Sudden Hearing loss _{Page 92 of 105}

Finally found a cure - so I'm sharing with as many people as I can in the hopes it will help someone.

In 2006 I suffered a 60db single-sided sudden sensorineural hearing loss, followed later by vertigo attacks and a diagnosis of Meniere’s Disease. I have since made a *full* recovery after suffering for 3 years. In my case these symptoms were the result a food allergy (which I have also recovered from).

I created a web site to document my own experience since it appears most ENTs have little idea about simple allergies (e.g. food, environmental) as one possible cause of significant & sudden hearing loss. [I can't post the URL on this site directly, but my user profile has it]

It includes scans of my hearing tests & allergy results.

( the House Ear Clinic - is an example of a medical practice that acknowledges the connection between allergies and hearing disorders. )

Good Luck to all & get well soon!

jhorowi1 - that is great news!

The House Ear Clinic is supposed to be great. I know of someone else who went there and with allergy treatment she recovered her hearing. Same diagnosis as you, too. (Though no vertigo - so it was called a-typical Meniere's disease).

I have the same a-typical Meniere's disease - hearing loss without the vertigo - and have followed the antiviral protocol Dr. Derebery at House uses. If I find my hearing goes bad again, I may go down there to meet with her in person and get allergy testing, or find a doc up here who will do it.

jhorowi1,
Congratulations on finding a cure! As I plug away to find the root cause and a 'cure' I will keep your suggestions and experience in mind.

Thanks for creating your site, it was very informative.

wherr is House of Hearing located? Shortcake glad to hear your hearing is still intact. My doc still will not prescribe anti-virals. Have had a little luck with the Methotrexate. Can hear someone if they are directly in front of me. Hearing is better. Understanding is still wobbly.

Jakeabe - The House Ear Clinic is located in Los Angeles.
I am glad your hearing is a bit improved. I hope you have even more improvement!

dowhatnow,

I am not a patient at the House Ear Clinic, however I did discover their site after I recovered my hearing, so I listed them since they confirm that allergies can play a role. I have no idea if they do the same sort of testing (IgG tests) that helped save my life.

I hope my post supplies both hope and a possible avenue to explore for those of you still suffering from this horrible disorder.

If you respond in any positive way to steroids (or the like), I highly recommend looking into all types of allergies (IgE, IgG, IgA, food & environmental).

jhorowi1,
I looked over the site and read up on their allergy information as it pertains to hearing loss.

My case is similar, but no Meniere's and the only vertigo I experienced was at the onset of my hearing loss. With a few mild sells afterward.

Unfortunately, I did not respond to steroids. Unless you count gaining weight and getting angry. :) I will consider your case as I move forward.

Thanks!

as an FYI, I was given some very high doses of steroids to regain my hearing (which I now know just restrained my auto-immune system). I started with a 14 day track of 10mg Decadron which is equivalent to 80mg Prednisone.

I'm wondering if anyone is like me. I just woke up one morning almost 2 years ago with complete hearing loss on the left. Never any vertigo or any other symptoms other than the ear feeling 'stopped up' and tinnitus. I was able to begin intratympanic steroid injections within the first week and received 4 as well as the steroid dose pack. I have never at any time had any improvement in the hearing loss, it is absolutely gone but still with some 'clicking and roaring' sounds, as I call deafening silence. I'm wondering if the allergy theory would apply to those of us who have had no response at all to anything and never any vertigo or other symptoms others have reported. Anyone else like me?

Allergy is connected to toxins in food and environment. Milk and cheese are foreign to our body. Anything foreign to our body can cause allergic reactions. Our immune system will suffer if there are too many allergic substances to be cleared. Milk and cheese make our body acidic. An acidic body invites diseases of various kinds. Constant stress can also make our body acidic. Positive thinking can create more positive hormones that are beneficial to the healing of our body. I try my best not to eat processed food that weakens our immune system. The malfunction of our ear is similar to the malfunction of other organs when our immune system cannot handle the overburden of toxins in our body.

martinrd - I do not have any clue if allergy is or is not the reason for your hearing loss. But it is something that could be easily checked by a simple blood tests or a stringent elimination diet.

