For those of you who haven't viewed this blog before here is what I've been up to in the last eighteen months:-
I was diagnosed with inner ear hearing loss at the age of 15 years old. The doctors shrugged their shoulders and shook their heads when it came to explaining the cause and decided I must have had it since birth.
Five years ago I changed my diet from chocs, ice cream and sweets to a more healthy lifestyle and my hearing started to improve. I went to the doctors and requested a hearing test. However it was three months later before I got one and my hearing had stopped improving by that time. My earlier medical records had been lost, since I’d moved around a lot, so we had nothing to compare the hearing chart to. Therefore I couldn’t prove my gain. For a lack of any other explanation the doctors decided that I’d had a middle ear blockage (caused my an unhealthy diet) on top of the original inner ear loss.
I didn't believe this but there was nothing I could do so I accepted it and got on with my University Degree.
At the end of 2009 I developed blurred vision in my left eye which I went to the doctors about. After being referred to the specialist I was told that it didn't warrent any treatment, and to return in three months time. I wasn't happy with this, since those of us with hearing loss know, that without our hearing we NEED our sight! So I went looking for a treatment myself. After doing some research into possible causes and treatment I bought some steriods online. This sparked off another hearing gain and so I decided to pursue it once again.
As I pursued other symptoms I was suffering from (mostly those associated with diabetes - (including extreme lathary, dry skin, a craving for sugary things, blurred vision etc) so I bought myself a blood sugar level monitor and realised that my sugar levels (while not high enough to be classes as diabetes) still remained higher than they should. As an example, if we regard five (5) (on a British monitor) as absolutely good, then my sugar levels were staying between seven (7) and eleven (11) even after two hours of eating.
I then decided to self treat myself with insulin to bring my sugar levels back down to five (5) within two hours of eating. Getting the right insulin and the right dosage took many months. I also continued to experiment with different dosages of steroids while doing this and by October 2010 (please see my charts) I had managed a ten (10) decible hearing gain on two levels and was registering two sounds that hadn't been present before, even on my charts five years ago.
Many of us, as we get older, suffer from varying ‘unexplained’ complaints that the doctors will often put down as ‘old age’. Aches and pains, tiredness, feeling run down or cold like symptoms, shortness of breath when we climb the stairs; our eye sight starts to go and our hearing deteriorates. All of these I suffer from and believe they are all related to the same thing. I’m not saying that some of these symptoms do not belong to ‘old age’ but what if . . . all or some of these symptoms also belong to an undiscovered condition which ‘mostly’ develops as we get older but can also happen when we're young too?
Doctors know that if our blood sugar levels go too high (Diabetes) we can suffer from the following symptoms, the need for frequent urination, drowsiness (extreme fatigue), nausea, extreme hunger and/or thirst, blurring of the vision. If you are diabetic you need to inject yourself with insulin (your Pancras isn’t doing this for you as it should) in order to bring your blood sugar levels down and so relieving these symptoms.
My proposition is that many people don’t suffer from this ‘extreme’ form of diabetes but DO suffer from a more slow moving form that in turn causes tiredness, thirst, blurred vision, hunger and frequent urination. It also causes hearing loss! Audiologist believe that the little hairs that transmit sound in the inner ear have been destroyed therefore nothing can be done. I believe that this form of diabetes causes swelling in the inner ear and so suppressing the little hairs preventing them from transmitting sound. If the cause for this swelling is taken away then the hearing should be retrievable. I wonder if the ringing in our ears (Tinnitus) is our little hairs trying to tell us that they're alive and well but they're just unable to do their job properly while this condition prevails?
By November I came to the conclusion that it was the sugar that was the cause of the problem. Doctors say that for a diabetic any food that contains less than 2g of sugar (what I mean by sugar is the cane or beat variety that you buy in bags) this is regarded as 'free' food. Meaning you can eat as much of it as you like and you shouldn't need to use insulin afterwards.
At the end of November I came to the conclusion that even the smallest amount of sugar was harmful. I could feel tightiness in the back of my neck and head and still felt tired after I eat. Doctor's know that sugar is the cause of diabeties but don't, at the moment, differentiate between the different types of sugars. However cane and beat sugar has obsolutely no nutritious value what-so-ever; it taste nice and preserves food and that's it! It is also know that sugar distroyes the white blood cells. We need our while blood cells to heal! Armed with this information I decided to cut all none nutritious sugar out of my diet.
