Vertigo/Dizziness/Off balance a withdrawal symptom?

Why are you on NoFap? Were you addicted to PMO? Did you used to edge?

 

From a medical standpoint, there are several likely causes of vertigo, but only one of these is directly tied to sexual excess.

An ear infection, which could happen to virtually anyone, is one possible cause. When bacteria reach the inner ear, they are harder to eradicate. If this were the issue, your doctor would probably have discovered it and would have given you a prescription for a strong antibiotic, such as Augmentin, which is basically a strong dose of Amoxycillin to which Clavulanic acid has been added to increase its effectiveness. You would be told to take it for a minimum of 10 days (as opposed to the usual 5 days for a full course of antibiotics) because of the greater difficulty in targeting an inner-ear infection.

This is unlikely to be your case, nor would an ear infection be anywhere close to a "withdrawal symptom." If it were an ear infection, additional symptoms might include sensitivity or even pain at the low-frequency tones of trucks rumbling by, buzzing in the ear, or having a two-toned hearing (one ear seemingly hearing at a different frequency than the other).

The next two likely possibilities include a toxic interference of mercury (Hg) and an acute deficiency of vitamin B12--the latter being the most likely as a "withdrawal symptom."

Mercury can cause tinnitus, vertigo, and a host of nerve-related symptoms. It is fat-loving, rather than the typical water-soluble expression of minerals in the body, and mercury is, therefore, attracted to the fatty myelin cells that surround the nerves. Once there, mercury negatively impacts both nerve growth and nerve function. If you're interested to know how damaging mercury is to nerves, look up a 5-minute video on YT by the words "University of Calgary mercury". They show exactly what happens to the nerve, under the microscope, when mercury is present.

Unfortunately, most doctors are ignorant of these effects from mercury--so if this were your issue, your doctor would likely have missed it. But your issue is far more likely to be related to vitamin B12 deficiency.

Here are the facts for B12 deficiency.

1. Vitamin B12 is needed for healthy nerve impulse/action. It is consumed in the process, so excess enervation of the nervous energies will eventually deplete the body's reserves of vitamin B12. PMO will leave many people in a dangerous deficiency as a result.

2. Symptoms of B12 deficiency can include one or more of the following: loss of taste/smell, fatigue, loss of short-term memory, numbness or tingling in hands or feet, ringing in the ears and/or vertigo, megaloblastic and/or pernicious anemia, permanent brain damage (with prolonged deficiency), loss of sight (with extreme deficiency), death (very extreme deficiency--rare).

3. Cyanocobalamin is the most common form of vitamin B12 found in food additives and in supplements. It is worthless. Hydroxocobalamin is slightly better, but still largely ineffective. To treat a real deficiency, insist on getting methylcobalamin. Injections will be tens to hundreds of times more effective, so get the shots if you can. Through the stomach (oral) requires that your stomach is producing enough intrinsic factor to be able to absorb the B12, and in many cases of deficiency, this is a problem.

4. Vitamin B12 only comes from animal foods/products. A purely plant-based diet will not provide it. It is actually produced by bacteria, and is produced in the human colon, but this is well past the point of absorption in the GI tract, so the B12 of the colon is not absorbed. Some animals return to their feces/excreta to get some of that B12.

Your doctor, if he or she knows about your likely B12 deficiency, probably expects that in a matter of time you will have eaten enough to replenish your body's reserves.

Keep in mind that medical schools tend to be training grounds for pharmaceutical-dispensing doctors, and vitamins don't make the pharmaceutical industry much money. In general, doctors tend to know little about vitamins, and much about the money-making drug therapies produced under patents. The typical doctor has taken zero courses in food nutrition during medical school. If you doubt this, I would encourage you to do a little investigation. Suffice it to say, many regard their doctors more highly than they ought. Doctors are not omniscient, nor are they omnipotent. It behooves each person to know about his or her own health and to be his or her own doctor as much as possible.

 

Your profile says you've been a member on this forum since 2016. How you new?

For the symptoms, it might be the side effects of pmo use....

