Prolonged exposure to loud sounds is the most common cause of tinnitus. Up to 90% of people with tinnitus have some level of noise-induced hearing loss. The noise causes permanent damage to the sound-sensitive cells of the cochlea, a spiral-shaped organ in the inner ear. Carpenters, pilots, rock musicians, street-repair workers, and landscapers are among those whose jobs put them at risk, as are people who work with chain saws, guns, or other loud devices or who repeatedly listen to loud music. A single exposure to a sudden extremely loud noise can also cause tinnitus.
You don’t need to enroll in an eight-week program to get started with mindfulness training. Participants in the MBTSR program all received a copy of the groundbreaking book “Full Catastrophe Living” by Jon Kabat-Zinn. Kabat-Zinn’s book is the premier manual for practicing mindfulness in daily life. You will learn about, and be encouraged to practice, meditation and breathing techniques that can help draw your focus away from tinnitus.
Smoking. Contrary to popular belief, there are some external irritants that can cause tinnitus. For example, Nicotine has been proven to be an irritant that can cause someone to develop a ringing in their ears. Smokers may find that their chances of developing the condition may be higher than someone who is a non-smoker. If you’re suffering from tinnitus right now, and you’re a smoker, please quit as soon as possible. If that’s just not an option for you right now, be sure to at least pick up an over the counter tinnitus treatment that will dramatically reduce the ringing in your ears.
Changing Prescriptions, OTC Medications and Food Additives. Sometimes the cause of tinnitus is a prescription (such as an antibiotic), an over the counter medication or a food additive. As an example, two very common prescriptions that have been shown to cause tinnitus are quinine and chloroquine, which are both used to prevent malaria. Certain diuretics and cancer medications can also cause tinnitus. Even something as simple as OTC aspirin can generate tinnitus in some people. The food additives NutraSweet, Splenda and Aspartame have all been linked to tinnitus, and a whole host of other side effects, in clinical studies. These man-made food additives should be eliminated from your diet completely. If any of your medications are causing your tinnitus, your doctor may recommend stopping, reducing or switching them out for other medicines to see if that helps cure your tinnitus.
Antibiotics, including erythromycin, neomycin, polymysxin B and vancomycin, as well as cancer medications, including mechlorethamine and vincristine, and water pills, including bumetanide, furosemide or ethacrynic acid all have the ability to cause or worsen tinnitus. Some patients will experience tinnitus after using antidepressants or quinine medications.
Most people should have a formal hearing test done by either the doctor or a hearing specialist (audiologist). People with tinnitus in only one ear and hearing loss should have gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). People with tinnitus in only one ear and normal hearing should have an MRI if tinnitus lasts more than 6 months. People with pulsatile tinnitus often require magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) and sometimes angiography.
TRT depends upon the natural ability of the brain to "habituate" a signal, to filter it out on a subconscious level so that it does not reach conscious perception. Habituation requires no conscious effort. People frequently habituate many auditory sounds -- air conditioners, computer fans, refrigerators, and gentle rain, among them. What they have in common is that they have no importance, so they are not perceived as ''loud.'' Thus, the brain can screen them out.
The physician may also request an OAE test (which is very sensitive to noise induced hearing damage), an ECochG (looking for Meniere's disease and hydrops, an MRI/MRA test (scan of the brain), a VEMP (looking for damage to other parts of the ear) and several blood tests (ANA, B12, FTA, ESR, SMA-24, HBA-IC, fasting glucose, TSH, anti-microsomal antibodies).
Tinnitus is commonly accompanied by hearing loss, and roughly 90% of persons with chronic tinnitus have some form of hearing loss (Davis and Rafaie, 2000; Lockwood et al, 2002). On the other hand, only about 30-40% of persons with hearing loss develop tinnitus. According to Park and Moon (2004), hearing impairment roughly doubles the odds of having tinnitus, and triples the odds of having annoying tinnitus.
TRT depends upon the natural ability of the brain to "habituate" a signal, to filter it out on a subconscious level so that it does not reach conscious perception. Habituation requires no conscious effort. People frequently habituate many auditory sounds -- air conditioners, computer fans, refrigerators, and gentle rain, among them. What they have in common is that they have no importance, so they are not perceived as ''loud.'' Thus, the brain can screen them out.
