According to the American Tinnitus Association, 21.4 million people in America suffer from ringing in the ears (tinnitus ). Unfortunately, I am one of those people. My battle with this disorder came on slowly in my left ear but as it got worse, it's caused significant hearing loss. Here, for the first time I will reveal the journey I've undertaken to try to find a nature cure for my tinnitus. Here also, I'll tell you about the supplements and other alternative treatments I've tried. I'm doing this to help others who are searching for answers. I'm also looking for answers myself, so if you too are dealing with this tinnitus, do tell me what has worked – and not worked – for you. I'm all ears…
How Did I Get Tinnitus?
I honestly have no idea. The ringing in my ears started around 2013 with a slight noise in my left ear. I didn't pay much attention to it at first. After a few months, because it was not going away, I decided to look into what was causing it. So I scheduled a hearing test. At that time, the doctors could not figure out what was causing my left ear ringing. Since I was not losing my hearing (back then), the doctors basically said “deal with it.”
While this was not the news I wanted to hear, I'd already been dealing with it for several months, so I resigned myself to the fact that this is what life had in store with me.
At least my hearing was normal I told myself…
After several months of going about my business, one night I had a god-awful pain/pressure in my left ear. It was maddening and actually hurt. Some time, in the middle of the night I became dizzy – really dizzy. The bed was doing flip-flops and spinning. I could hardly get out of bed. In fact, I could not function. I spent the next day or so in bed, unable to work or do anything.
An then, as quick as it came, the dizziness left.
While the dizziness was gone, I still had the tinnitus – and still do to this day.
Since that time I've only had one other bout with severe dizziness. As bad as the ear ringing can be at times, at least I can function. The dizziness, on the other hand, is incapacitating.
A few things worth mentioning are that I did suffer a concussion in 2010 but that was 3 years before my symptoms started. I've asked doctors about this. Some say it's not related – because they occurred 3 years appart- but others say they might related. I did have a head and neck MRI and it showed showed no physical damage.
I also seem to have temporomandibular joint disorder (usually called TMJ). TMJ is linked to tinnitus too. I believe my father had it also. I'm not aware of any tinnitus in my father and I've had TMJ for as long as I can remember. My tinnitus started in 2013.
Could all this be the perfect storm as they say? Who knows.
One other odd thing Ive noticed is that the ringing in my left ear seems to get temporary louder after I drink a smoothie for breakfast. This is especially so after I sit down at my desk (but it doesn't seem to occur if I'm standing). The smoothie I make has a lot of fruits and veggies in it. Fruits and veggies have a lot of potassium. One doctor thought this might be related to changes in the sodium/potassium pumps in the cells of my ears. Again, I can't be sure of this. I'm bring this up in case it helps someone else.
As the months turned into years, I've noticed a slight ringing in my right ear has begun. This right ear tinnitus is not as bad as what I experience in my left ear and there are times I don't even notice it.
Now that I've shared my story, let me know tell you the things I've done to try to cure tinnitus.
Tinnitus Tests and Medications
After several months of dealing with the ringing, my doctor prescribed a round of prednisone to see if this was related to inflammation. I must admit, I loved prednisone. I felt great, like I was 20 years old again! Unfortunately prednisone is not a drug you can stay on long, so after a week or so, I tapered off the medication.
Unfortunately, prednisone had no effect on the tinnitus.
By this time, people started saying to me “maybe it's a tumor.” I doubted it was, but just to be safe, I oped to get an MRI of my head and neck. I had to pay for this out of pocket because insurance would not cover it (thanks Aetna!).
Fortunately, the MRI was normal.
My Hearing Gets Worse
I could live with the ringing in my left ear but unfortunately I eventually started going deaf in that ear. It was a slow and subtle decline, but I knew something was happening when I began having trouble understanding people who spoke too fast or too low. To compensate I would orientate my head such that my good, right ear, was to the person speaking.
