FOOD INTOLERANCE NETWORK SYMPTOM DISCUSSION
Sensitivity to sound - hyperacusis
Hyperacusis is an extreme sensitivity to sounds. When
Network members were told that scientists admit themselves puzzled by the
increase in hyperacusis and were asked for their experience and opinions, it
really struck a chord. Here are their reports:
- “Our son was definitely much more sensitive to noise pre-diet. He
often complained that I was yelling at him, when I wasn't. He didn't cope
well with the food processor, electric mixer, etc, and found sudden,
especially unexpected, loud noises extremely distressing. Unfortunately I
have no idea which particular chemical was the cause.
- “Our son was incredibly sensitive to sounds (screamed about loud
noises, and noticed sounds we could barely detect) before diet, and this
reduced dramatically on failsafe. But I couldn't say what caused the
reaction. I had always associated it with Asperger's - I didn't realise
it's so common amongst food intolerant people. Sound (and touch)
sensitivity is a common characteristic of autism; considering how many
autistic and Asperger's kids turn out to be food intolerant, I guess it is
not surprising that they have hyperacusis.
- “Hyperacusis? Absolutely. When my son was a baby he would become
acutely distressed at loud noises, especially at the upper end of the
spectrum. I had to stop visiting a friend because her little girl would
squeal with delight, and he would become hysterical - crying inconsolably
for a long time. Later as a toddler
he would cringe, cry, and cover his ears if a noise was too loud or high
pitched. To my hearing, his level of sensitivity was well above normal, he
would react to what were for me quite normal sounds.
- “Now he is well on-diet he does not have this reaction. And his reaction to noise seems to have
changed over the years. Around 4 or
5 years old, he seemed to grow out of the hypersensitivity to sound, to
become muffled. If he is reacting he uses a loud voice, is hard of
hearing, hears indistinctly, and his speech mis-pronunciations become more
pronounced.
- “Yes, I have always been very sensitive to sound. As a teenager I
could hear electrical whines and whistles when others couldn't (probably
high frequency) and I remember finding many things painful to hear, in
particular putting the cutlery away in the cutlery drawer is acutely
painful. I have noticed an improvement on failsafe and agree that it is
probably related to sals. I also find that I am intolerant of noise when
reacting to amines, probably because of associated headaches and pain that
I get in reaction. My partner, children and I all find noisy situations
overstimulating or overwhelming and we tend to want to withdraw or we get
cranky, even on Failsafe this persists, but we can last longer than we
used to.
- “I have always been able to hear the security systems at the doors
of department stores... it was painful to stand too close to the
doorway. I've only ever known one
other person who could hear it though.
Very high pitched. I can't stand high pitched noises... but I don't
react to sals. I do, however, get more sensitive when I have amines.. but
then, I'm cranky as all getout and everything makes me snarl then... so I
couldn't say if I'm more sensitive or simply more irritated.
- “We all (4) seem to suffer this. My kids (7 and 3 yo) particularly
get quite upset in noisy music concerts, etc. However, I haven't noticed
any correlation with sals at all. Husband and 7yo both do not react to
sals ; but 3yo and I seem to be extremely sensitive. I didn't notice
anything during the challenge, just that the kids seemed more silly and
noisy.
- “All three of my children were very sensitive to noise when they
were younger and all have sals sensitivity. The youngest who is now 5 is
still fairly sensitive and finds noise and chaos hard to function in. The
two boys are both ADD so that makes it harder to be focused in noise as
well.
- “Having just failed a sals challenge, and 5-6 days on still
suffering behaviourally, my six year old today said "please don't
speak in that voice mum" and then when we had to go to the
supermarket he started crying saying that "it would be too loud in
there".
- “I used to be very sensitive to noise when I got migraines, but
this past year, I have had days in a row when I am sensitive to noise even
when I don't have a migraine. Particularly people's voices who are close
in proximity to me. When my husband reads a bedtime story to my son at
night and I am sitting nearby, it sounds like he is shouting and I have to
tell him to talk quieter. However, since I started the elimination diet
almost 4 weeks ago I haven't had this happen, it's been wonderful!
- “The reason I tried the failsafe diet was because of hyperacusis
and tinnitus… I happened to mention to my GP that strangely my ears hurt
and rang more when I ate fruit by itself. He suggested that the
salicylates in food may be causing my continuing reactions. I tried the
diet and it has helped my ears enormously. Before the diet I had to wear
earplugs outside the house as noises hurt my ears so much.
- “My 5 yr old has every now and again gone to pieces crying about
how everyone keeps yelling at her. Hearing tests have come to nothing. We
haven’t done elimination and challenges with her yet, but she does love to
binge on strawberry, tomatoes and other "yummy" fruit and veg.
- “Certainly happens for my children (although it doesn't seem to
affect THEIR OWN noise). My eldest daughter went to music lessons when
very young and we always had to sit in the other room during percussion.
