Tinnitus & Fish Oil

I was talking to my pharmacologist at the VA hospital last month and she suggested fish oil for my tinnitus. I’m sure it’s been mentioned before. I bought some fish oil, GMP certified, the brand I got was Nutricost and it didn’t have that fishy taste like in the 1990s had. It has been working wonders for my tinnitus so far. I’m doing good until I run an air compressor or a shop vacuum cleaner. Wearing ear protection next time, they get my right ear screaming. Saw a audiologist on Youtube, she mentioned blood flow through the ears can affect tinnitus, think fish oil might thin the blood a little, maybe that is what is helping, don’t know though for sure.

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I have been taking fish oil supplements for over a decade and it hasn’t helped

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Well, maybe it’s just a coincidence, I just took 3 fish oil capsules and waiting to see if it will still help. Sometimes it takes a couple of days for me. It appeared to work yesterday afternoon after I got home from a short trip, right now it is screaming.

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Sometimes my tinnitus suddenly gets worse and more irregular and in those circumstances I take pills (suggested by my family doctor) that are supposed to reduce the blood pressure in the ears, and they indeed help quite a bit. They’re called Microser 24mg.

Anyway, I’ll definitely try fish oil too as it‘s good for the health anyway!

Microser is betahistine – I used the brand Serc 25-ish years ago. Couldn’t get it in the US so I “imported” from Australia after seeing a friend’s family doctor there. Was a life-saver for managing Meniere’s symptoms!
Didn’t do much for my tinnitus but wonderful it works for yours :slight_smile:

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When I was NOT so deaf, but still had 24x7 tinnitus as a 20-something, I was told to take B-12 and FLUSHING niacin (the kind that makes your face turn red as a beet and gets your heart racing!). Did that for maybe 30 years with NO change in my tinnitus (except that it has become more like a reliable “weather vane” changing tunes depending on atmospheric pressure and temperature change) and ZERO impact on my hearing, which has continued its unrelenting slope DOWN. I no longer ask, “How low can it go?!” cuz I don’t want to jinx things.

Back in the '80s, shills were touting gingko for tinnitus. Huh? How’s that gonna help? Even so, being ever the optimist, I tossed that into my daily supplements for probably 10 yrs or more. No change in tinnitus.

I think well-meaning folks really WANT to help out and offer a miracle cure, but the reality is that whatever caused the tinnitus (genetics, drug interaction, NOISE, etc.,) can’t be changed. It is what it is until the day it isn’t. My “best” cure is to have my hearing aids in ALL day long. When they come out, that tinnitus tone is what lulls me to sleep, But I’m not even aware of it during the day … UNLESS the weather is changing, Then I can plan ahead and take a brolly or not, lol. :laughing:

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I too have taken fish oil for 15-20 years for arthritis pain, it helps that but not tinnitus. Tinnitus has become my friend, used to be my foe!!!
Just remember, tinnitus can not hurt you.

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Fish oil for tinnitus sounds like snake oil to me :slight_smile:

Crazy tat you have to import it!
Here in Italy you don’t even need a medical prescription to buy it in pharmacies.

Anyway, it’s pretty documented it can help against tinnitus as it reduces the blood pressure in the ear, which is one of the things that causes tinnitus, not the only one of course.

For me it works when I get extra tinnitus on top of my standard one that I learnt how to live with.

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I’ve tried all sorts of stuff for the Tinnitus I’ve had for probably maybe 30 years. I was officially diagnosed with hearing loss in 2009, but had Tinnitus for many years before. In that time, everyone had just started mumbling :slight_smile:

I tried importing supplements (South African tree bark or something), but nothing has made a jot of difference. Reducing caffeine and chocolate has been suggested too, but it carries on regardless. It’s no shock though, as my guitar was rather loud, over many years. My Audiologist was a drummer in another local band, and wasn’t surprised at all. It’s the way it is, no regrets.

Hearing aids are my cure, as they give me those frequencies back, and take my mind off it.

My Tinnitus is at its worst when I’m doing a hearing test. When I get above 1khz it’s everywhere :grinning:

Peter

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LOL! I used to tease my previous audi at all my hearing tone tests that I should be given a “handicap” score DUE to my persistent tinnitus! Yeah, we’d both guffaw … and then he’d do the test as it should be done. And I’d fail miserably across the board … as I always do. I blame the tinnitus! It’s the tinnitus!

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@1Bluejay
That’s exactly what I used to say until the first hearing test (I had glue ear in both ears and as temporary Pround across the board). In that test, the hospital nurse was hitting the equipment, thinking it was faulty! Great humor by the way. This has always been my approach :rofl:
Peter

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I’ve noticed this week that after taking the fish oil first thing in the morning, the tinnitus is still loud. After I get going and moving around repairing my bathroom, the noise became much less, almost gone. This time I wore sound ear muffs when running the shop vacuum and air compressor, that made a difference too, because they were 2 of my triggers. Also noticed one of my triggers is removing my hearing aids.

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Somehow, I’ve trained my brain to not hear my constant tinnitus. If I listen right now, it’s there and as bad as it ever was. But if I’m thinking about something else, I don’t hear it at all.
Why I have this ability, I don’t know. My tinnitus started in 2006 (I was 51) and drove me nuts and caused a lot of anxiety until my brain adapted. I’d say it took close to a year for that to happen.
I didn’t really start to notice that my hearing was getting bad until 2016 and got my first aids in 2017.

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My ear has been going loud since yesterday. Maybe the fish oil only works once in a while. Trying an app called tinnitus masker, sometimes it works, haven’t used it in a while, hope it helps today.