I've had T for 20yrs+, severe enough to drastically affect my life for the last 8yrs.
I've seen potential treatments come and go and wasted more money than I care to remember on some of them (*tip - don't bother with Lenire). Like most people with T, I watch aghast at the amount of people who try to take advantage of our misery with pointless potions / unctions / supplements that never work.
It occured to me recently however that I can reliably and repeatedly make my tinnitus worse for a day or so by drinking alcohol. As you can imagine, tinnitus coupled with a drink problem is not a good combination. But if I can make it worse, why is it so goddamn difficult to find something that can make it better?
Surely logic dictates that if I can very easily make it worse by ingesting a substance, there must be something I can ingest to make it better?
#discuss
Written by
Ruud1boy
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I’m with you on lenire it didn’t work for me either. I had a hospital appointment with my audiology consultant on Monday as I’m still struggling after 6 years and I asked her if she thought there would be a cure or at least a medication that would help. I’m afraid she had nothing to offer.
on British media, the Advertising Standards Authority would be down on “cures” but the Wild West World of the World Wide Web ( do you like my WWWWW?) allows anything to be advertised sadly.
I’m delighted to say that alcohol in moderation helps my reactions to tinnitus - in that I’m happy and relaxed so Mr T goes away into a corner and sulks.
I was asked the other day by a friend whose tinnitus ears pricked up when I mentioned mine to him to recommend something, anything. Neither of us knew the other had it, and when I said I had spent a good deal of time on line looking what's about that is how the rest of our meet was to go.
I told him that I had some relief from Ginkgo and that was it and to come here to Tinnitus UK and click on my username to read how I went about it, as it's not straightforward the way the stuff works. This site being just about the only trustworthy source worth considering. So my question to one of the administrators such as Pat is - how many hits does Tinnitus UK get in a week?
On the subject of alcohol, I would recommend not drinking anything other than weak beer. About 3% ABV or Shandy at 2%. I find such is a natural pain killer / nerve soother. And before any health enthusiast has a go at me, it's my opinion to which I am entitled to hold, and there is nothing you can do to stop me expressing it. So there!
Ginkgo tablets. Green things. I get mine from Holland and Barrett. They do own brand and at least one other. As I've replied before to another enquiring, I suspect they all come from the same manufacturing laboratory with different pill moulds the only difference.
I break the tablets up as the minimum strength sold that I require is now too high. Measured out on small electronic scales that works to 1mg. Dose day is 3 x 30mg Ginkgo. The weight of 30mg Ginkgo comes in at 62mg, including the weight of the binding agent. Absorption happens in the mouth. Just as chewing the leaf entails. Does that make a difference - yes I believe it does.
That's it. 90mg every fourth or fifth day. Nothing in between. I believe the secret behind Ginkgo is for it to leave the system so the next dose can be recognised. Some people take it daily and find the stuff useless. Clinical trials have proved that. Anyway, that's how it works for me. A reduction in tinnitus on day 2 or 3 or both.
If you would report back. Whether you get relief or not. I don't believe I'm anything special and many others would value it happening for them too, but need a certain amount of convincing. A one man band isn't enough for that.
I imagine pharmaceutical research to be packed with PhDs each and every one earning far more than I was ever paid, and it takes a retired man from a non scientific working background to suggest Ginkgo only works the one way, if it's going to work for the individual at all, and that is the way it does it. Makes you think...
Hi! It's amazing how much comfort another T sufferer can sometimes get from a fellow T sufferers posting. Like you I have had T for 20+ years but I have never sought help since being told "no cure" all those years ago. I always thought no-one would believe me if I told them I listen to the lawnmower (albeit down the street) and the toilet cistern that never stops filling, both on the left side and the sea/wind on the right. And just recently they swap sides. No! I'm not bonkers. I'm a very sane 84yr old and I have to be grateful for that. From the beginning I learned to live with it until a recent heart surgery, since when, it has got worse. It does not affect my sleep thank goodness. This is the first time I have mentioned it to anyone since the beginning. I only hope that by doing so it might give a little comfort to someone else, in a way. I count my blessings and that helps. I have survived two major heart surgeries and kidney cancer. So, to hell with the T. I won't let that beat me either. I cannot believe I am writing this but if it helps anyone, in any way, it's worth me feeling 'silly'. Take care everyone.
you made me smile x like you I got my T- 20 odd years ago . it did fade away to almost nothing. Then last year my doctor gave me Atorvastatin . 5 days later Mr T was back. What really gets me is that nothing has changed in 20 years. We are no further forward in finding a path to silence than we were then.
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