We’ve all had moments where we’ve experienced tinnitus. Many of us were told when we were kids that it meant someone was talking about us and depending on if it was the right or left ear meant it was good talk or bad.
Today, we understand that this old wives’ tale describes tinnitus – a phantom sound in the ears which no external source outside the brain. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) reports that tinnitus affects an estimated 50 million people in the US – 20 million who report burdensome chronic tinnitus and around 2 million who report symptoms severe enough to describe as debilitating. What could cause the buzz of tinnitus to be so prevalent and have such an extreme effect on our lives?
What is Tinnitus?
The buzzing in our ears is not innately dangerous however it can signal an underlying condition such as sensorineural hearing loss, an ear injury, or a problem with the circulatory system. What makes tinnitus an issue for many is when they feel as if they can’t escape its reach. It’s a sound that comes from your mind and is unaddressed and can cause issues falling asleep, staying asleep, fatigue during the day, chronic stress, concentration difficulty, memory issues, depression, and irritability. Very quickly it can become a quality-of-life issue that needs to be addressed to achieve some degree of relief.
What Causes Tinnitus?
No one is in complete consensus on what causes tinnitus. However, 90 percent of people with tinnitus also have hearing loss, making both conditions interlinked in many cases. One of the most common causes may be exposure to loud noise. For instance, have you ever left a nightclub, stadium sporting event, or concert which was so loud it left your ears ringing afterward?
This residual tinnitus represents permanent noise-induced hearing loss! When sounds reach a certain threshold of sound, they can be loud enough to damage hearing. Sound is measured in decibels and any sound which exceeds 85 dBA can begin to damage hearing. This is due to vibrations severe enough to damage the cells of the inner ear. Along with this damage, blocking the delivery of sound to the brain often comes with tinnitus as the damaged cells can emit a sort of unintentional feedback received by the brain.
Causes of Tinnitus
In addition to loud noise, tinnitus can be caused by a wide range of issues, many of which also increases your risk of sensorineural hearing loss as well. This includes the use of certain medications, hypertension, stress, heart issues, and more.
Tinnitus Treatment Options
While there is no cure for tinnitus it can be addressed using several methods. Many of these methods focus on your response to tinnitus rather than the actual buzz. When tinnitus becomes present, we often act with a stress response. Cortisol, the stress hormone is released in our body, triggering the body’s fight or flight response. This can make it hard to rest and get a proper night’s sleep. However, many have found that by regular exercise, meditation, acupuncture, conversational therapy such as CBT (cognitive behavior therapy), and yoga, you can reduce your stress response and reduce or eliminate chronic symptoms.
Addressing Hearing Loss
Others have found that addressing hearing loss is an effective way to lessen tinnitus symptoms. When we struggle to hear it can be incredibly stressful to navigate our everyday. Conversations become stressful even with the people you feel closest to. By addressing hearing loss with hearing aids, you can apply the sounds around you. This can improve the ease of communication and help reduce the degree of emotional turmoil in your life.
In addition to reducing stress, many hearing aids offer tinnitus masking features that can block out the annoying presence of tinnitus in your day to day. If tinnitus is affecting you daily and you have yet to examine if you have a hearing loss or not, you must do as soon as possible.
Unaddressed hearing loss in addition to tinnitus can lead to a wide range of health complications from emotional, and cognitive to physical. To find out more and get relief as soon as possible, schedule an appointment with our team at Hearing Wellness Solutions today.
