Tinnitus and Adrenal Fatigue

[acrosstheveil]

About 6 years ago I ended up in the hospital with a high fever and was diagnosed with swine flu and lyme disease. I have been treating the lyme disease with antibiotics for several years and herbals the whole time with much improvement in the beginning but stopped improving after a couple of years.

I have severe food intolerances, autoimmune issues, low energy, insomnia, anxiety, depression, tinnitus, and many other neurological issues. I was wondering if maybe this could all be due to adrenal fatigue. I have tried taking adrenal glandulars in the past and had a bad reaction but just recently started taking an adrenal cortex supplement and think I feel a lot stronger. My tinnitus seems to be reduced in the mornings after I take the supplement but slowly fades back in, in the evening.

I think I may have candida/leaky gut but I believe this may be a symptom of adrenal fatigue or the lyme. It is quite complicated.

Currently I am on tindamax, 500mg tid, and cat's claw, one tablespoon 3x/day amongst many other supplements. What should I be focusing on? I spend about 800 dollars on treatment a month and it is draining me! What would be the most effective route to proceed at this point? I eat a paleo diet for the most part but am unable to tolerate dairy or eggs. It is really hard to get enough calories!

 

[minkeygirl]

My doc has me on 1/4 tsp Licorice extract for my adrenal fatigue. She added 500 mgs B5, panthothenic acid but it amped me up too much. I still have to go back and try a lower dose.

 

[Ema]

Have you taken a saliva cortisol test like this one? Testing would always be my first step before embarking on any intensive adrenal repair program.

http://www.canaryclub.org/specializ...-zrt-stress-hormone-test-kit-c1-c2-c3-c4.html

Tinnitus is often associated with hypothyroidism which commonly occurs with adrenal dysfunction.

Are you seeing an LLMD? Have you been diagnosed/tested/treated for any Lyme co-infections? How long have you been on the Tindamax?

 

[acrosstheveil]

i did tindamax like three years ago for 9 months or so. I just started it again a couple weeks ago, after the tinnitus started up. I don't really have the money to do any testing right now, but I Know i'm low on cortisol. Been borderline passing out and extremely dizzy at work, almost falling asleep at the wheel on the drive home.

 

[Ema]

i did tindamax like three years ago for 9 months or so. I just started it again a couple weeks ago, after the tinnitus started up. I don't really have the money to do any testing right now, but I Know i'm low on cortisol. Been borderline passing out and extremely dizzy at work, almost falling asleep at the wheel on the drive home.

If you have $800/month to spend on treatment, that is plenty to start doing some things that might actually identify the problems that need to be treated.

The way to proceed is with some solid testing (endocrine, infections, etc) and then interventions based on those results.

Just randomly taking supplements and meds will likely not help as you are discovering.

Tindamax alone is generally not considered sufficient for Lyme treatment and is pulsed with other antibiotics for greater efficacy. It can also raise liver enzymes which should be regularly monitored during treatment.

If I were you, I would look for a good LLMD who will help you with all these problems.

 

[acrosstheveil]

i have seen an LLMD for two years. I cannot afford to see the same guy anymore but my current physician is lyme sympathetic so he is willing to try new treatments (his wife has lyme). I am not just taking random supplements. I am taking things that I know that help me through trial and error over the years, and through recommendation of my former llmd. I don't think testing will be very helpful as I already know my adrenals are fatigued. I have had my testosterone tested and the levels are fine. It just doesn't make sense to me to test things that I already have a good intuition about.

 

[barbc56]

There may be many causes for tinnitus. One can be medications such as antibiotics. I don't know if antibiotic type of supplements would do the same thing.

However, the main reason I am responding is because almost falling asleep while driving is very very worrisome. Have you had a sleep study?

While sleep disturbances may be only a small part of the picture or none at all with your health, my recommendation would be a a complete medical workup if you haven't had one in a while.

I am not a medical professional but this might be a good start.

Good luck.

Barb

 

[acrosstheveil]

i have not had a sleep study. My tinnitus is most apparent in the day time. I remember lugol's iodine helping me a ton last year and never had issues with tinnitus then. I'm going to order more and see how it goes.

 

[end]

About 6 years ago I ended up in the hospital with a high fever and was diagnosed with swine flu and lyme disease. I have been treating the lyme disease with antibiotics for several years and herbals the whole time with much improvement in the beginning but stopped improving after a couple of years.

I have severe food intolerances, autoimmune issues, low energy, insomnia, anxiety, depression, tinnitus, and many other neurological issues. I was wondering if maybe this could all be due to adrenal fatigue. I have tried taking adrenal glandulars in the past and had a bad reaction but just recently started taking an adrenal cortex supplement and think I feel a lot stronger. My tinnitus seems to be reduced in the mornings after I take the supplement but slowly fades back in, in the evening.