I found while following this diet that my sugar levels dropped very quicky in the first month and I didn't need to use the insulin. I also felt I needed to eat again within an hour and a half so I eat a lot of small meals often. At the end of the first month the need to eat lots and sometimes through the night had abated and I started to get it more under control. To start with I eat any food that didn't contain sugar (since this leaves a limited amount of things you can eat anyway).
However after a couple of months of cutting the sugar out I found that my hearing started to regress again and my blood sugar levels once again remained higher than they should.
This had lead me to believe that through generations of over eating empty sugar products our bodies have come to develop a general intolerance to 'all' sugars - whether these are the cane or beat variety or whether they are the nutritious one. I took a good, long hard look at my diet and, by keeping a food diary, I realised that there were some big gaps in my nutrition with some properties being totally left empty. I decided to hone in my diet to eating only sugar free foods that contain high nutritional value and kept up my food diary until I was sure I was getting 'all' the nutrition I needed to be healthy. Of course this has made me feel a whole lot better but I was still feeling the effects of the food around the back of my head and in my ears every time I eat.
With regret recently I've felt the necessity to go back to using the insulin again.
So this was what I tried next. No cane or beat sugar what-so-every with about 10/12 units of insulin (Apidra) before each meal. This can be bought from http://www.goldphama.com/. It acts within fifteen (15) minutes of injecting but can be used up to forty-five (45 mins) after you've had your meal. You will have to regulate this yourself since these units will vary with what types of food you eat (and which kind of monitor you use) and how much you eat. I would recommend that you eat three (3) meals a day, cramming in as much nutrition as possible into small meals (remembering that too much of anything will cause a reaction so you really need to understand all food nutition - please see my food charts at the bottom of the page). Test your blood sugar levels two hours after each meal. If it is between 4.5 and 5.5 (on a British monitor) then it's good. If it's lower than that then you might be feeling hungry again and tired and you could suffer from hypoglycaemia. Please be very careful when administering insulin, especially for the first time since too much could cause a low blood sugar level coma. The best way to treat low blood sugar levels is to eat something. Many doctors recommend eating something sugary. This will raise your blood sugar levels again very quickly but then you end up on the low blood sugar back to high blood sugar; to low blood sugar levels roller coaster. Since there is very little margin of error in keeping your sugar levels as close to five (5) as possible I would recommend that you eat anything to bring your blood sugar level up (but not sugar). I've done this and it worked just as well. Then test your blood sugar levels again two hours later to make sure they've not remain high.
If it's higher than five point eight (5.8) then that it's too high therefore you need to get it down again. Check your blood sugar levels first thing in the morning as they can rise at night without you realising it but I've found by cutting out the sugar it doesn't happened very often. If this does happen however I use Actrapid (which you can buy from http://www.pharmacyescrow.com/ which is an insulin that last for twelve (12) hours. I'd say injecting 12/14 unit would be enough.
But this too wasn't enough!!
During my journey I had noticed that whether used insulin or changed my diet I had a short term hearing again after each but couldn't maintain it long term. I had received comments from some of you on various post that this has also been the case with you. So this is the next thing to try . . .
Always bearing in mind that understanding what a good diet is.
I have come to the conclusion that eating a certain quantity of sugar (the cane and beat variety) is very important to find the ultimate in a well balanced, healthy diet. I have tried various diets and found that by cutting the sugar entirely out of your diet can have just as many harmful effects as good ones. Therefore it now a matter of finding out exactly how much sugar we need to eat in order to maintain the right balance. I found that on the diabetic diet of not eating anything more than 2g of sugar it left me craving for sugar and it left me without energy and feeling listless. I tried eating as much as 15g of sugar (with each meal) and, after about 3 days, this made my heart rate go mad and erratic and again I felt tired and had no energy. So now I go on a meal by meal, day by day basic.
The hard part is giving anyone who wants to try this an accurate amount of sugar to eat since this is very much something you're going to have to monitor and decide for yourself. We all vary in shape and size, the amount of exercise we do and how many calories we burn off each day and all these factors will have a bearing on how much sugar (and other foods) you will need to eat.
This is the way I do it and you can hopefully use this method as a way of helping yourself.