eltonlam - to feel all better I needed to reintroduce the allergic foods, so I can't fully agree with your idea that these foods (e.g. dairy) are to be avoided. Also, my allergy was triggered by emotional stress, a common theme for many SSHL sufferers.

ihorowi1,
I agree with you that emotional stress in combination with a toxic body can trigger SSHL. I think that it is not easy to make you give up dairy products, but I never touch any dairy and animal products which can acidify our body.

eltonlam,
Thanks for your comment concerning your friend who suffered severe osteoporosis of the hip joints due to steroid injections. After I got over the initial shock of my SSHL, my conservative logic kicked back in. I looked at the history of steroid use for SSHL and saw no signs of a risk free sure cure. I'll never know what would have happened if I had steroid pills and/or shots, but I was (and remain) not willing to take the osteoporosis risk.

I am watching the posts concerning the possible allergy connection to SSHL.

brokenear,
As I know from many sources of the web that toxins can cause various diseases and undermine our immune system. Toxins can cause blockages and affect blood supply to nerves and various organs including the ear. Both stress and toxins can produce free radicals that can harm our body in various ways. Natural raw living food can provide tremendous healing power. I wonder if you have heard of the Hoppocrates Health Institute freeing people from terminal disease by using raw living food. I try to eat raw, but it is is difficult for me to do so living in a city like Hong Kong. The best raw living food is the organic vegetable produce fresh from the field. Dairy and animal products can acidify our body and affect the absorption of oxygen by our cells. Many diseases can be avoided if sufficient oxygen supply can be provided to our cells for active metabolism.

Brokenear, steroid use for SSHL is restricted to a very short course. So many people have recovered some hearing from this and/or the steroid injections directly into the ear that I believe it is reasonable to suggest that the benefits far outweigh any negligible risk.

Eltonlam - as a science teacher and biologist I am struggling to understand your concept of the whole body becoming acidic and this affecting the absorption of oxygen by our cells due to diet. What are your sources and where is the evidence and science behind this please?

JeWeL41, I agree with everything you wrote.

I would note that if someone is concerned about osteoporosis they should look into Strontium (taken with, but separately from, Calcium and vitamin D). See the 2004 study from the New England Journal of Medicine on Strontium Ranelate (Citrate form is as good) “The Effects of Strontium Ranelate on the Risk of Vertebral Fracture in Women with Postmenopausal Osteoporosis”

jeWel41,
The information can be readily obtained from the internet. If you look into the information about the Hoppocrates Health Institute, you may get the answer that how food can affect our health. Today, people are bombarded by environmental toxins, food additives, preservatives, pesticides and many others. All the preceding factors can acidify our body. People may find it difficult to believe that the food they eat has connection with major diseases of today. seems that

I haven't posted here for so long! I thought I would check and see what my fellow sudden hearing loss sufferers are talking about now. As for myself I have just been coping with the myriad weird and disabling symptoms that I woke up with 2 years ago this July 17. I am now deaf in my right ear with constant tinnitus that varies in it's sqeaks and chirps but not in the loud fuzzz sound that never ceases. Because my left ear is very good I do okay though.

I was reading what JeWeL41 wrote about hearing loss and bone health, and just general health. I personally take a very pragmatic approach, adopting only what is research and/or time proven for my diet and medically.

Recently vitamin D3 has taken on new importance. I have been tested with low levels (actually typical levels for the Pacific NW United States, where I live) at 25ng/ml. Since finding this out I have been taking supplemental vit. D3 and doing some internet research. Vitamin D plays a role in immune health and almost every aspect of human health. Since many people with SSHL are thought to have auto immune issues then it seems as if taking adequate vitamin D (in D3 form) would be important. I never take less than 2,000 I.U. a day and will now be trying to catch a few minutes of UVB sun between 10 am and 2pm (the very times I avoided before:-)) The rest of the time I will not be wearing sunscreen but long sleeves and a hat!

Hi BrokenEar! How is Cindy, your black cat? Is she still living? As I remember she was in her twenties!