This eventually prompted me to seek the help of an ENT doctor. This physician diagnosed me with Meniere's disease and confirmed what I already knew; the hearing in my left ear was less than my right ear.
He prescribed a water pill called Triamterene-HCTZ and advised me to eat a low sodium diet and cut back on caffeine. I normally don't eat a lot of salt, and thanks to the book How Not To Die, I was already eating a lot more fruits and veggies.
Reducing caffeine was harder to do but I can now report that most days I don't have any.
But, because I didn't want to keep taking Triamterene-HCTZ forever, and because I was not satisfied with waiting and seeing if this would get worse, I decided to take matters into my own hands and see if there were some natural cures or treatments for tinnitus / Meniere's disease.
Here is a list of what I experimented with. If you think I should try anything else, leave your ideas in the comments below.
Supplements For Tinnitus
There are many supplements that are touted to improve ringing in the ears. Here is a brief review of what I experimented with and after that, I'll summarize the other alternative treatments I tried.
Many of the tinnitus supplements I purchased came from my local Vitamin Shoppe. When I could, I purchased their name brand supplements because I've never seen anything bad about vitamin shoppe brands.
When Vitamin Shoppe did not have a name brand for what I was looking for, I purchased from other companies (Natures Bounty, Natures Made, etc.) who I felt had a good reputation and offered the supplement in an amount that could most easily help me reach the dosage I was looking for.
LipoFlavonoid
The first supplement I tried was Lipoflavonoid. This is arguably the best known tinnitus supplement, thanks to its TV ads. Lipoflavonoid
contains a bioflavonid (plant nutrient) from lemons called eriodictyol glycoside.
Research, conducted in the 1960s noted that bioflavonoids from lemons might help tinnitus. I took Lipoflavonoid for over 2 months, but unfortunately did not find any significant relief.
See the LipoFlavonoid review for more info on the supplement and my experiment with it.
Lemon Bioflavonoid
The extract in lipoflavonoid is also available as a stand alone supplement. While I did not have much luck with Lipoflavonoid, I thought I'd go right to the source and just use the active ingredient.
I tried a lemon bioflavonoid supplement that contained:
- 1000 mg lemon bioflavonoid (50% active)
- 100 mg Hesperidin complex
- 100 mg Rutin complex
I took 1-2 tables for a month but did not notice any symptom relief.
N-Acetyle Cysteine
N-acetyl Cysteine (NAC) is a popular supplement because it can raise glutathione levels. Glutathione is a very strong antioxidant enzyme. Some researchers have noted that older men with ear ringing have more oxidative stress (free radical damage) than those without tinnitus. In theory, this might lead to blood vessel damage, resulting in ear ringing.
One case report tells the story of a 47 yr old woman whose tinnitus had “largely disappeared” after taking 2 grams of NAC per day. She had tinnitus for 6 years prior to this for unknown reasons.
The report does not say how long the woman took NAC supplements but based on this I tried 2 grams of NAC for 1 month. I can't say though that I felt any different afterwards. NAC is a fine supplement, but for tinnitus, it just didn't work for me.
Here are NAC supplements on Amazon if you want to try them.
Ginkgo Biloba
For a short period of time – against my better judgment -I stared taking ginkgo biloba to see if it helped. This was based on some evidence that ginkgo might help tinnitus symptoms. Most of the research was on an extract called EGB 761. While other research noted ginkgo did not work, I decided to try it anyway. For a couple of weeks I used 60-120 mg of ginkgo per day.
I say against my better judgement, because it has some evidence suggest a risk of ginkgo causing brain bleeding.
Maybe I was overly paranoid but I started getting headaches when I used ginkgo. I never get headaches and so this worried me. I stopped taking ginkgo after a couple of weeks and never took it again. I also saw no change in tinnitus while taking ginkgo either.
Pycnogenol
At the same time I was taking ginkgo, I also started taking pycnogenol based on one study showing it helped. The study I'm referring to used 150 mg of pycnogenol per day and noted improvement after 3-6 months. I chose to use 100 mg per day because I'm cheap and pycnogenol can be expensive.