I take my blood sugar levels first thing in the morning and last thing at night. You are aiming to keep it at 5 (British measurement) or thereabouts. Over 5.8 is too high, under 5 usually means you need to eat something! Then take your blood sugar levels two hours after you've eaten. You need to eat a certain quanity of sugar with each meal which is more than 2g and less than 15g. One teaspoon of sugar is equal to about 5g. I 've found that eating about 10g of sugar to 150g of other foods works well. Your blood sugar levels will rise and stay risen whether you eat just whole food (no sugar) or if you eat too much sugar. I've found that if my blood sugar levels are slightly raised two hours after I've eaten I look at what was in my last meal. If I think I've eaten too much whole foods (fruit, veg, meat, fish, dairy, frutose, glucose, sweetners - anything in fact that isn't cane or beat sugar) then I will eat something sugary to counteract this. If I think I've eaten too much sugar then I find a cup of tea or even a drink of coke can often bring my sugar levels back down. This is something you will have to do for yourself. I can't tell you exactly how much to eat since will depend on what foods and drinks 'you're' eating and drinking and how much you have. The hard part is trying to decide how much sugar is in processed foods as it doesn't tell you. It only tells you how many sugar are in in total amount of carbohydrates in the produce. Guessing is the only way with these foods. Though I suppose you will eventually know how much more sugar (if any) you'd need to take with them simply through trial and error. Or of course, you can eat only whole, none processed foods, and add your own sugar that way will make it easier but less tasty!
Since using this diet I haven't used insulin at all. Sometimes I do still get it wrong and my blood sugar levels are still raised after two hours of eating but I try to rectify this through eating or drinking something since I believe this is better than using a medicinal product.
However there is a 12 hour acting insulin Actrapid which I used to use at night to ensure my blood sugar levels are good by the morning so that I could start each day on a good level. (I usually find I don't need more than 8 to 12 units). This insulin can be bought from www.goldphama.com, needles can be bought from most online chemist and blood sugar monitors, test strips lances I usually get from e-bay, if you want to use this method!
I continue to take 10g morning and night of the steriod Prednisolon which helps to deal with the aches and pain I feel on a daily basis and the tightness the foods cause around the back of my head.
I'd say the real question to be answered is 'Is a faulty body part that causes a disfunction to be cause when eating or is it the foods we eat that cause a dysfunction in our body parts?'
Please help me to raise awareness of this condition and join the thousands of hearing loss suffers worldwide who have already viewed this blog by following my diet, contacting me at dawnshearingnow@googlemail.com, making a donation towards research cost, or tell your friends, tell your doctor, tell everyone!
Please read the comments left by the UK Hearing Research Team and also from Long Island CA who have started a case study into this method of treatment this year.
Please feel free to add your comments - the more the better :-)
I was diagnosed with inner ear hearing loss at the age of 15 years old. The doctors shrugged their shoulders and shook their heads when it came to explaining the cause and decided I must have had it since birth.
Five years ago I changed my diet from chocs, ice cream and sweets to a more healthy lifestyle and my hearing started to improve. I went to the doctors and requested a hearing test. However it was three months later before I got one and my hearing had stopped improving by that time. My earlier medical records had been lost, since I’d moved around a lot, so we had nothing to compare the hearing chart to. Therefore I couldn’t prove my gain. For a lack of any other explanation the doctors decided that I’d had a middle ear blockage (caused my an unhealthy diet) on top of the original inner ear loss.
I didn't believe this but there was nothing I could do so I accepted it and got on with my University Degree.
At the end of 2009 I developed blurred vision in my left eye which I went to the doctors about. After being referred to the specialist I was told that it didn't warrent any treatment, and to return in three months time. I wasn't happy with this, since those of us with hearing loss know, that without our hearing we NEED our sight! So I went looking for a treatment myself. After doing some research into possible causes and treatment I bought some steriods online. This sparked off another hearing gain and so I decided to pursue it once again.
As I pursued other symptoms I was suffering from (mostly those associated with diabetes - (including extreme lathary, dry skin, a craving for sugary things, blurred vision etc) so I bought myself a blood sugar level monitor and realised that my sugar levels (while not high enough to be classes as diabetes) still remained higher than they should. As an example, if we regard five (5) (on a British monitor) as absolutely good, then my sugar levels were staying between seven (7) and eleven (11) even after two hours of eating.
I then decided to self treat myself with insulin to bring my sugar levels back down to five (5) within two hours of eating. Getting the right insulin and the right dosage took many months. I also continued to experiment with different dosages of steroids while doing this and by October 2010 (please see my charts) I had managed a ten (10) decible hearing gain on two levels and was registering two sounds that hadn't been present before, even on my charts five years ago.
Many of us, as we get older, suffer from varying ‘unexplained’ complaints that the doctors will often put down as ‘old age’. Aches and pains, tiredness, feeling run down or cold like symptoms, shortness of breath when we climb the stairs; our eye sight starts to go and our hearing deteriorates. All of these I suffer from and believe they are all related to the same thing. I’m not saying that some of these symptoms do not belong to ‘old age’ but what if . . . all or some of these symptoms also belong to an undiscovered condition which ‘mostly’ develops as we get older but can also happen when we're young too?
