My Story

I noticed that I started getting ringing in my ears after one of two events:

1) Listening to rock music with headphones on and probably the volume up too high;

2) After eating home made vegetable soup.

Okay, so the music part made sense. I've always known that listening to loud music wasn't a really great thing to do for my hearing, but until recently I never noticed any negative effects from it. But the weird part was when my ears started ringing after the eating the soup. I had recently received the results of nutrition testing and was low in a few nutrients, including magnesium and vitamin B12. To try to correct my deficiencies, I was eating soup with meat for vitamin B12 and lots of vegetables, including leafy greens, for extra magnesium. Logically that seemed like a healthy thing to do, but after the soup I noticed a couple of times I had a return of some shoulder pain I had not had in awhile and this weird ringing in my ears started up.

So I cut out the soup and turned the volume down on the head phones and the tinnitus gradually started getting better. As of this writing the only time I hear any ringing is when I'm laying in bed at night, when everything else is quiet and even then it is very soft and not too bothersome. But before that I had been hearing this constant ringing / high pitched type sound that was very distracting and made it difficult to hear regular noises like the TV and people talking.

After doing some research I realized that I had been putting too many leafy green vegetables, such as dandelion greens and kale, in my soup. Dandelions and other leafy greens vegetables are very high in magnesium and other alkalinizing minerals. Vitamin B12 is released by stomach acid, which in my case was apparently being neutralized by too much leafy green vegetables. Green vegetables like cabbage and broccoli are alkalinizing and often listed in alternative medicine books as natural treatments for people with too much stomach acid. Since I didn't have too much stomach acid, I think in hindsight eating so many leafy greens was causing a lack of stomach acid and I suspect creating a vitamin B12 deficiency as well. The soup, and probably reduction of stomach acid from it, had also given me a return of my irritable bowel syndrome symptoms. The IBS also cleared up when I cut back on the leafy greens.

Interestingly, tinnitus and TMJ often occur together. I had TMJ in the past, but corrected that with yoga and diet changes. I did not have TMJ any longer when the tinnitus occurred, but was having problems with muscle tightness in other parts of my body, including the shoulder opposite where my TMJ had been in the past. My shoulder pain also cleared up when I cut back on the leafy greens. I still think leafy greens are a healthy food, but I was probably eating too much of them for my body type.

Visit my connective tissue disorder home page to use my search feature and see information on conditions related to TMJ.

These related sections may be also of special interest:

TMJ: Diet and Exercise Treatment - covers the many factors that played a role on my TMJ recovery.

TMJ Exercise and Tips

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