I stooped taking pychogenol after a month because I saw no improvement in tinnitus symptoms. I know, the study said it might take 3-6 months to see changes, but I honestly found it hard to believe I would not notice anything after taking it for 30 days – especially when I was combining it with other healthy changes.
I know some will bash me on this. That is your prerogative.
Grape Seed Extract
Grape seed extract – like pycnogenol – is supposed to help blood vessels stay healthy and improve blood flow. If tinnitus is related to a reduced blood flow to the ears (as some think it is) then it makes sense that things like grape seed extract might help. At least one study noted grape seed extract improved nitric oxide production. Nitric oxide relaxes blood vessels, allowing for better blood flow.
I tried grape seed extract (100 mg/ day) for a month but saw no change in tinnitus noise symptoms. I picked 100 mg per day because I could not find any direct human research that revealed an actual amount that might work. Basically, I took a guess here.
Korean Red Ginseng
Ginseng is complicated because there is more than one type. One small study involving people noted that 1500-3000 mg per day of Korean red ginseng experienced improvements in their “qualify of life.” This as was determined by questionnaires the people completed before an after this 4 week study.
Even though Korean red ginseng did not improve tinnitus symptoms, the people in the study felt their quality of life was better. My overall quality of life is pretty good, so I reluctantly thought I'd give it a try and see what happened.
I used about 1500 mg of Korean red ginning for a month. I noticed no difference in my tinnitus symptoms.
Taurine
Taurine is an amino acid. There is a rat study that showed taurine helped tinnitus (I have no idea how did they figured that out). While this was only a rat study, I did some math and determined they used between 67 mg/kg and 294 mg/kg. For a human of my weight, this was roughly equal to 1000 mg and 4000 mg per day.
So, I split the difference and took about 2000 mg of taurine per day for a month. Unfortunately, I saw no change in ear ringing symptoms. Because it was only a rat study, I knew it was a long shot but I felt it was worth a try.
Other Tinnitus Therapies
I not only experimented with supplements. I also actively sought out other therapies that might help tinnitus. Here is a brief review of the other alternative therapies I tried.
Acupuncture
There have been studies showing acupuncture helps tinnitus.That said when taken as a whole, the general conclusion is that it may or may not help. This may be due to problems with how some of the studies were conducted.
Either way, I found an acupuncturists who listed on her website that she could provide tinnitus relief. I did six – 45 minute treatments. I was pretty aggressive with the acupuncture, doing 2 treatments a week, for 3 weeks total.
While the acupuncture was very relaxing, it did not reduce the ringing in my ears. While it's true it may take longer than this to work, the acupuncturist told me I should start to see improvements after 2-3 treatments. I noticed no change in my tinnitus symptoms during or after my treatments.
Chiropractic
At last one study has noted chiropractic treatments can help people with Menieres disease. One study that is frequently cited online is of a 40 year old woman who had tinnitus for 2 years. Within 2 weeks of receiving chiropractic treatments, she was basically cured.
Based on that case report, I sought out a chiropractor to see if it might help me. Unfortunately I don't think it worked. I did 3 chiropractic adjustments, spanning 3 weeks. The first treatment, I did not feel any different (no better and no worse). At about 30 minutes after second treatment however, I started to feel dizzy and this persisted in various degrees for about a week.
On the final visit, I was not adjusted – based on what happened the week beforehand – and just received some gentle massage and ultrasound. That did not help either. I did not continue with that chiropractic because I felt 3 weeks was enough, but more than that, I was skiddish that further treatments might make me dizzy again.
I followed this up with another chiropractor who I was told specializes in the spine and neck area. She performed cranial saccral therapy (see the next section) but I did not notice a difference. I did not continue to see this therapist because her scheduled only allowed me to get an appointment about every month or so. I thought that was too long to wait between treatments and so I did not continue.
