When we hear, sound waves travel through the ear into the cochlea, our hearing organ in the inner ear. The cochlea is lined with thousands of tiny sound-sensing cells called hair cells. These hair cells change the sound waves into electrical signals. The hearing nerve then sends these electrical signals to the hearing part of the brain, which analyses them and recognises them as sound.
For some people, the jarring motion of brisk walking can produce what is called a seismic effect which causes movement in the small bones or contractions in the muscles of the middle ear space. You can experiment to find out if this is the cause by walking slowly and smoothly to see if the clicking is present. Then, try walking quickly and with a lot of motion to see if you hear the clicking. You can also test for the seismic effect by moving your head up and down quickly.
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.
Often people bring in very long lists of medications that have been reported, once or twice, to be associated with tinnitus. This unfortunate behavior makes it very hard to care for these patients -- as it puts one into an impossible situation where the patient is in great distress but is also unwilling to attempt any treatment. Specialists who care for patients with ear disease, usually know very well which drugs are problems (such as those noted above), and which ones are nearly always safe.
Tinnitus – a sound in the head with no external source – is not a disease; it is a symptom that can be triggered by a variety of different health conditions. So what causes tinnitus? Common sources include hearing loss, ear wax buildup, ototoxic medications, and ear bone changes. No matter what the cause, the condition interrupts the transmission of sound from the ear to the brain. Some part of the hearing system is involved as well, whether the outer, middle, or inner ear.
It is possible that the most common cause of pulsatile tinnitus is sigmoid sinus diverticulum and dehiscence, which can be collectively referred to as sinus wall abnormalities or SSWA. The sigmoid sinus is a blood carrying channel on the side of the brain that receives blood from veins within the brain. The blood eventually exits through the internal jugular vein. Sigmoid sinus diverticulum refers to the formation of small sac-like pouches (diverticula) that protrude through the wall of the sigmoid sinus into the mastoid bone behind the ear. Dehiscence refers to absence of part of the bone that surrounds the sigmoid sinus in the mastoid. It is unknown whether these conditions represent different parts of one disease process or spectrum, or whether they are two distinct conditions. These abnormalities cause pressure, blood flow, and noise changes within the sigmoid sinus, which ultimately results in pulsatile tinnitus. Narrowing of the blood vessel that leads into the sigmoid sinus, known as the transverse sinus, has also been associated with pulsatile tinnitus.
Imagine you’re settling in for a night’s rest. In your quiet bedroom, you’re tune right into those tinnitus noises—and you can’t shake your focus on them. You start to wonder about how you’ll ever fall asleep with these sounds in your ears. You think about the rest you’re missing out on because you’re not already asleep, and you wonder how you’ll have the energy to make it through your day.
We conducted a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial investigating the effects of the customized music-based sound therapy for reducing tinnitus. Participants (N = 50) who suffered from tinnitus were randomly allocated (with 1:1 ratio) to the treatment and placebo groups with assessments at baseline, 3, 6, and 12 months. The primary outcome was the differences in mean scores of the THI compared at four time intervals. Independent and paired samples t-tests were conducted to compare THI scores between and within groups, respectively.
The outlook for tinnitus depends on its cause. In people with tinnitus related to earwax buildup or medications, the condition usually will go away when the earwax is removed or the medication is stopped. In people with tinnitus related to sudden, loud noise, tinnitus may improve gradually, although there may be some permanent noise-related hearing loss.
If you are living with tinnitus, contact the Sound Relief Hearing Center. We are the tinnitus experts you need to experience the best possible outcome with your tinnitus treatment. To learn more about us, please browse our website or give us a call at 720-259-9962. You can also schedule an appointment online to meet with one of our tinnitus specialists. We look forward to hearing from you!
Age-Related Hearing Loss: Also known as presbycusis, age-related hearing loss results from the cumulative effect of aging on hearing. This permanent, progressive, and sensorineural condition is most pronounced at higher frequencies. It commonly impacts people over the age of 50, as all people begin to lose approximately 0.5% of the inner ear’s hair cells annually starting at age 40.
Since most persons with tinnitus also have hearing loss, a pure tone hearing test resulting in an audiogram may help diagnose a cause, though some persons with tinnitus do not have hearing loss. An audiogram may also facilitate fitting of a hearing aid in those cases where hearing loss is significant. The pitch of tinnitus is often in the range of the hearing loss.
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.
Exposure to Loud Noise: Exposure to loud or excessive noise can damage or destroy hair cells (cilia) in the inner ear. Because the hair cells cannot be renewed or replaced, this can lead to permanent hearing loss and/or tinnitus. Continued exposure can worsen these conditions, so people who work in loud environments should always wear ear protection. This includes musicians, air traffic controllers, construction workers, military personnel, and first responders. In addition, consider lowering the volume on your iPod and wearing earplugs at loud concerts.
Another thing that tinnitus and sleep problems share? A tendency among people to brush them off, and try to “tough it out,” rather than addressing their conditions. It’s not worth it, to your health or your quality of life. If you’re having trouble sleeping and you have symptoms that sound like tinnitus, talk with your doctor about both, so you can sleep better—and feel better— soon.
With respect to incidence (the table above is about prevalence), Martinez et al (2015) reported that there were 5.4 new cases of tinnitus per 10,000 person-years in England. We don't find this statistic much use as tinnitus is highly prevalent in otherwise normal persons. It seems to us that their study is more about how many persons with tinnitus were detected by the health care system -- and that it is more a study of England's health care system than of tinnitus.
Although there’s no proven cure for tinnitus, there are treatments that help make it easier to ignore. For example, you can wear devices in your ear(s) that produce soothing therapeutic noises to shift your focus away from the tinnitus. Other devices produce constant, soft noise to mask the tinnitus. Tinnitus sufferers who also have hearing loss sometimes find relief simply by wearing properly fitted hearing aids.