Hearing loss: Probably the most common cause for tinnitus is hearing loss. As we age, or because of trauma to the ear (through noise, drugs, or chemicals), the portion of the ear that allows us to hear, the cochlea, becomes damaged. Current theories suggest that because the cochlea is no longer sending the normal signals to the brain, the brain becomes confused and essentially develops its own noise to make up for the lack of normal sound signals. This then is interpreted as a sound, tinnitus. This tinnitus can be made worse by anything that makes our hearing worse, such as ear infections or excess wax in the ear.
Masking Devices. Similar to the white noise machines listed above, there are now masking devices that can be worn in the ear, just like a hearing aid, that do almost the same thing. They produce low-level white noise that can suppresses your tinnitus symptoms by training your brain to focus on them instead of the ringing in your ears. These are perfect if you can’t always have a white noise machine running near you.
But it’s still a significant improvement. And Kilgard says he and others are working to make the treatment even more effective. He suspects this type of therapy is not too far off from being available to patients outside of research studies. “It’s in the late stages of development,” he says. “It could be available to the public in as little as a year or two.”
Repeated loud noise exposure can be a cause of tinnitus as well as hearing loss. Loud music may cause short term symptoms, but repeated occupational exposure (for example, musicians, factory and construction workers) requires less intense sound levels to cause potential hearing damage leading to tinnitus. Minimizing sound exposure, therefore, decreases the risk of developing tinnitus. Sound protection equipment, like acoustic ear-muffs, may be appropriate at work and at home when exposed to loud noises.
Diseases, illnesses and injuries. There are several medical conditions that can cause tinnitus. These include Meniere’s disease, temporomandibular joint disorders (TMJ), head or neck injuries, brain tumors, etc. Most people don’t know if they have Meniere’s disease until properly diagnosed. This RARE disease brings on dizziness, tinnitus and ear pressure that can last for a short period of time and then disappears. TMJ causes pain in your jaw muscles. With TMJ, you’ll often hear a clicking noise when chewing. TMJ has shown to influence your chances of developing tinnitus, so be sure to treat the condition in order to reduce your chances of getting tinnitus. Head and neck injuries have also been shown to cause tinnitus, so always wear your helmet when you’re out biking and drive safely when you’re in your car.Believe it or not, but tinnitus can be caused by something as simple as an ear infection. Don’t take ear infections lightly they can be devastating at any age. Brain tumors, while equally as rare as Meniere’s disease, can also generate tinnitus symptoms. While you can alleviate your tinnitus immediately with an over the counter tinnitus treatment, you should also seek the help of a tinnitus specialist in your area to determine what the underlying cause of your tinnitus is.
^ McCombe A, Baguley D, Coles R, McKenna L, McKinney C, Windle-Taylor P (2001). "Guidelines for the grading of tinnitus severity: the results of a working group commissioned by the British Association of Otolaryngologists, Head and Neck Surgeons, 1999". Clinical Otolaryngology and Allied Sciences. 26 (5): 388–93. doi:10.1046/j.1365-2273.2001.00490.x. PMID 11678946. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2017-09-24.
Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) / Hypnotherapy. Another alternative treatment option worth considering is Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), which is often simply referred to as hypnotherapy. The goal of CBT is to help lower any anxiety, anger or depression you are feeling toward your tinnitus, as well as to help retrain your brain to notice the ringing in your ears less. CBT is typically used in conjunction with sound stimulation therapies, like Neuromonics or Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TRT). When choosing your therapist, be sure they not only do they have previous experience working with patients with tinnitus, but also have Neural Linguistic Programming (NLP) training.
Microvascular compression may sometimes cause tinnitus. According to Levine (2006) the quality is similar to a "typewriter", and it is fully suppressed by carbamazepine. It seems to us that response to carbamazepine is not a reliable indicator of microvascular compression as this drug stabilizes nerves and lowers serum sodium. Nevertheless, this quality of tinnitus probably justifies a trial of oxcarbamazine (a less toxic version of carbamazepine).