 

https://cure-erectile-dysfunction.org/persistent-sexual-arousal-syndrome

I know this won't make you feel better but I have also struggled with this personally for a long while. I think it's definitely a result of excessive PMO and some aspect of what brings on and exacerbates anxiety. Have you had issues with your ears or is that just what your doctors checked for when you told them how you felt? In any case, tinnitus (ear ringing) is another condition that is often associated with excessive PMO.

 

The liver can keep reserves of vitamin B12 in the range of about a five-month to a 2-year supply. When depleted, these reserves take considerable time to rebuild. Three months of supplementation is about the minimum to begin to notice a difference. If your body is doing well with the supplements, and absorbing B12 from them, you should begin to notice a difference soon.

However, if you are not taking methylcobalamin, the supplements may be doing virtually nothing for you. Studies have shown that, whether taken orally or injected (IM), about 98% of cyanocobalamin exits the body through the kidneys within 24 hours. In other words, it has no benefit to the system. I also know this from experience, having gotten one shot of cyanocobalamin per week for months leading up to my B12 deficiency--they didn't do me any good. What finally brought me back out of the deficiency was eating three eggs every day--and it took about three months of this before I noticed much of the effect. Back in those days, methylcobalamin was either unknown or unavailable.

I know whereof I speak. If you're not taking methylcobalamin, you may as well not consider that you are even taking a B12 supplement. Feel free to do your own research, but I will say that there are still a lot of myths floating around on this topic, and many people who speak confidently while yet being in ignorance on the matter. If you have a real deficiency, the best way to treat it is with methylcobalamin injections. Being directly injected into your body will bypass the need for intrinsic factor. B12 is by far the largest vitamin, and cannot pass through the intestinal lining without the aid of intrinsic factor, which basically invites the intestinal wall to open a special hole through which to receive the B12 molecule, after which that hole must be reclosed to prevent the admittance of bacteria--that's how big a hole it is. Again, injections bypass this process, making the B12 available in your bloodstream without the need for intrinsic factor. As people age, and/or as their stomach acid production decreases, their levels of intrinsic factor will also decrease, and even heavy meat eaters can and do become deficient in vitamin B12.

 

Ok

 

I got them too. Some days I hear low and high other times. Sometimes when I listen music in my car, I noticed people take a look. And I'm thinking the music is not loud enough for them to hear it. When I get a glimpse of good hearing, I realize the sound is too much...

 

As far as I know, vitamin D3 supplements should be fine. Sunshine is good, but will never yield the quantities available in a supplement, especially if one is darker-skinned.

That said, I just don't think vitamin D3 is the largest concern in your case. Aside from vitamin B12, you might wish to consider the influences of zinc, iodine, magnesium, vitamin B1, B2, and B6. Be aware, also, that high levels of folate (folic acid / vitamin M) can mask the early symptoms of B12 deficiency so that one is less aware of the problem (the problem is still as great as ever).

It will take time to heal. Some of the effects of the years of abuse may never fully go away, but if you haven't already caused some form of permanent damage to the auditory nerves, I see no reason why you should have to resign yourself to living with tinnitus or vertigo. A good source of vitamin B12 should help with that.

Many people experience more pain with B12 deficiency as well--and instead of surviving on pain killers to mask their symptoms, they would be better off replenishing their B12 levels.

 

For me, it's my left ear. I have basically the same exact symptoms as you. But recently, in the last several months, the ringing has gotten "louder" or more high pitched. It's difficult to explain. I don't care how crazy some people think I am but I attribute it to PMO with almost 100% certainty. There are more articles about the ear on that website I linked you to. Here is one: https://cure-erectile-dysfunction.org/ear-ringing-sexual-activity

As far as how to boost Prostaglandins E1/E3, I'm not sure. I remember looking this up a handful of times and never really finding any worthwhile answers. I had a doctor at one point who actually prescribed me a Nitric Oxide supplement but I never took it because the company that sold it was out of stock for the month so I just took the other supplements he gave me and forgot about that one but it's always been in the back of my mind. Obviously there's something to this. But don't ask people on a forum what supplements and medicines to take, no one here, including me obviously, is a professional. We all need to do our own research.

 

You seem to know a lot about this. I have a question or two.

