great news. After almost a year of suffering from tinnitus, a recent event has suddenly reduced my tinnitus to a fraction of what it used to be. I am SO happy right now!

It's almost poetic, in some way -- it ended like it began. I'm gonna include as much information as I can in case it helps someone, so I'm going to be a bit verbose.

In February of last year, I went to a really loud night club without ear protection. I've been to loud places before but never that loud. I came out dazed and my ears were in pain.

I didn't notice anything till about a week after, when I contracted food poisoning. I threw up, had diarrhea, fever, etc. During those nights I lay in bed, the tinnitus was howling. The bad news was, the food poisoning quickly went away; the tinnitus did not.

Since then, I have seen a number of doctors (without any effect), read through a number of books, posted on a number of forums, and even donated to the American Tinnitus Association, looking to hear that pure silence again.

The tinnitus definitely changed forms throughout the year. New frequencies would come in. Old frequencies would sometimes disappear. The worst new ones were the low, humming ones that made it seem like there was some vibrating machine in my head.

I vowed never to hurt my hearing again. I never went to loud places without ear plugs. I never excessively drank alcohol.

Painkillers initially helped, but only for about a night or so. I was able to enjoy a night or two of silent sleep. Next iterations did not work. I quickly realized that my body was adjusting (in a bad way), so I stopped using them. Beer never helped. Creating artificial noise helped me concentrate on sleeping.

I made pains to remember what I ate and what I did on days so that I could correlate what improves or exacerbates the tinnitus. Unfortunately, I don't remember anything magical I did on some of the days where my tinnitus felt low.

I had accepted my disability. Until a miracle occurred.

Last week, I contracted food poisoning. It was not the throw-up kind though. Just stomach cramps, muscle and joint cramps, diarrhea, and fever. Initially, I felt like my tinnitus actually got worse.

On the worst night, I had an intense headache, so I double-pilled Aspirin, which cured my headache, but I ended up staying up pretty much the entire night (probably because of the medicine). My stomach cramps and diarrhea persisted.

The day after, I realized something. Everything seemed calmer. More tranquil. More quiet. No... it couldn't be! I figured I took painkillers, so it might be some temporary effect. But two days later taking them, it persisted. My tinnitus was a fraction of what it was!

I used to have a couple of competing frequencies. Now I can only clearly make out one. The volume has decreased quite a bit as well.

I think I might no longer even need artificial sounds to help me sleep!

Here's my theory on what happened, given the scientific reading I've done recently:
1) Tinnitus is a neurological disease caused by hyperactive neurons in the auditory system that try to compensate for dead ear hair cells.

2) When I went to the loud night club a year ago, I lost some hair cells, and my neurons started to try to compensate.

3) Unfortunately, I got food poisoning right after, so my system just went into overdrive, and too many neurons ended up being recruited, causing permanent tinnitus.

4) Recently, I got food poisoning again. However, this time, I wasn't coping from a recent loss of hair cells. As a result, the neurons were used mainly to help the gastric system recover, turning off some of the tinnitus-causing ones.

5) Now you might be wondering, how is the auditory system connected to the gastric system? They are actually connected by what is known as the vagus nerve ("wandering" nerve). Will Rosselini's group (http://www.willrosellini.com/) has developed a recent procedure of treating tinnitus by stimulating this nerve to retrain neurons. The method is undergoing clinical trials (I've been following this development closely).

6) So basically, my food poisoning ended up being an intense vagus nerve stimulation, and I believe the neurons somehow changed in way to help my gastric system, in effect also curing my tinnitus.

7) All in all, it's only a theory... I'm just speculating on the most likely mechanism given the course of events. Of course, maybe it was the fact that I stopped eating? Or maybe that double pill did some lasting effects? Or all of it?

I wish there was more science. But this recent food poisoning is the best thing that's happened to me. Note: I do not recommend that anyone try to food poison themselves. That's partially how I initially got the tinnitus, anyway.

EDIT: Grammar, spelling.

Last edited by hyukim (29-01-2012 13:16:11)