Ask your doctor about experimental therapies. No cure for tinnitus has been found but research is ongoing, so you should be open to experimental therapies. Electronic and magnetic stimulation of the brain and nerves might correct the overactive nerve signals that cause tinnitus. These techniques are still in development, so ask your doctor or hearing specialist if trying one might be right for you.[6]
The researchers paired electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve — a large nerve that runs from the head to the abdomen — with the playing of a tone. Vagus nerve stimulation (VNS) is known to release chemicals that encourage changes in the brain. This technique, the scientists reasoned, might induce brain cells (neurons) to tune to frequencies other than the tinnitus one. For 20 days, 300 times a day, they played a high-pitched tone to 8 rats during VNS.
Many of us experience tinnitus every once in a while. If you’re exposed to extremely loud noise, or leave a noisy environment for a quiet one, you may notice a temporary buzzing or ringing in your ear. Maybe you’ve been near loud construction—like a jackhammer, or stepped out of a loud action movie or music concert to a quiet lobby or street. (Be aware: even a single exposure to very loud noise can do damage to your hearing, and increase your risk for tinnitus.)
Tinnitus affects every layer of society, and there has been increasing support for awareness. Recently, musicians who are affected by tinnitus have come together to create awareness for the disorder. Artists including Chris Martin of Coldplay and Black Eyed Peas have created a compilation album to help raise funds towards finding a cure for tinnitus. In the United States, the Department of Defense has invested millions of dollars into investigations of tinnitus sound therapies. In addition, the American Tinnitus Association makes efforts to lobby the US government to provide support for tinnitus sufferers.
The researchers point out that up to one in five adults will develop tinnitus, a distressing disorder in which people hear buzzing, ringing and other sounds from no external source. Tinnitus can occur in one or both ears, and is usually continuous but can fluctuate. A randomised controlled trial is the best way of assessing the effectiveness of an intervention.
But one of the awesome powers of the human brain is its adaptability. “It can learn and reorganize itself every time you practice something new,” Kilgard says. His research, including a study published in February 2014 in the journal Neuromodulation, has shown this adaptability may be key to helping the brain “turn down” the hyperactivity that can lead to tinnitus, he says. (4)
Research shows a frequent correlation between tinnitus and hearing loss. Because tinnitus is perceived differently by each sufferer, an exact diagnosis is essential. A doctor may conduct ENT, dental, orthodontic, and orthopedic examinations in order to establish whether a case can be medically treated or not. The pitch and volume of tinnitus can be determined by special diagnostic test, and a hearing test can reveal whether hearing loss is also involved. Treatment with hearing aids is often the first step to relief from tinnitus. Hearing aids compensate for hearing loss, which enables concentration on external sounds instead of internal noises.
Currently there is no cure for most cases of tinnitus. Depending on the type of tinnitus, symptoms will tend to come and go over time. Stress level, diet, and exposure to noise can worsen tinnitus. Many people find their tinnitus annoying but can learn to adapt without difficulty. It is likely that if you have had tinnitus, you will have it again in the future.
It’s been found that exposure to very loud noises can contribute to early hearing loss and ear problems. Loud sounds can include those from heavy machinery or construction equipment (such as sledge hammers, chain saws and firearms). Even gun shots, car accidents, or very loud concerts and events can trigger acute tinnitus, although this should go away within a couple days in some cases. (5)
If cerumen (more commonly known as ear wax) accumulates in your ear canal, it can diminish your ability to hear. Your auditory system may overcompensate for the loss, fabricating noises that do not exist. Your audiologist can safely remove the buildup, and in most cases, this will immediately alleviate your tinnitus. However, sometimes ear wax buildup causes permanent damage, resulting in chronic tinnitus.
If you experience tinnitus, don’t suffer in silence. The ringing, roaring, buzzing, or hissing in your ears may be interfering with your sleep, your relaxation, and your enjoyment of life. Why let tinnitus control your life? Many effective treatments for tinnitus exist these days – treatments based on solid research that have proven effective and benefited many people. With help from a tinnitus treatment expert, you could finally silence the tinnitus that has perturbed you for years.