Doctors know that if our blood sugar levels go too high (Diabetes) we can suffer from the following symptoms, the need for frequent urination, drowsiness (extreme fatigue), nausea, extreme hunger and/or thirst, blurring of the vision. If you are diabetic you need to inject yourself with insulin (your Pancras isn’t doing this for you as it should) in order to bring your blood sugar levels down and so relieving these symptoms.
My proposition is that many people don’t suffer from this ‘extreme’ form of diabetes but DO suffer from a more slow moving form that in turn causes tiredness, thirst, blurred vision, hunger and frequent urination. It also causes hearing loss! Audiologist believe that the little hairs that transmit sound in the inner ear have been destroyed therefore nothing can be done. I believe that this form of diabetes causes swelling in the inner ear and so suppressing the little hairs preventing them from transmitting sound. If the cause for this swelling is taken away then the hearing should be retrievable. I wonder if the ringing in our ears (Tinnitus) is our little hairs trying to tell us that they're alive and well but they're just unable to do their job properly while this condition prevails?
By November I came to the conclusion that it was the sugar that was the cause of the problem. Doctors say that for a diabetic any food that contains less than 2g of sugar (what I mean by sugar is the cane or beat variety that you buy in bags) this is regarded as 'free' food. Meaning you can eat as much of it as you like and you shouldn't need to use insulin afterwards.
At the end of November I came to the conclusion that even the smallest amount of sugar was harmful. I could feel tightiness in the back of my neck and head and still felt tired after I eat. Doctor's know that sugar is the cause of diabeties but don't, at the moment, differentiate between the different types of sugars. However cane and beat sugar has obsolutely no nutritious value what-so-ever; it taste nice and preserves food and that's it! It is also know that sugar distroyes the white blood cells. We need our while blood cells to heal! Armed with this information I decided to cut all none nutritious sugar out of my diet.
I found while following this diet that my sugar levels dropped very quicky in the first month and I didn't need to use the insulin. I also felt I needed to eat again within an hour and a half so I eat a lot of small meals often. At the end of the first month the need to eat lots and sometimes through the night had abated and I started to get it more under control. To start with I eat any food that didn't contain sugar (since this leaves a limited amount of things you can eat anyway).
However after a couple of months of cutting the sugar out I found that my hearing started to regress again and my blood sugar levels once again remained higher than they should.
This had lead me to believe that through generations of over eating empty sugar products our bodies have come to develop a general intolerance to 'all' sugars - whether these are the cane or beat variety or whether they are the nutritious one. I took a good, long hard look at my diet and, by keeping a food diary, I realised that there were some big gaps in my nutrition with some properties being totally left empty. I decided to hone in my diet to eating only sugar free foods that contain high nutritional value and kept up my food diary until I was sure I was getting 'all' the nutrition I needed to be healthy. Of course this has made me feel a whole lot better but I was still feeling the effects of the food around the back of my head and in my ears every time I eat.
With regret recently I've felt the necessity to go back to using the insulin again.
So this was what I tried next. No cane or beat sugar what-so-every with about 10/12 units of insulin (Apidra) before each meal. This can be bought from http://www.goldphama.com/. It acts within fifteen (15) minutes of injecting but can be used up to forty-five (45 mins) after you've had your meal. You will have to regulate this yourself since these units will vary with what types of food you eat (and which kind of monitor you use) and how much you eat. I would recommend that you eat three (3) meals a day, cramming in as much nutrition as possible into small meals (remembering that too much of anything will cause a reaction so you really need to understand all food nutition - please see my food charts at the bottom of the page). Test your blood sugar levels two hours after each meal. If it is between 4.5 and 5.5 (on a British monitor) then it's good. If it's lower than that then you might be feeling hungry again and tired and you could suffer from hypoglycaemia. Please be very careful when administering insulin, especially for the first time since too much could cause a low blood sugar level coma. The best way to treat low blood sugar levels is to eat something. Many doctors recommend eating something sugary. This will raise your blood sugar levels again very quickly but then you end up on the low blood sugar back to high blood sugar; to low blood sugar levels roller coaster. Since there is very little margin of error in keeping your sugar levels as close to five (5) as possible I would recommend that you eat anything to bring your blood sugar level up (but not sugar). I've done this and it worked just as well. Then test your blood sugar levels again two hours later to make sure they've not remain high.