Crainal Saccral Therapy
Craniosacral therapy, refers to a type of gentle massage of the head and neck. It's very different than traditional chiropractic treatments. there are no adjustments with crainal saccral therapy. The internet is full of websites that claim this therapy can help. So, I sought out two different massage therapists who specialize in this. The first therapist I only saw once because of the distance and because I could not get appointments close enough to each other to see if it was effeective.
The next massage therapist I saw gave me the opportunity to have 3 treatments, each separated by 1 week. In the end, while I liked craniosacral therapy (it was very relaxing), I did not feel it worked. I felt no different during or between treatments.
Tai Chi Chih
Tai chi chih is a form of tai chi. I have a friend who teaches this told me stories of people who's tinnitus improved after doing this type of exercise. So, I took a class that lasted 8 weeks with one 50 -60 minute class each week. I attended most classes but I freely admit that I did not practice the exercises when I was not in class.This was my fault.
Whether Tai Chi Chih helps tinnitus/Minears or not I cannot say. I can only say I did not feel any different during classes or afterward.
So, Where Am I At Now…?
At my last ENT doctor visit, I had another hearing test. The hearing loss in my left ear was not worse than at my previous hearing test a year before. So it seems, for the moment, to have stabilized. I can also say I don't have as much trouble hearing people speak as I did before.
While there are still times in a crowded room when I scan the room in an effort to see who is talking to me, I no longer have to compensate by turning my good ear toward people who are talking to me. While I still have a mild ringing in my right ear, for the moment, it's not too bad and does not seem to have reduced my hearing.
My quest to find a tinnitus cure continues…
I'm sorry to say I don't have many answers for people. I wish I could point to something the helped me. Because tinnitus can come in many shapes and sizes, I can't say for certain say that because something didn't work for me means it would not work for you. In other words, don't take what I say as gospel. If nothing else, hopefully I was able to put the tinnitus research into better context to help you as you travel to find your own cure.
Hi Joe. I’m going into my 2nd year with Meniere’s/Tinitis in my right ear. I’ve also been through the Prednisone, water pill thing with my ENT with no relief. I’m currently receiving chiropractic and acupuncture treatments and taking a Chinese herbal supplement called Liu Jun Zi Tang that my acupuncturist recommended.
I’ve gotten some relief over the last 8 months or so with this routine but I’m looking for more consistent results. Some days my hearing ranges between 20%-60% with ringing from zero to very loud and pressure from none to moderate. I appreciate you trying all of these supplements and for sharing your results.
I’m going to hope that I can be one of the 70% that get relief from Lemon Bioflavonoid and/or NAC. I’ll let you know how it goes. Thank you for a great article, Thomas
Hi Thomas, thanks for sharing and for the heads up on Liu Jun Zi Tang. Ive never heard of it. I will definitely try to find out more about it. I do hope it and lemon bioflavonoid / NAC help you and look forward to learning of your progress.
I have Tinnitus that is wildly loud. I have been through all of the things you listed also with no help at all. Now, I am seeing a spinal surgeon for problems in my neck and he told me that cervical arthritis can also cause the ringing. I started using a cervical traction device (Saunders) for my neck and it may be helping with the Tinnitus.
Gary, that is very interesting. Thanks for sharing bringing this up. I’m not sure if I have any arthritis in my neck (my neck doesn’t hurt at all). I’m slowly starting to think my tinnitus is related to a dysfunction with the sodium/potassium pumps in my ear cells. I’ve noticed my tinnitus gets louder when I eat something that has a lot of salt or drink a smoothy that has fruits/veggies. It’s almost like clockwork that within minutes of doing this my tinnitus gets louder and stays that way for several hours.
Keep me posted on how the cervical traction is helping you.
Hey there Joe, I too have now been living with Tinnitus for two years. My research has yielded no solution. However there is one technique that I’m exploring that hopefully will shed some additional solutions. This one technique involves covering both ears placing your index fingers on top of each other and snapping the back of your head 50 times (sounds like a lot of snapping). I’m not sure if it will work for everybody however I do experience temporary relief from the ringing. However it is temporary.