We also couldn't go to the movies unless we filled her ears with cotton
wool to muffle the sound. It seems to have improved as we stay on the diet
and worsens when I either get a bit slack, make a mistake or manufacturers
change things without notice.
- “I have been using a lot of apples, carrots, some pumpkin and firm
pears with skin. The result is my children are loud and irritable, I find
it painful to hear and my son especially is quite distressed at times,
hubby is loud and crabby, same with me. So I am going to stop the
challenge and go back to basics to see the result.
- “We have been failsafe with our daughter for over 4 years as you
know. Before diet she was very sensitive to loud noise which we always
found strange because she talked loudly herself. We would often laugh
afterwards saying that it was a wonder the sound of her own voice didn’t
annoy her. Since failsafe it doesn’t seem anywhere near a problem.
- When we
went through all the marvellous recoveries the failsafe diet did for
eliminating James' O.D.D. traits, his obvious hyper sensitivity to noise
and sound also disappeared and this makes sense as he has always had a
problem with salicylates. Now and again I've cheated a bit allowing in
limited amounts of salicylates and just putting up with small bouts of bad
behaviour that may result, sometimes coupled with a reintroduction of
sound sensitivity.
- Wow I
always have a giggle when things like this come up, when we all start
realising that us food sensitive people have these same issue. We have had
the discussion so many times "there will probably be a lot of people
there and it will be really noisy so I don’t think it is worth us
going". Whenever my son is around too much noise he literally flips
out: he cant think, hear, speak properly and it is really painful for him
- he says its like everyone is yelling at him. This year since we have his
diet down pat he seems to cope really well - I sat and watched him in
assembly at school 3 weeks ago and had tears in my eyes!! He was able to
sit and listen the whole hour.
- And briefly:
- “My personal experience has been that too many salicylates and
people seem to be shouting at me. It's quite painful.
- “Yep..everything just gets too loud, and everything seems to build
up as you are trying to hear what you should and block the rest..or
something like that!
- “Its like having a humming in my head, noise sounds like it is
being put through a loud speaker only 1 cm from my ear drum and it makes
me edgy and to the point of feeling like I have motion sickness - sounds dramatic I know.
- “I was only asking my daughter yesterday why she says stop
shouting at me but I don't consider that I have raised my voice much.
- “Too much sulphites for me - everything is either too loud or too
bright.
- “My 9 year old and I are both sals sensitive and sensitive to
noise. My daughter will cry or run away if she feels the noise level is
above that which she can take (which is a lot less than most). I always
attributed it to her ADHD.
- “IS SO in this house!!!! as well as speaking several decibels
higher when reacting.
- “The child (4yo) that has responded the most obviously
behaviour-wise to the diet is often complaining that I shout at her if I
raise my voice, she will actually cover her ears and say that her ears or
head hurts!
One psychologist said “you would be surprised at how
many people in the world are sensory
defensive. It is a real problem that
is not being addressed. In my work as a psychologist I come across it all the
time, vision, hearing, taste, touch, proprioceptive, vestibular, smell. They are assailed all the time. Then you also
have the sensory deprived. Once again
the same senses, but they need heaps of input. Under researched, under defined,
and under recognised”.
Some
references:
Cazals Y.
Prog Neurobiol. 2000 Dec;62(6):583-631. Auditory sensori-neural alterations
induced by salicylate. Early after the development of
aspirin, almost 150 years ago, its auditory toxicity was associated with high
doses … tinnitus, loss of absolute acoustic sensitivity and alterations of
perceived sounds are the three auditory alterations described by human subjects
after ingestion of large doses of salicylate.
Cazals Y,
Horner KC, Huang ZW. J Neurophysiol. 1998 Oct;80(4):2113-20. Alterations in
average spectrum of cochleoneural activity by long-term salicylate treatment in
the guinea pig: a plausible index of tinnitus. Salicylate,
one of the most widely used drugs, produces at repetitive high doses reversible
tinnitus and hearing loss.
deBartolo H
M Jr. Zinc and diet for tinnitus. Am Journal Otol 10(3) 256,1989
Shulman, A.
Tinnitus: Diagnosis/Treatmen. Lea & Febiger, 1991
Derebery M
J. Allergic management of Meniere's disease: an outcome study. Otolaryngol Head
Neck Surg 2000,122 (2): 174-82
Thanks to Adele,
Annette, Bill, Brenda, Carlene, Carol, Catherine, Christina, Howard, Jan, Jen,
Jenny, Joy, Julieanne, Khali, Melinda, Melissa, Nicole, Rosemary, Sandra,
Sylvia and Tina for their contributions and to all those in the failsafe groups
that discussed the topic.
The information given is not intended as
medical advice. Always consult with your doctor for underlying illness. Before
beginning dietary investigation, consult a dietician with an interest in food
intolerance. You can find a supportive dietitian through the Dietitians
Association of
© Sue Dengate update January 2007
