I started getting it years ago - the humming in the ears and wobbly balance. I asked a pharmacist friend about it and she said "Middle aged women often get it." When I asked what I could do about it she said I should just learn to live with it.
Shortly after, I came down with a tummy bug and I couldn't face milk or any dairy food for a couple of weeks. No butter, icecream, yoghurt, cream, anything that had milk in it. It made me feel ill. But towards the end of that time I noticed my balance was improving and I had odd clicks in my ears instead of the hum. I'm now totally dairy free (except for Camembert on rare occasions) and the hum only comes back if I have a really bad cold or if I give in to temptation and have some icecream or cream etc. instead of soy milk or some other dairy free alternative.
I used to look after a little old lady who had become profoundly deaf. She wouldn't keep her hearing aids in and eventually managed to lose them. So I changed the milk in her tea to soy milk, even bought her soy icecream for a treat and she started noticing loud noises. Her hearing slowly improved - not perfect but at least you could hold conversations with her.
It might take several weeks and soy milk isn't as nice as real milk but it's worth a try, just to see if it dries up the gunge in the back of your throat and if it will help clear your ears of the hum.
Robyn