Interesting about the fod- I started a partial fast 10 days ago- lemon juice and water, veggie broth- no salt, only a bit of honey in detox tea- within a day my hearing was coming back in and my ears were clearing. I added root vegetable and it started to go south again- I am back on only green stuff. Steamed or in home-made soup. I think there's something to allergies and to detoxing the body. I was already eating very well- veggies, small amount of fruit beans, rice/millet and fish. I'm going to keep it up. I think that fruit/sugar may be am issue too. I have also been taking anti-virals for months- they seemed to help at high doses but not sure if they are doing much still or not. Anyway- I suggest a good healthy fast of some kind if you've tried everything else to no success.

Hi sweetsoundoffrogs - please check my post above on 2010-02-08 and my profile (with URLs). Maybe it will offer you some hope. I was also low vitamin D, and Zinc. But it was all unrelated to the actual problem & cure (as far as I know).

Hi suncasa,

An IgG, IgG4, and IgE blood test would be a lot easier if you have proven that it's an allergy. Also consider foods you often eat, as they are more likely suspects. If you want to do an elimination diet try the Paleo Diet (see thepaleodiet.com), but you have to do it 100% with no eating out or eating packaged foods.

With me even a tiny mistake was painful and would set me back 7-10 days. But I was cured when I followed my allergen free diet 100%.

Hi, sweetsoundoffrogs

I lost Cindy 12/31/09 at age 21 years 3 months. She was diagnosed with lymphoma in early October. I had discovered a lump in her throat in late September, and had a biopsy. She went painlessly, and I enjoy the memory of the 21+ years I had her.

Sorry to bring back an old thread, but there's a lot of good information in these posts. I noticed about two weeks ago I could hear wind blowing my right ear all the time. After a couple days of hearing the one sound, I began to hear a high frequency sound like a dog wistle, also all the time. I tried to clean out ear thinking I was blocked, after a week I went in for a hearing test.
I had lost all my low frequency hearing and was prescribed acyclovir and prednisone for 7 days. I am on day 6 and the dog wistle sound has only gotten louder.
I am also taking pepcid ac, which the doctor requemended because the other pills are bad for the stomach.
Does the Pecid ac Im taking make the other pills ineffective by passing through undigested? Am I getting to anxious after only 6 days on medication?

David - I hope the meds help you! The antivirals (I used Famvir instead of acyclovir) helped me a lot and I got back nearly all my low frequency hearing. However my prescription was for much longer - 3 months (it was 1 month and then if there was any improvement, which there was, I was to continue another 2 months).

I don't know about the Pepcid ac but I would try taking it without and see if you actually need the pepcid ac or not.

The dog whistle did appear for me while on famvir, I think. But it was minor and I didn't worry about it, since the hearing was coming back and the other tinnitus was going away. How is the 'wind' sound in your ear? I found that when the hearing came back, the wind sound went away.

I was hopeing to hear from you shortcake. The wind sound in my ear is still there. I had the dog whistle sound in my ear before I started the drugs so I don't think its related.

I have a doctors appointment for thrusday for a soundretest of my ear. I'm thinking of trying to move it up as I will run out of meds today.

I'm thinking of pushing for a cortizone injection in the ear. I know shortcake had that, and wonder if I'm not going to show improvement without it.

Thanks for your reply, this has really got me down, or maybe its just the drugs talking.

David - I'm sorry it's rough. The prednisone can make you feel really down, too - it did for me.

If I can make a suggestion - before your doctor's appointment, look at this link:
http://www.menieres.org/forum/index.php/topic,23217.0.html

I know there's too much info here, but take a look and see what might be useful. I just am worried you were not given enough antivirals to get results. Some people do have results almost immediately, but it took somewhere between 10 days and 2 weeks for me. And then I stayed on them for a total of 3 months, as per Dr. Derebery (the expert at House Ear Institute in LA who has done some research on this). Of course, they don't work for everyone, but if you're going to try it it you want to give it a full try!

I did have a shot in my ear - 3, actually, and I didn't have any problem with them. However the improvement I got was only temporary. I think it reduced the inflammation but once the medicine wore off the inflammation of the virus (in my case it was clearly a virus) came right back. I don't think it had anything to do with my recovery since I had the shots about 3 months before I started antivirals. Still I don't see any harm in trying it as it does work for some people!