It can often be very helpful to talk to someone who understands how you are feeling, who can reassure you about any anxieties you may have, and answer your questions. We can provide details of self-help groups and contacts in the UK, and we also run a helpline on 0800 018 0527. Most of the people who run groups or are contacts have tinnitus themselves and have been helping people with the condition for a long time. Even if you don't want to take part in group activities, it can be a comfort to know there is someone you can contact.
Tinnitus is when people think they hear something in their ears but there is actually no sound. People with tinnitus actually do "hear" noises that range from a whistle to a crackling noise to a roar. It can happen only occasionally, can occur for a period of days then take a break before recurring again, or it can be constant. The sound can vary in pitch from quiet to unbearably loud, or it can stay the same.
Hyperacusis is a different, but related condition to tinnitus. People with hyperacusis have a high sensitivity to common, everyday environmental noise. In particular, sharp and high-pitched sounds are very difficult for people with hyperacusis to tolerate—sounds like the screeching of brakes, a baby crying or a dog barking, a sink full of dishes and silverware clanging. Many people with tinnitus also experience hyperacusis—but the two conditions don’t always go together.
Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT) / Hypnotherapy. Another alternative treatment option worth considering is Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT), which is often simply referred to as hypnotherapy. The goal of CBT is to help lower any anxiety, anger or depression you are feeling toward your tinnitus, as well as to help retrain your brain to notice the ringing in your ears less. CBT is typically used in conjunction with sound stimulation therapies, like Neuromonics or Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TRT). When choosing your therapist, be sure they not only do they have previous experience working with patients with tinnitus, but also have Neural Linguistic Programming (NLP) training.
If your doctor cannot find any medical condition responsible for your tinnitus, you may be referred to an otolaryngologist (commonly called an ear, nose, and throat doctor, or an ENT). The ENT will physically examine your head, neck, and ears and test your hearing to determine whether you have any hearing loss along with the tinnitus. You might also be referred to an audiologist who can also measure your hearing and evaluate your tinnitus.
It is also very common for jaw opening to change the loudness or frequency of tinnitus. This is likely a variant of somatic modulation of tinnitus (see above). The sensory input from the jaw evidently interacts with hearing pathways. The muscles that open the jaw are innervated by the same nerve, the motor branch of 5, that controls the tensor tympani in the ear. In other words, changing tension in the jaw may also change muscle tension in the ear.
Removing Excess Earwax. There is a small chance that your tinnitus is being caused by an excess build up of ear wax that is blocking the ear canal. This is especially common in older patients who have a lot of ear hair that ear wax has been building up on over the years. By removing both the excess hair and ear wax, especially if it’s in contact with your ear drum, your tinnitus can improve.
Tinnitus Control. As mentioned above, Tinnitus Control has the best success ratio, at suppressing the symptoms of tinnitus, than any other OTC medication. This is achieved through their proprietary blend of the following active ingredients: arnica, chininum sulphuricum, ferrum metallicum, kali phosphoricum, natrum sulphuricum, pulsatilla, silicea, thiosinaminum, garlic and gingko biloba.
Between 2007 and 2011, the researchers recruited 492 Dutch adults who had been diagnosed with tinnitus. The patients had to fulfil several criteria, including having no underlying disease that was causing their tinnitus, no other health issues that precluded their participation, and to have received no treatment for their tinnitus in the five previous years. Some 66% of adults originally screened for the study participated after screening.
It is important to note that existing hearing loss is sometimes not directly observable by the patient, who may not perceive any lost frequencies. But this this does not mean that hearing damage has not been done. A trained audiologist or other hearing health professional can perform sensitive audiometric tests to precisely measure the true extent of hearing loss.
Tinnitus Retraining Therapy. Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT) combines a wearable device that is individually programmed to mask the specific tonal frequency of that person’s tinnitus, with psychological therapy that teaches a patient to ignore the sounds his tinnitus is creating. I consider it the best of all of the above noise suppression techniques, as it is individually tailored for each person and involves support from a trained psychological therapist. It is also the most expensive and time consuming, but in my medical opinion, the most beneficial of all the noise suppression techniques listed above.