If it's higher than five point eight (5.8) then that it's too high therefore you need to get it down again. Check your blood sugar levels first thing in the morning as they can rise at night without you realising it but I've found by cutting out the sugar it doesn't happened very often. If this does happen however I use Actrapid (which you can buy from http://www.pharmacyescrow.com/ which is an insulin that last for twelve (12) hours. I'd say injecting 12/14 unit would be enough.
But this too wasn't enough!!
During my journey I had noticed that whether used insulin or changed my diet I had a short term hearing again after each but couldn't maintain it long term. I had received comments from some of you on various post that this has also been the case with you. So this is the next thing to try . . .
Always bearing in mind that understanding what a good diet is.
I have come to the conclusion that eating a certain quantity of sugar (the cane and beat variety) is very important to find the ultimate in a well balanced, healthy diet. I have tried various diets and found that by cutting the sugar entirely out of your diet can have just as many harmful effects as good ones. Therefore it now a matter of finding out exactly how much sugar we need to eat in order to maintain the right balance. I found that on the diabetic diet of not eating anything more than 2g of sugar it left me craving for sugar and it left me without energy and feeling listless. I tried eating as much as 15g of sugar (with each meal) and, after about 3 days, this made my heart rate go mad and erratic and again I felt tired and had no energy. So now I go on a meal by meal, day by day basic.
The hard part is giving anyone who wants to try this an accurate amount of sugar to eat since this is very much something you're going to have to monitor and decide for yourself. We all vary in shape and size, the amount of exercise we do and how many calories we burn off each day and all these factors will have a bearing on how much sugar (and other foods) you will need to eat.
This is the way I do it and you can hopefully use this method as a way of helping yourself.
I take my blood sugar levels first thing in the morning and last thing at night. You are aiming to keep it at 5 (British measurement) or thereabouts. Over 5.8 is too high, under 5 usually means you need to eat something! Then take your blood sugar levels two hours after you've eaten. You need to eat a certain quanity of sugar with each meal which is more than 2g and less than 15g. One teaspoon of sugar is equal to about 5g. I 've found that eating about 10g of sugar to 150g of other foods works well. Your blood sugar levels will rise and stay risen whether you eat just whole food (no sugar) or if you eat too much sugar. I've found that if my blood sugar levels are slightly raised two hours after I've eaten I look at what was in my last meal. If I think I've eaten too much whole foods (fruit, veg, meat, fish, dairy, frutose, glucose, sweetners - anything in fact that isn't cane or beat sugar) then I will eat something sugary to counteract this. If I think I've eaten too much sugar then I find a cup of tea or even a drink of coke can often bring my sugar levels back down. This is something you will have to do for yourself. I can't tell you exactly how much to eat since will depend on what foods and drinks 'you're' eating and drinking and how much you have. The hard part is trying to decide how much sugar is in processed foods as it doesn't tell you. It only tells you how many sugar are in in total amount of carbohydrates in the produce. Guessing is the only way with these foods. Though I suppose you will eventually know how much more sugar (if any) you'd need to take with them simply through trial and error. Or of course, you can eat only whole, none processed foods, and add your own sugar that way will make it easier but less tasty!
Since using this diet I haven't used insulin at all. Sometimes I do still get it wrong and my blood sugar levels are still raised after two hours of eating but I try to rectify this through eating or drinking something since I believe this is better than using a medicinal product.
However there is a 12 hour acting insulin Actrapid which I used to use at night to ensure my blood sugar levels are good by the morning so that I could start each day on a good level. (I usually find I don't need more than 8 to 12 units). This insulin can be bought from www.goldphama.com, needles can be bought from most online chemist and blood sugar monitors, test strips lances I usually get from e-bay, if you want to use this method!
I continue to take 10g morning and night of the steriod Prednisolon which helps to deal with the aches and pain I feel on a daily basis and the tightness the foods cause around the back of my head.
I'd say the real question to be answered is 'Is a faulty body part that causes a disfunction to be cause when eating or is it the foods we eat that cause a dysfunction in our body parts?'
Please help me to raise awareness of this condition and join the thousands of hearing loss suffers worldwide who have already viewed this blog by following my diet, contacting me at dawnshearingnow@googlemail.com, making a donation towards research cost, or tell your friends, tell your doctor, tell everyone!
Please read the comments left by the UK Hearing Research Team and also from Long Island CA who have started a case study into this method of treatment this year.
Please feel free to add your comments - the more the better :-)