This technique however prompted me to look a little further concerning this condition since talking with the Doctor of there many fields of specialties and coming up with “What if it’s not my ears.” What if it’s housed in the Brain where all of the signals are stimulated and transmitted from.
Since this is a symptom of tone and sound then I’m figuring it has to come from the beginning source being the brain where by it transmits it’s return sounds Being that it’s just my theory I will continue with this research to see where it leads me.
There has to be a natural reset of these tones and sounds that’s impeding listening abilities. Thanks for your sharing and your research thus far! Also thanks to all the other replies that’s going thru the same issue.
Hi Tyrone, thanks for sharing. Glad I’m not alone with this issue. Ive never heard of the technique you described. If it offers temporary relief I guess that is good. If you come up with anything further on it do let me know.
Joe,
Thank you for sharing this timely post. I do not have tinnitus or Ménières but I do have positional vertigo, which had been asymptomatic for years until 2 weeks ago. My mother-in-law has Ménières, which still flares up from time to time. She may be taking medication though.
Do you continue to have symptoms after the smoothie? Just wondering if it could be tied to the chocolate because around the time my vertigo resumed, I was eating more chocolate than usual. I also thought it might be connected to allergies; occasionally I have slight pressure in my ears. Interestingly enough I started retaking an herbal allergy supplement called D-Hist, which also has NAC, at a lower dose, and I feel like it has helped a little. http://www.orthomolecularproducts.com/natural-d-hist/
When this first started several years ago, I had the Epley Maneuver. It’s not pleasant, but it did help at the time. Not sure if it would be helpful to you.
I can’t believe Aetna denied your MRI. Did it require recertification? I have an order from my doctor for one but I am going to check with Horizon BC first.
Hi Judy, the smoothie issue is odd. I do think the tinnitus gets worse as I drink the smoothie, sitting at my desk. That could mean a positional problem but I also wonder if its just that it takes time to work. If its a problem with the sodium/potassium pumps, then it could be that it takes a few minutes to kick in- which happens to be the time it takes from the time I make the smoothie to when I get to my desk.
What I need to do is drink the smoothie standing up and see if it has the same effect.
I really dont have any pressure anymore. If I do, its a 0-1 on a 0-10 scale. I hope its not tied to chocolate. I love chocolate 🙂 I doubt if its a food alergy but I do think it could be related to salt. The tinnitus does seem to get worse sometimes after I eat at chick filet. Im not big on fast food but once in a while I eat there and Ive noticed it seems to be a trigger.
I looked at the D-Hist supplement. From the name, my guess is its supposed to reduce histamine. how much does it cost? They dont seem to list prices until I log in (which I didnt want to do – didn’t want them potentially selling my info)
I dont think anyone has done the Epley Maneuver on me. Fortunately vertigo is something I dont deal with too often.
Yes I had to pay for the MRI. Its not the first time they have denied service. They are pulling out of my state so I wont be dealing with them much longer. I have no idea who my next insurance provider will be.
Dear Joe:
Regarding your 3 chiropractic treatments, did the DC take an x-ray and review the MRI?
I wonder what his technique was. I now use IMPULSE, which is instrument adjusting.
Google Harvey Lillard and you will find out how BJ Palmer took care of his hearing loss.
Prednisone is POISON. You will be a chemical diabetic and get osteoporosis and broken bones and you know all the horrible side effects.
I never have a person start out once a week for three weeks…..it’s like doing nothing. Maybe he was afraid of causing a stroke. That’s what George’s test is for. Let me know how you do.
Richard Borkowski, DC
Hi Richard, good questions and no neither did x rays or looked at my MRI (honestly I forgot to bring the MRI so that was partially my fault). Yes prednison is not something one wants to be on long. its got too many side effects like those you so well summarized. Ill look forward Harvey Lilard and BJ Palmer. I have not heard of them. Thanks for sharing that also.
