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My story using medical hydrogen gas ear insufflation for hearing loss and tinnitus
🕑 Added 2024-06-16 16:07:03 +0000 UTCFor those who aren't familiar with my journey with partial hearing loss, I'll briefly share it here.
I experienced several incidents—some chronic, some acute—that led to 30-40% hearing loss during high school and late into college. Specifically, I lost about 25% of my hearing in my right ear and 40% in my left ear.
I did just about everything imaginable that could contribute to hearing loss. I frequently attended loud concerts, often standing and or being positioned in close proximity to the speakers. I regularly listened loud music in my headphones at extremely high volumes. I also had two incidents where a gun went off near me without ear protection. One instance involving a Draco discharging two feet away after one of my earplugs fell out. If you're not familiar with a Draco, a quick Google search will show you just how loud it is, even with ear protection. A similar incident happened with a Glock.
In addition to the hearing loss, I also had constant tinnitus (ringing in the ears)
Is it possible to restore hearing? Maybe
The primary cause of sensorineural hearing loss is damage to the hair cells in the cochlea, which is a part of the inner ear. The hair cells are responsible for converting sound vibrations into electrical signals that the brain can interpret as sound. Once these hair cells are damaged or destroyed, they do not naturally regenerate in humans (this is the conventional medical understanding or paradigm), leading to permanent hearing loss.
The reasons why these hair cells don't regenerate naturally in humans is complex but involve several factors. Unlike some animals, such as birds and fish, mammals, including humans, lack the natural ability to regenerate hair cells. This limitation is due to differences in the genetic and cellular mechanisms that govern hair cell regeneration. The he environment within the cochlea is not conducive to cell proliferation and repair. The supporting cells in the cochlea, which could potentially give rise to new hair cells, do not typically re-enter the cell cycle to divide and differentiate into new hair cells.
Now, let’s consider some theoretical ‘repair’ mechanisms here. Stem cell therapy has been a significant area of research for potentially regenerating hair cells. In addition to other ‘difficult’ to repair organs and tissues like the heart, spinal cord, gums and cartliage. The idea is that stem cells could be used to replace the damaged or lost hair cells in the cochlea. There are several challenges associated with this:
Mainly, we need to find ways to effectively differentiate stem cells into hair cells. That involves identifying the right signals and conditions that will guide stem cells to develop into the specialized hair cells of the cochlea. Developing effective methods to deliver stem cells to the precise location within the cochlea is another significant challenge.
We will come back to the topic of stem cells in a moment, as I believe this was past of the reason that my molecular hydrogen experiment (covered bellow) allowed me to regain the majority of my hearing.
Hydrogen for hearing loss
What initially turned me on to the idea of using hydrogen for hearing loss was the paper bellow:
in a study by kikkawa et al. in 2014, researchers examined the effects of hydrogen on cultured mouse cochlear explants exposed to cisplatinum, a substance known to cause oxidative stress and damage to the cochlea. the study found that hydrogen significantly increased the survival of auditory hair cells and reduced the production of harmful hydroxyl radicals in the cochleae. similarly, a study by fransson et al. in 2017 investigated the use of hydrogen to protect against cisplatinum-induced ototoxicity in guinea pigs. the results showed that guinea pigs breathing hydrogen (2% in air) for 60 minutes after receiving cisplatinum experienced reduced threshold shifts, prevention of inner hair cell loss, and decreased damage to outer hair.
There’s a couple things to note here. This study primarily focused on hydrogens ability to PREVENT acute damage to the inner hair cells immediately after an oxidative insult. There is a large temporal association related to how well something can be repaired after it’s been damaged. This is was BPC tends to work best if taken prophylacticly (before damage) or immediately after an insult. This is also an animal study, and many animal studies don’t translate well into humans
With all this being said, I figured it would be worth a shot. Especially given that hydrogen is entirely non-toxic, and there have never been any side effects associated with its use in any concentration or route of administration
Long story short, I was able to reverse most of my hearing loss using hydrogen as an ear insufflation. So basically pumping the hydrogen gas directly into the ears with a specialized ozone stethoscope I bought off Amazon.
Since this succesful experiment, there have been more animal and even a few human studies published on hydrogen and hearing loss. If I had decided to NOT try this experiment simply because there wasn’t any human data, I don’t think I’d be in the condition I am not with minimal to no noticeable symptoms. I think this underscores the importance of a willingness to try and experiment with things (within justifiable reason and sound judgement).
In a 2022 paper titled ‘A double-blinded, randomized controlled clinical trial of hydrogen inhalation therapy for idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss’ researchers actually had patients inhale the hydrogen as opposed to pumping the hydrogen gas directly into their ears (this was also something I did daily for about 6 months along with ear insufflation).
While the study did have some limitations, authors ultimately concluded that “inhalation of H2 gas was effective for treating ISSNHL, and the changes in hearing threshold were significantly better in the H2 group than in the control group. The effect of H2 gas inhalation was remarkable in patients with diabetes and in those with severe hearing loss. However, H2 gas inhalation was ineffective in patients with hypertension but was effective in those without hypertension. Furthermore, no side effects were observed after the inhalation of H2 gas. Therefore, these results suggest that the inhalation of H2 gas may be safe and effective in ISSNHL treatment”
Going back to stem cells: there are a few papers looking at molecular hydrogen and it’s ability to stimulate stem cell proliferation
E.g ‘Molecular Hydrogen: From Molecular Effects to Stem Cells Management and Tissue Regeneration’
I think it’s possicle that some of the benefits of hydrogen for hearing loss could have something to do with stem cell mobilization and differentiation, but more research is needed to confirm that. Maybe it’s possible that hydrogen (specifically ear insufflation) is able to trigger the differentation and or migration of stem cells directly to areas the gas comes directly in contact with. Because hydrogen is such a small molecule, it can easily get into hard to reach areas of the body due to its ability to diffuse accros biological ‘barriers’
Here’s the protocol I use:
1. 1 hour of hydrogen gas ear insufflation for 60min daily. Two, 30min sessions. Then one 60min session of straight hydrogen inhilation.
I used the hydrogen inhilation device from hydrogen4health (which I will link bellow) and an ozone stethoscope off Amazon.
Hydrogen generator
https://hydrogen4health.com/hx900-pure-hydrogen-inhaler-with-pulse-mode-and-bg/
Ozone stethoscope
https://www.amazon.com/Nuvälsa-Earscope-Ear-Stethoscope-Insufflator/dp/B07L6MYNWN/
This is not medical advice. It’s simply what I had success with. I also believe that PEMF therapy (directly on the head) and hyperbaric oxygen could help but I never had any direct experience with doing this at the time.
A lot of this is theory and experimental application. But it did seem to work for me
Comments
Paula
Also wonder if you noticed other benefits from inhaling h2 as I’m seeing all kinds of reports/testimonials or was it just the hearing improvement?
Paula
An hour a day for 6months is a pretty serious commitment. How soon did you notice a benefit?
