Hi susan...so are your hearing test the same as before? What is LBC and NAC? I too am here in LA...

Peter

If you find yourself around loud noises and cant get your earplugs out plug your ears with your fingers, leave the immediate area until the sound doesnt affect your ears and get your earplugs out at that point. You could increase your tinnitus permanently being exposed to that loud of a noise. Careful does it..
Judy

Peter, NAC is a supplement you can buy at any health food store. I got mine at Vitamin Shoppe. It's supposed to strengthen the tiny hairs hairs in the inner ears (that are damaged, causing tinnitus)-- taken before or just after loud noise exposure, it's suppose to limit damage. LBC is available only through house hear clinic pharmacy. It's a vitamin compound. Not sure it really helps.

I meant to say House Ear Clinic in LA. That said, I haven't experienced any improvement taking LBC. Some say combining it with niacin helps. I may try that.

I have been told that Ginko Biloba Gold helps because a 'friend of a friend''s doctor suggested it. Anyone have any experience with it?

Losa - I've tried Gingko, and it didn't help; also if you read this entire thread, you'll see that Gingko has failed miserably. The only known treatment now is TRT - or something like Neuromonics or Sound Cure. I tried Beyond Tinnitus and it didn't help me. I think we're all stuck with it, unfortunately. There's no cure, and I can't grasp that there will be one in my lifetime (how can they fix damaged microscopic hairs in the inner ear without replacing the inner ear?).

Hi Susan,

Thanks for the update on how you are doing. You are right, gingko was shown to have failed miserably in a clinical trial.

Loaa--Sue is right that there is no cure, but what we eat can sometimes affect how our brain reacts (and T is basically a brain problem), so if you can find food triggers, that can sometimes helps. (I can't eat processed sugar or MSG or my T spikes badly.) Also, if people are willing to go the drug route, klonopin and pramipexole have both done well in clinical studies for a lot of T people in reducing T volume. I personally take Mysoline, a seizure med that increases GABA and reduces glutamate in the brain. As Sue said, TRT and Neuromonics are routes, too.

And it's important when you have T to never be in silence so that your brain gets used to hearing noise at all times. Keeping busy and distracted also helps, though noone can be busy 24/7, so some of these other methods might be helpful to you as well.

Thanks, McMurdo, for the information you share regarding medications (I may try the one you are using). I didn't mean to sound pessimistic in my previous post. I am open to what has worked for people, even if it's just to reduce the volume a bit. My worst time is at night in bed. I used to be able to sleep fine with just a little white noise in the room. Now my T is so loud, I have to sleep with a sound pillow (I use a sound mix from ATA site -- grasshoppers are the perfect mask for me. Crickets are too high in pitch for my T). Susan

I should also mention, my doctor at House Ear Clinic wanted me to give up regular coffee and chocolate. I'm not a chocolate freak, but have had trouble giving up coffee. I'm planning to make the switch to decaf - it should help with the volume of my T.

Susan--A study of a clinical trial printed in ATA magazine showed that coffee had absolutely NO negative effect on T. Unless you find that NOT drinking it makes your T quieter, I wouldn't worry too much about giving it up There are even a number of people on here that swear that coffee lowers their T! I know that if I drink espresso it will not lower my T, but will KEEP my T at the level I wake up with (when usually it gets worse throughout the day). There are many health benefits to coffee, so I would not give up having a couple of cups a day unless you really feel it is making your T worse.

Now chocolate--THAT is notorious for spiking T, even the unsweetened kind. There are a few people on here who can eat chocolate, no problem, but IN GENERAL, chocolate spikes T for most T people. (Sadly, I am one of them--and I love dark chocolate, so had to give it up! Snif!) Chocolate is a "T spiker" that is right up there with sugar, MSG, and naps for most T people.

So sorry that your T has gotten louder. :( Glad to hear, though, that the sound pillow with grasshoppers works well for you. I sleep with a sound machine with a babbling brook noise. When I had really bad days (before Mysoline), I had to have the noise IN MY EARS, so I'd sleep with earbuds with water noises playing. I still hear my very high T, but it masks/mixes with it some.

Very interesting about coffee. I've about concluded House Ear Clinic is NOT the place to go with Tinnitus concerns. ATA does publish a list of doctors and specialists they recommend. I'm going to try your medication. Is it prescription only?