I seem to remember that high blood pressure could worsen tinnitus, so that might have something to do with it.

Dad went through acute hearing loss twice. They banned salt during recovery. Your tinnitus is related to blood circulation in the ear. Reduce salt.

Have you any citations for this? This is exactly the sort of stuff people are to about about when referring to snake oil

Citations? I remember the prescriptions and Doctors' notes for the diet itself. He had to endure through IV drug treatments at home, was not able to sleep for 17 days because of the given drugs.

I remember cooking everything without salt (then buying reduced sodium salt for some time because he missed the taste of it to a certain degree), stop buying sparkling water, how my father tried to cope with the remaining tinnitus after the hearing loss mostly reversed (>95% IIRC), and how it increased and decreased over time.

He still doesn't drink sparkling water, we still cook with reduced salt. If we deviate from this, his tinnitus increases, yet he tries to hide it from us.

Do you need any more citations?

Mom also has tinnitus, but hers is different, not affected by diet. She uses an advanced hearing aid which counters it using sound somehow. She is relieved to a certain point with it.

There are different kinds, reasons. Need to understand each case.

You've provided more than enough "citations" for your contribution and I learned a thing or 2 from it. Thank you for sharing it.

To address the gp point, your original comment would have been fine without the last 2 sentences (unless of course diagnosing tinnitus is your occupation):

> Dad went through acute hearing loss twice. They banned salt during recovery. Your tinnitus is related to blood circulation in the ear. Reduce salt.

The first 2 sentences was you sharing your experience but the last 2 sentences were you making a diagnosis of someone else's condition based off of a comment (rather than a physical exam and/or some lab tests) which I imagine is why @maccard asked for citations.

You're welcome. I'm glad that helped.

I have written the comment like that, because the GP provided an example relating his tinnitus to salt intake, and I know that scenario from my dad, so I have written that with confidence. If I was not sure, I'd not write a comment at all. :)

Health and metabolism are serious subjects, and I have more than enough experience to not make any recommendations based on low-confidence information. Otherwise, I suspect that my wife would crucify me with cold blood (she's an MD).

Not to impugn your own expertise and experience, but realize that the internet (and generally HN) are literally filled with people who a) say the same thing; and b) spout off a firehose’s worth of nonsense, ask the time.

citations let your reader judge your ethos and credibility in the absence of personal knowledge of you.

Could you elaborate on the sparkling drinks? Do you know of a rationale?

I think because of the level of sodium they contain

Why wouldn't they just said "drinks containing sodium"? I've been googling for tinnitus and sparkling water looking for information on this and didn't find much at all.

Thanks. I looked that up and some Dutch site claims a can of coke light might contain 35-40mg of Sodium(Natrium) of a daily budget of 1500mg.

Not sparkling drinks, but sparkling water in general. In our country, sparkling water is way more stronger than most European brands like Pellegrino or Perrier, hence they contain a lot of sodium. In the range of 100-140 mg/l, just looking to two different brands’ bottles.

Blood pressure can be a cause, I'm sure. Also, I'm sure that extends to any pressure in your ear (say for instance, you constantly clench your jaw or grind your teeth).

I've heard ambient pink noise (not in headphones) helps, but anectdotally only.

I’ve also noticed this as well. Diet, lack of sleep, and some OTC headache relief (acetaminophen+nsaid) will increase my perception of tinnitus. Especially if I pull an all nighter, I will need about 1 week for the perception of the sound to return to normal.