Tinnitus is a common condition characterized by the perception or sensation of sound even though there is no identifiable external source for the sound. Tinnitus is often referred to as a “ringing in the ears.” However, the sounds associated with tinnitus have also been described as hissing, chirping, crickets, whooshing, or roaring sounds, amongst others, that can affect one or both ears. Tinnitus is generally broken down into two types: subjective and objective. Subjective tinnitus is very common and is defined as a sound that is audible only to the person with tinnitus. Subjective tinnitus is a purely electrochemical phenomenon and cannot be heard by an outside observer no matter how hard they try. Objective tinnitus, which is far less common, is defined as a sound that arises from an “objective” source, such as mechanical defect or a specific sound source, and can be heard by an outside observer under favorable conditions. The sounds from objective tinnitus occur somewhere within the body and reach the ears by conduction through various body tissues. Objective tinnitus is usually caused by disorders affecting the blood vessels (vascular system) or muscles (muscular system).
Tinnitus remains a symptom that affects the lives of millions of people. Research is directed not only at its treatment, but also at understanding why it occurs. Research by doctors at the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Dalhousie University (Canada), and Southeast China University have published research using electrophysiology and functional MRI to better understand what parts of the brain are involved in hearing and the production of tinnitus. Their research has found that much larger areas of the brain are involved with the process of hearing than previously believed, which may help direct future diagnostic and therapeutic options.
The treatment involves implanting a small electrode into a person’s neck near the vagus nerve. The patient then listens to specific tones that are paired with small electric pulses sent to the vagus nerve. This vagus nerve stimulation, coupled with the sound-based stimulation of the auditory cortex, can “turn down” the patient’s tinnitus. Though, Kilgard adds, “It’s not 100 percent yet.”
This study has several strengths. It included a relatively large number of patients, reducing the possibility of bias by “masking” which treatment patients received, classifying participants according to the severity of their tinnitus and using highly standardised interventions. Also, the researchers used established scales to measure the severity of tinnitus and its impact on quality of life.
We occasionally recommend neuropsychological testing using a simple screening questionnaire -- depression, anxiety, and OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder) are common in persons with tinnitus. This is not surprising considering how disturbing tinnitus may be to ones life (Holmes and Padgham, 2009). Persons with OCD tend to "obsess" about tinnitus. Treatment of these psychological conditions may be extremely helpful.
Supporting the idea that central reorganization is overestimated as "the" cause of tinnitus, a recent study by Wineland et al showed no changes in central connectivity of auditory cortex or other key cortical regions (Wineland et al, 2012). Considering other parts of the brain, Ueyama et al (2013) reported that there was increased fMRI activity in the bilateral rectus gyri, as well as cingulate gyri correlating with distress. Loudness was correlated with values in the thalamus, bilateral hippocampus and left caudate. In other words, the changes in the brain associated with tinnitus seem to be associated with emotional reaction (e.g. cingulate), and input systems (e.g. thalamus). There are a few areas whose role is not so obvious (e.g. caudate). This makes a more sense than the Wineland result, but of course, they were measuring different things. MRI studies related to audition or dizziness must be interpreted with great caution as the magnetic field of the MRI stimulates the inner ear, and because MRI scanners are noisy.
Think about your breathing. Notice that it has a natural rhythm. Try to breathe in a steady, even rhythm. It helps to breathe in through your nose, hold your breath for a moment and then breathe out through your mouth. Wait a moment before breathing in again. Every time you breathe out, try to release a little bit of your tension. Do this for a few minutes, until you feel ready to move on to the next step.
Technology and portable music devices also contribute to noise pollution, especially in younger people. Keep the volume of your phone, MP3 players or iPod on the lower end when listening to headphones, and don’t play very loud noises for long durations of time. To aid in tinnitus treatment, look out for changes in your ability to hear if you’re frequently exposed to loud noises, limit use of headphones or consider wearing earplugs.
Tinnitus retraining therapy (TRT). This technique is based on the assumption that tinnitus results from abnormal neuronal activity (see "What's going on?"). The aim is to habituate the auditory system to the tinnitus signals, making them less noticeable or less bothersome. The main components of TRT are individual counseling (to explain the auditory system, how tinnitus develops, and how TRT can help) and sound therapy. A device is inserted in the ear to generate low-level noise and environmental sounds that match the pitch, volume, and quality of the patient's tinnitus. Depending on the severity of the symptoms, treatment may last one to two years.
