Tinnitus — What is that sound?
I’m sure there’s a medical definition out there as to what tinnitus is, but this isn’t an article about what the scientific community knows about it. This is an article about what I’ve learned over my lifetime of suffering from the insufferable noise.
Sometimes it’s really high-pitched, sometimes it’s constant, and sometimes, although rare, it’s a low-pitch. Low-pitched ones can be unfortunate as they most often felt like a large swath of pressure in the area. The higher pitches are a more focused pinprick of pressure.
Why does my tinnitus also come with sensations? I don’t know. I have guesses. Do other people not feel sounds go through them at times? My presumption is that an excess of lymph fluid throughout the body can help send the vibrations through the skin; in tinnitus’s case, from lymph fluid to the ear drum. But what could these sounds mean?
This issue is also amplified with probable Meniere’s Disease. I’ve had lifelong balance issues, as well as hearing issues that come and go. It took me a long time to figure out that my swollen lymph node was coinciding with my hearing issues. I did figure much of this out on my own after all. No medical professional I spoke to ever knew about a reason why someone’s hearing could fluctuate.
The biggest issues is pinning down the true cause of my issues was going through a lot of trial-and-error myself. This time I do trial and error with no freaky sundown dance or drug-induced Parkinson’s. I went through multiple diets, making different assumptions and going from there, but that is for a different article.
After years of different food experiments and exclusions, and paying for gene sequencing and my possible health risks, I now have a general confirmation of where my experiments headed towards. I couldn’t pin down what diet to follow because with histamine intolerance, it’s pretty much something from all of them that’s still off.
It’s really, really hard to change your diet because you know you have to. There’s the risk that you’ll just go back to foods you crave and adore, almost as if they are addictive. And sometimes my heightened floral smelling turns off and everything smells amazing, instead of bacterial byproducts chilling everywhere.
As I experimented with replacing foods to see if I could handle the next set of ingredients, I found that my tinnitus was changing. I was noticing more sounds, different tones. Sometimes it’s really high-pitched ringing sound, a softer steady pitch. I imagine this tone messes with my ability to hear as well.
So what is the big secret? What does my histamine intolerance, food and tinnitus have to do with one other? I’m sure you’ve guessed by now, but the histamine intolerance has allowed me to learn that tinnitus is caused directly by something we are eating. The sound is our body telling us to stop consuming the source. The problem is our products have so many ingredients, how do you figure out what ingredients is the cause of tinnitus.
Luckily, I’ve learned this mystery. I’ve learned the trigger in my body and hope that those suffering from tinnitus, including hums, try looking for these items in their own food items and see if cutting that out provides you with some relief.
I have narrowed down the source of short-lived high-pitch tinnitus and long-lived steady-pitched hums, and it’s in everything! Both of these seem to be caused by emulsification. Emulsifiers are the cause of the long, steady tones or hums or rings that occur. Starches are the cause of the short tinnitus, the ringing that comes and goes.
The first of the two loudest ingredients I’ve come across so far since I’ve paid attention to the sound is corn starch causing a short-term sound. This is the equivalence of the ringer in cocaine users. It is the same sound and smell. I would bet that corn starch is in its production process. With starch, the smell and high-like feeling, is only caused after the starch hits a certain temperature, which means, once cooked, my body will process it like a drug.
The second one I will talk about is a long-term tinnitus, the constant noise that starts and progressively gets louder. As stated earlier this one is caused by emulsifiers. Emulsifiers are products used in other products to mix the unmixable, like oil and water. Without emulsifiers, we can’t have mayonnaise or gravy or alfredo or ice cream. The one that caused me the most trouble was carrageenan.
Carrageenan is used in all kinds of products; most of which are cream based. Coffee cream, ice cream, breakfast shakes, protein drinks, cold coffee drinks, etc. Whereas the starch makes me feel like I’m processing foods as drugs, the emulsifiers make me feel like I’m drinking alcohol. Something I’ve really only touched a handful of times. I think there was maybe a year of my life where I drank weekly; otherwise, it’s one drink every couple of years.
Cutting cream out of my coffee and switching to milk was a very hard thing to do. I still treat myself to cream sometimes if the effects aren’t going to affect me. I don’t regret doing it as the health benefits outweigh the flavor.
If you suffer from some form of tinnitus, I would take this knowledge and apply it to your own diet. Is there any emulsifier or starch that is in everything you love to eat? I’m talking about the things that you will eat even though you are full and just stopped eating but now you have some room to eat more. That stuff. It’s not food!