I think I may have candida/leaky gut but I believe this may be a symptom of adrenal fatigue or the lyme. It is quite complicated.

Currently I am on tindamax, 500mg tid, and cat's claw, one tablespoon 3x/day amongst many other supplements. What should I be focusing on? I spend about 800 dollars on treatment a month and it is draining me! What would be the most effective route to proceed at this point? I eat a paleo diet for the most part but am unable to tolerate dairy or eggs. It is really hard to get enough calories!

I think it is rather interesting that a friend of mine recently after a short stint on a Tindamax(tinidazole)protocol for H.Pylori, developed Tinnitus also. I was under the impression that the Clarithromycin was the culprit as this drug is known to medical science as being ototoxic

 

[Hanna]

@acrosstheveil , how are you doing with the Lugol's ? Did it help your tinnitus this time too?
I have also tinnitus problems, was diagnosed with chronic Lyme and also adrenal exhaustion, so, once again, difficult to draw a link between symptom and disease.
Borrelia is known to have an affinity with some nerves (cranial, auditif, etc...), so there maybe some link here though... but ME "alone" gives sound intolerance and tinnitus too...

 

[zzz]

Tindamax is known to cause tinnitus in some people, especially if used long term.

Personally, I have found acupuncture extremely helpful in treating tinnitus - it makes the tinnitus go away when nothing else will.

 

[end]

Tindamax is known to cause tinnitus in some people, especially if used long term.

Personally, I have found acupuncture extremely helpful in treating tinnitus - it makes the tinnitus go away when nothing else will.

@zzz THANK YOU

@zzz I forgot to ask, does the tinnitus tend to dissipate once your off the tinidazole??

 

[acrosstheveil]

@acrosstheveil , how are you doing with the Lugol's ? Did it help your tinnitus this time too?
I have also tinnitus problems, was diagnosed with chronic Lyme and also adrenal exhaustion, so, once again, difficult to draw a link between symptom and disease.
Borrelia is known to have an affinity with some nerves (cranial, auditif, etc...), so there maybe some link here though... but ME "alone" gives sound intolerance and tinnitus too...

it has helped most of my lyme symptoms but i am left with all this autoimmune weird stuff that iodine doesn't do much for. The tinnitus started way before the tindamax. I have gone off and on tindamax and it is not related to the tinnitus I am experiencing.

 

[acrosstheveil]

what causes the tinnitus in ME? Are there medications to help that?

 

[zzz]

what causes the tinnitus in ME? Are there medications to help that?

The tinnitus in ME, like much tinnitus, appears to be of neurological origin. Dr. Jay Goldstein's theories about CFS and related diseases were that the brain's information processing system wasn't working properly, resulting in sensory gating problems, and a lowered signal to noise ratio. This appears to be what's happening with tinnitus in ME.

As for medications, according to MedicineNet:

Few medications seem to work to resolve tinnitus. Two that have shown some mild benefit include alprazolam (Xanax), a benzodiazepine that may also help with the anxiety and insomnia associated with tinnitus, and dexamethasone (Decadron), a steroid that can be injected into the inner ear to help decrease inflammation.

Some people claim that niacin helps, but there are no published studies that support this. It didn't do anything for me.

I have recommended acupuncture in this thread, based on long term personal experience, as well as the experience of a number of people I know. Generally, the amount of acupuncture required to cure tinnitus is related to how long the patient has had it. Once all symptoms have been eliminated, any recurrence is generally cleared up in one or two treatments, provided that the recurrence is treated reasonably promptly.

There are many studies showing the efficacy of acupuncture in treating tinnitus, an efficacy that can not be matched by any medicine. One of them is Acupuncture for tinnitus immediate relief. The Discussion section of this paper also discusses other published studies of acupuncture for tinnitus and their results.

If you do a PubMed search for "acupuncture" and "tinnitus", you will get 89 results (as of now), the vast majority of which show positive outcomes.

 

[Hanna]

I was prescribed CIPRALEX (Escitalopram- SSRI) by neuro in order to try to eleviate the gating problem (which caused tinnitus, hyperacusia etc.). After 1/8 of a tablet twice (24h apart) I had to go to the ER (severe tachycardia, dyspnea, flush ...).
After this experiment I was told to be careful with SSRI, as lots of ME patients had serious side-effects. Too late.
Acupuncture could be a good alternative, a lot safer.

 

[acrosstheveil]

niacin does help a ton for my tinnitus. The only problem is, it leads to undermethylation symptoms. niacin mops up methyl groups...could tinnitus be related to overmethylation?