Tinnitus: Overview
Why Does This Actually Occur?
Sound waves travel into your ear and interact with your ear’s tympanic membrane, or your ear drum. There are little hair cells that pick up these sound waves and convert them to electrical signals that are then sent to our brain in the form of sound that we hear.
If the hair cells become damaged overtime either by environmental factors, medications, trauma, or other reasons we'll further discuss, they can't transmit the normal signal to the brain, so the brain becomes confused and starts creating its OWN neuronal signals resulting in a constant ringing noise known as tinnitus.
Epidemiology
Nearly 1/3 of all adults around the world will experience tinnitus at some point in their life and happens more frequently as we age.
Common Symptoms
Because it is always present it can be quite annoying and tends to present itself in quiet environments like when you're trying to go to sleep. This sound in the ear can be slightly different for everyone. It can be constant or come and go. It can affect one ear or both and vary in loudness as well as pitch. Some of the characteristics can be described as:
Buzzing
Humming
Ringing
Roaring
Swirling
Causes
Tinnitus is a symptom and not really a disease by itself meaning something is causing the tinnitus to occur
There are tons of things that can cause tinnitus, but I'm just going to go over a few major categories:
Ear - most common
Noise induced hearing loss - common
Age induced hearing loss - common
Impacted wax
Ear infection
Meniere's Disease, which has aspects of dizziness and hearing loss
Medications - very important as many drugs can have a toxic effect on the nerve that innervates the ear
Long list and I will put the major culprits in the description
Jaw issues
Temporo-Mandibular Joint Dysfunction - TMJ dysfunction
Idiopathic
Unfortunately the most common category is the unknown as there are many different factors that we aren't aware of that can cause this
Brain - uncommon
Head injuries
MS
Acoustic neuroma
Infections
Meningitis
Encephalitis - infection of the brain
Treatment
There are two things you must ABSOLUTELY do before starting any treatment
Go to your local healthcare provider and see an ENT specialist so he or she can do a formal examination of your ears
This will most likely come with the second point, and that is to get a formal hearing test done as even mild hearing loss is a common cause of tinnitus
I want to say before providing this list that there are a TON of “quick fixes” floating around the internet world to fix tinnitus immediately. None have been clinically proven or tested, but if you want to try them, they may work for you!
First factor to assess is lifestyle factors (a combination of exercise, proper nutrition, adequate sleep, and stress reduction)
Diet - interesting association between high insulin levels and tinnitus. One study found that 84-92% individuals suffering from tinnitus had significantly elevated insulin levels. Insulin levels are high if you have poor glucose regulation and control meaning you could be suffering from pre-diabetes or type 2 diabetes and not even realize it. Again, I would consult your local health care provider in order to get some routine bloodwork to rule this out
Many individuals have said cutting back on alcohol and caffeine will help reduce the levels of tinnitus, but there has been no solid evidence to support this
Stop smoking - nicotine can be damaging to those little hair cells we talked about before
Stop all potentially harmful medications that can be affecting your ears. Sit down with your local health care provider and go over these because this can be an easy cause to fix
Hearing aids can help with hearing loss if this is the cause
Actual things you can DO
Many pharmaceutical drugs have been tried for tinnitus, but none have been successful in treating it
Sound therapies like lower levels of white noise while you try to sleep may help alleviate the symptoms, and this is something I would try initially
One of the most successful treatments that I have seen for individuals who severely suffer from tinnitus for extended periods of time is re-wiring your brain through the concept of neuroplasticity. If you'd like to know more about neuroplasticity and what it is as well as how it works be sure to tune in to future posts!
