Welcome Pat,

This is a great support group!

I am 55 and fear t getting worse as I get older. If your hearing declines with age there is a possibility that tinnitus can get louder. I just bought a book from Amazon entitled "Save Your Hearing Now" by Michael D. Seidman, MD. You may want to pick up a copy. I hope you find some relief with the lipo flavonoids. I take Klonopin to keep my t down in volume.

Mark

My maskers were only $2100 for the pair. It sounds like a shower is on all day. Are you talking only to the TRT folks? Read the posts on maskers.

Piebraker...
Not to be negative... but lipo-flavanoid is a joke! and a bad one at that! All 5 ENT's that I have seen have said "save your money".
To me, who ever created that stuff is like the guys who created the "girls gone wild video"! (Wealthy, and selling B.S.)
"On The Flip Side" I do hope it works for you. All you can do is try!! But be leary of the fly by night gimmicxks!! Its far to serious of a condition to be solved by a "heel all Pill"
P&Q2U, a1a

Unfortunately, Pat. Gary is exactly right. Girls Gone Wild is a rip off. They're all giggle, no wiggle.

Kidding aside, Gary's right. Tinnitus is an extremely complex condition. So complex science has not been able to produce a remedy for 100+ years. The ATA has nothing after 30 years of research. We forget that fact when seeing commercial advertising wordage that reads "tinnitus relief!"

Arches, Lipoflav, T B Gone, T Stop. We all go through that phase. It's the "but what if they work" that has us buy. The companies that make them know nothing about tinnitus.

Hey Pat -

I've had tinnitus more a couple mos. and it's driving me nuts. I have no idea how you've made it this long. I've been taking Lipoflavanoid and it hasn't done anything yet. I asksed my ENT about it and he really didn't say much accept that it couldn't hurt.

A HEARTFELT thanks to each of you who replied. I'm so confused about the Lipo-Flavanoid treatment as I've read of a few folks who benefited.

MandiGrace - did you get your maskers from an ENT? I have yet to find an ENT who has taken my condition seriously. I've had this so long I guess I have simply learned to live with it. Today it is extremely high-pitched and absolutely screaming!

What a WONDERFUL website this is... thanks again for your input - it is so helpful to share with others who suffer from T.

Pat

Pat,
I'm so sorry this has gotten worse for you. Since medicine is still in the dark ages concerning this condition, there's loads of snake oil salesmen out there preying on those who suffer. Most anything they advertise on TV or sell in the stores for this condition hasn't lived up to promises for the vast majority of people. Just be careful.
April

A friend of mine just told me that Lipo-Flavonoid helped his Tinnitus.

I started to research this product and noted that it may help people who have Meniere's disease. A typical symptom of this is vertigo.
Therefore it doesn't appear that this product is a scam, but may be useful if you determine that the cause for Tinnitus is Meniere disease.

I got my maskers from an ENT that had an analog hearing aid in each one. I already had digital aids so when I put on those analog aids, they almost killed me - sound was loud and intense and less intelligible. I had to give them back to them. Hey, I just gave up all fast food and caffeine, have been taking .25 mg xanax about four times a day and drinking as much water as I can and the tinnitus has lowered. I don't know if this can help anyone. I also have been on Namenda 10 mg for about four months. Steady improvements in intensity and volume. When I crave mcdonalds and give in - one big mac and one sweet tea - about an hour later - the tinnitus volume goes up in intensity and volume and I just sit there regretting what I just ate. it is hard. I don't know why, but sugar itself does not hit me as bad though I gave up my diet cokes and got a little improvement from that. It has been a process and at times I just wish I could have my old life back - I loved the American diet and I loved taking almost no meds - now - I have to remember that xanax and I have to remember what I am going to eat - or else I just get this intense buzzing - that is louder than the TV - but maybe in some weird way tinnitus may save my life - I mean, if i give up all fast food and fried food just to get peace - maybe my little cardiac pumper will benefit. I have lost some weight - as a side effect - but I loved going out with friends and having ice tea and all the fast food I could eat - I loved pizza and that will get me for sure - I miss pizza. Also, alcohol - one hour later - hell to pay - I loved a drink now and then. One poster eliminated all sodium that she could and said the tinnitus went down really low - I don't know if I can do it - I don't know if I could become a vegan. I am now trying diet because everything else has failed the past two years. My hearing loss is 40% in each ear in the High frequency range so now the hearing aids diminish tinnitus in that sounds my ears could no longer pick up are now being picked up.

there are studies on the net about people with marginal hearing losses in the high frequency range actually experiencing reduced symptoms with hearing aids programmed to their high frequency losses and some say they cannot hear the tinnitus unless they are in a quiet room. Apparently the brain is receiving some sort of stimulation that occupies it to ignore the tinnitus. High frequency hearing loss and tinnitus are the most common symptoms the ENT sees even when the high frequency loss is marginal and they still don't know why.

Apparently digital aids and maskers do something for sufferers. Most forgo the masker because they cannot acclimate to hearing two different noises all day long - the masker sound and their own tinnitus -and after two days through the maskers in a drawer - their brain is just overloaded with noise. The ones who make it past about two weeks report relief - it's making it those 14 days and acclimating that seems to be the ticket.

Because a decent masker is at least $1000.00 and the person has only 30 days to decide to go with it - they are usually anxious and give up easily - thinking I have to get my money back now or never.

I am hoping they release the brain patch out through the FDA as there has been some promising research into the idea of giving the auditory cortex a little electrical stimulation through the patch and the symptoms of tinnitus are reduced or the perception is somehow interrupted between this area of the brain and your cochlea or auditory nerve.

This seems to be the only thing lately that makes sense because it lines up with those who receive CI's and have reported immediate relief from tinnitus and those who happen to have tinnitus and get implants for epilepsy and parkinsons in the same area of their brain and report back that tinnitus is reduced.

It is invasive though - they have to remove a piece of your skull and put the patch directly on your brain and the small box controlling the electrical impulses are placed in your chest cavity. So it is no simple feat, but may be trend of where the science needs to go - a way to interrupt the signal that reaches our ear structures and causes the torture -

Question, Pat. Is your hearing decreasing and you T increasing? Just curious. My dad has had T for..., as long as he can remember. He's 63 and has been pretty much deaf for many years as well (he used to be an aircraft mechanic and munitions expert..., no wonder), so years and years ago he also got hearing aids to help with the hearing. He's had T for so long, or has been deaf for so long that he simply knows no other way now. He said that when he takes his aids out, he can totally hear the T, and it's like a roaring engine. But with the heaing aids in, he said he hardly hears the T. Interesting..., weird but interesting. So I guess, because his aids are so busy helping him hear, they are masking the T? Either way, he has a happy life and says that the T does not bother him anymore, even at night with the aids out. It's been so long, that's all he knows. Interesting.

To answer your question rosssu, yes my hearing is getting worse as I age. The natural aging process is responsible for some of that, but IMHO tinnitus is mostly to blame. Sometimes at night (like last night) I wanted to scream. When I return from vacation at the end of the month, I'm looking more seriously into maskers. Pat