I've been taking a vitamin and adaptogenic herb based supplement to support adrenal function. Among other things, it has a good amount of Vitamin B12. I'm not keen on taking methylcobalamin, injected or otherwise, because I have gut permeability and I think that condition only exacerbates everything I deal with as a result of PMO. Are there ways to know if taking something like this is ineffective for me other than a blood test? When I take the capsules regularly, I do feel a little better but not markedly so.

 

If you really want to know how much you need vitamin B12, you need to test for both vitamin B12 and homocysteine levels. Not every doctor will even understand their relationship enough to recommend this, and the tests can seem a little expensive if you're on a budget. Basically, if your homocysteine levels are high, it means that even if you have moderate levels of B12 (according to the test), you actually need considerably more.

For example:

Suppose you test for B12 levels, and the lab indicates the following ranges for it.

Normal range : 180-914
Indeterminate range : 145-180
Deficient range: =< 145

Let's say you come out as having 325 pg/mL, or well into the lower reaches of "normal" according to the specified ranges. But on the same test, your homocysteine comes out as 11.02 umol/L, and its normal range is said to be 5.00-15.00. That puts your homocysteine near the top of its normal, and indicates that, even though your B12 level is supposedly within the "normal" range, it is actually undervalued.

It's a bit complicated. If you find a qualified physician, he or she can correctly interpret the lab test results, and hopefully explain them to you. The point can hardly be stressed enough that the so-called "normal" ranges, in terms of medical figures, are rarely, if ever, accurate. Usually they are approximates, about as valid as a "rule of thumb." There is wide individual variance, and there are many complicating factors. Even looking at something as "simple" as body temperature, it becomes quickly obvious that the "normal" is actually far from accurate. If averages were taken today, the standard would be dropped by a full degree Fahrenheit and/or over half a degree Celsius.

Let's not forget that doctors/physicians are generally working with patients who are feeling abnormally. The "averages" they come up with, then, can be easily skewed toward abnormal ranges.

Vitamin B12 is safe. There is no such thing as an overdose for it. If I remember right, somewhere around 55% of people tested are shown to be deficient (and that's according to the lab standards). But it is not necessarily the key to every problem. Your gut issues may be related to something else. The first question that comes to my mind when I hear of them is to wonder if you might have a history of silver amalgam tooth fillings. These can be a cause of GERD, and can contribute to Crohn's disease, as the mercury from these fillings, which are more mercury than silver by weight, slowly trickles into the gut from the mouth over time.

Again, this may not be your issue--it just comes to mind as a possibility. I am not your doctor, and certainly am not privy to your health history or lab results. To be clear, I am not a doctor, but I have considerable experience working in a medical facility and have learned much from the doctors. I sometimes regret that I did not become a doctor, as health and biology are strong interests of mine. Where I am now, all of the medical knowledge I have has often been valuable in helping people with their health questions--people largely left with few good options from the healthcare system.

I could look at a standard CBC (complete blood count) and tell you if you were likely to be deficient in vitamin B12. The MCV (mean cell volume) is the most telling. If it is much above about 88, you probably need more B12, and if it is above 94, it is near certain that you are deficient. And, again, those numbers are considered to be within the "normal" ranges for the MCV. (They might claim "normal" is between 79 and 101.)

The CBC is a standard blood test, and not expensive. But if you really want to know, get the test for B12 and get tested for homocysteine at the same time. The ratio of these will be indicative as to the relative level of deficiency for the B12. If your homocysteine levels are low, count your blessings--higher levels are indicators for heart disease and other general health issues as well. You may wish to look up these facts online. Some websites actually have good information on this. If you find the right source, you will quickly see how vitamin B12 levels and homocysteine levels are related.

 

It is a common withdrawal symptom to have in withdrawal. It is also a common misconception that pmo “depletes” minerals. In fact it is only in the brain where the healing occurs.

It is true that if you ejaculate too frequently that some depletion occurs. But this goes away with 1 - 2 weeks of abstinence. This study is somewhere on ybop for anyone interested.

I would only be taking vitamins if you know for sure you are depleted in a certain vitamin. It sounds like to me that you are suffering from withdrawal but i am no doctor