Great article. I have been suffering from it for years myself. I’ve seen audiologist and other specialist, but no treatment has helped. I’m living with it. It keeps me up late, and I suffer the effects all through the day. I have not experienced hearing loss per say, but certain tones and voices I can’t readily hear.
Thanks again for the listing of meds and supplements. I know not to waste money and time on them, and wait for a cure or relief.
George, thanks for sharing. Sorry you have been dealing with tinnitus too. Fortunately it doesn’t really stop me from sleeping. I do use the ceiling fan in my bedroom for “white noise” and that seems to help. I would recommend that or a white noise machine if you have not already tried that.
I do think it might be related to your concussion. Mine started two years following one (which caused two subdural hematomas).
Hi Jennifer, its possible. I dont think I’ll ever know for sure.
Hi Joe, After all the articles and research that you have done for others, I’m truly sorry that we can’t share an answer for you. I too have tinnitus and just live with it but not as severe as yours. I still have hearing in both ears. My wife and daughter have lost hearing in at least one ear and use devices to boost their hearing. I do hope that a solution is found. Thank you for all your research.
Thanks Jay, I deal with it. Like most I think I have good and not so good days. Right now I do think the good days outweigh the bad. It seems like the hearing loss has stabilized and I hope that continues. As I continue my search, Ill keep updating this post to so others know if anything is working.
Hey Joe. About 2 years ago I came across an internet infomercial. Maybe its me, but all infomercials sound shady. Anyway it was 2 musicians, one was an orchestra composer I believe. They claim that tinnitus is caused by cells in your ears being interrupted or confused when trying to communicate sounds to your brain and the result is the ringing, kind of like static on the radio.
Their cure they claim to have found was a type of sound therapy. Listening to certain sounds at certain frequencies would condition a “reset”(my word, not theirs) over a few weeks. If I recall correctly, they claimed the therapy takes about a month at most.
They had that sales tactic at the end to give a sense of urgency, saying they were in a lawsuit or something claiming this company or that was trying to prevent them from sharing this information and that they’d only be able to sell it for a “limited time”.
Your dedication, tenacity, and diligence is an inspiration Joe! While this certainly sounds like a long shot, I hope it helps! Im sure someone out there must have bought it and wrote a review.
Hi Chris, I have not seen that infomercial but I will certainly look into it. Based on what you said, the infomercial does sound shady. Ill look into it and see if I turn up anything. Thanks for the heads up.
Joe, I found this reply rather interesting. Here’s a link to the American Tinnitus Association
https://www.ata.org/managing-your-tinnitus/treatment-options/sound-therapies
The sound therapy sounds like a viable solution and so does the hearing aids. Please let us know if you try either of these. I, too, suffer from years of tinnitus.
Hi Cathy, Sorry to hear you have tinnitus too!
Since my hearing loss seems to have stabilized – and I can still hear – my ENT didn’t think hearing aids were something I needed. Its also something I dont think I’d want at this point. I can still hear after all. I do think my hearing has gotten better to a degree. Since writing this review I do hear something in my right ear now which is disconcerting. I can still hear better out of my right ear so that is good. I dont think my right ear hearing has been compromised yet (praying it stays that way!)
As for the sound therapy, I admit to using the ceiling fan in my bedroom for noise cancellation. It seems to help. Ive never tried a white noise device but if I ever found one that was a Star Trek white noise machine (Enterprise engine sound) I’d buy it in a second 🙂
Have you tried putting a fan in your bedroom to see if that helps? Ive found it helps me. I do think my tinnitus is at least partially related to defects in the sodium/potassium pumps in my ear. I notice my tinnitus gets worse within minutes of eating salt – or when I drink fruit/veggie smoothies.
Give the fan a try and let me know if it works. There are a lot of supplements out there. Before you buy any run it past me. there are several tinnitus supplement scams out there Ive run into.