Tinnitus, which can be pronounced “TIN-uh-tus” or “tin-NY-tus” is a condition characterized by hissing, clicking, roaring, or ringing in the ears. Some people hear these sounds all the time, and it can be bothersome, or it can be severe enough to interfere with everyday life. In the U.S
The causes of tinnitus are almost countless. Sometimes it is caused by high blood pressure, by neck injury, tumors, allergies, certain dental procedures, and conditions like Menieres disease. Temporary cases of tinnitus may be caused by exposure to loud sounds, such as from the large speakers at a rock concert. When there is no obvious cause, and it interferes with daily life, ringing in your ears should be brought to the attention of your physician.
Tinnitus – not usually a solo symptom
Unfortunately, many cases of tinnitus have unknown causes. However, ringing in the ears does not usually occur as a solo symptom. Often, it is accompanied by vertigo, loss of hearing, nasal congestion, headache, ear pain, and noise sensitivity, and many of these symptoms do have solvable causes and treatment options. Therefore, it is only logical to consider that conditions that happen along with tinnitus may share a common cause, and perhaps a common treatment. Clearing up a condition like an allergy, or an inner ear imbalance can make ears stop ringing or at least relieve the tinnitus to some extent.
Hearing loss and tinnitus go together in many cases, and if the person requires hearing aids, the hearing aids can be programmed to help mask tinnitus. There are more than 200 medicines that are known to cause tinnitus. If you are experiencing tinnitus and take any drug on a regular basis, ask your pharmacist or your doctor if tinnitus is a side effect of that medication. Some causes of ringing in the ears have very little to do with the auditory system. Certain heart problems and problems of major blood vessels can cause tinnitus.
Your doctor may refer you to an ear, nose, and throat specialist who can more thoroughly examine your ears and try to learn what is causing the problem. You may also be referred to an audiologist, who measures your hearing ability over a range of sound frequencies to determine if you have significant hearing loss. If you need a hearing aid, the audiologist is the professional that determines the best kind for you and fits it for your particular needs.
Medical treatments for tinnitus
Some of the medical treatments for tinnitus include hearing aids, hearing “maskers,” and various medications. Often hearing aids solve the problem, making it easier for you to hear the sounds you want to hear, which often makes the tinnitus less noticeable. While the first step to dealing with bothersome tinnitus is visiting a doctor, if the doctor cannot establish what is causing it, there are alternative treatments to stop tinnitus.
In some cases an alternative treatment for tinnitus involves listening to a white noise machine or low-volume static on an ordinary radio. This can help with sleep problems. Tinnitus retraining therapy may or may not involve the use of sound maskers. Sometimes counseling can help a person with tinnitus, and there are also tinnitus support groups that many sufferers find helpful.
Relaxation therapy can help, too, particularly used in combination with white noise machines or maskers. Music and recorded nature sounds can help people forget about the ringing in their ears for a while.
These make tinnitus worse
A number of things can make tinnitus worse, including smoking, drinking alcohol, and exposure to loud noises. If you are exposed to loud noises on the job, use hearing protection such as ear plugs or noise-blocking earmuffs. Don’t be shy about asking family members and friends to face you when they talk so that you can see their faces. This will help you hear over your tinnitus.
You may consider natural treatments as alternative treatments to stop tinnitus, particularly if the cause of your problem cannot be identified or otherwise treated conventionally. Studies have shown that diets deficient in vitamin B12 are linked to tinnitus. In order to absorb this vitamin, a certain amount of stomach acid is required. Those who eat too many foods that are alkaline can lower levels of stomach acid, impairing their ability to absorb vitamin B12.
Vitamin B12 deficiency
In 1993, a study of tinnitus at the Chaim Sheba Medical Center in Israel found a correlation between tinnitus and vitamin B12 deficiency. Three groups were studied: a group with normal hearing; a group with chronic tinnitus and hearing loss caused by noise exposure; a group with noise-induced hearing loss, but no tinnitus. In patients with tinnitus and hearing loss, 47% were found to be deficient in vitamin B12. In the hearing loss-only group, 27% were found to be vitamin B12 deficient, and 19% of those with normal hearing had vitamin B12 deficiencies.
Furthermore, with vitamin B12 replacement, 12 patients who had tinnitus showed improvement. The researchers concluded that routine vitamin B12 levels should be measured in patients with chronic tinnitus.
Magnesium deficiency
Speculation and anecdotal evidence suggests that magnesium deficiencies may also be linked to tinnitus in some people. Magnesium deficiency has been linked to hearing loss caused by exposure to noise, and this type of hearing loss is also linked to ringing in the ears. Therefore, ensuring adequate magnesium levels may be among the alternative treatments to stop tinnitus.
Caffeine
Coffee, tea, sodas, and other caffeinated drinks have been linked with ringing in the ears, and excess caffeine consumption can deplete magnesium levels. Alcoholic drinks can lower magnesium levels as well, and both excess caffeine and excess alcohol have been linked to tinnitus. There are even theories that the sound sensitivity that accompanies a hangover could be caused by a short term magnesium deficiency due to excess consumption of alcohol. Magnesium deficiency has been linked to high noise sensitivity (a condition known as hyperacusis) and sensitivity to bright lights.
Avoiding exposure to loud sounds may not help tinnitus that much, but it can certainly keep from exacerbating it. Keeping car stereo and MP3 volume levels reasonable, and using hearing protection when using equipment like lawn mowers and power tools. If you attend a rock concert or go to a club with loud music and do not have hearing protection, you can expect your tinnitus to be worse temporarily afterwards.
Aspirin
While it is well known that aspirin causes tinnitus in some people, not many people realize that there are a lot of common foods that contain salicylates, which are aspirin-like compounds. Anyone with chronic tinnitus should monitor their diet and determine if they experience worse tinnitus after consuming certain foods. Salicylate-containing foods include:
- wine
- almonds
- tomatoes
- apples
- raisins
- apricots
- prunes
- berries
- plums
- cherries
- pickels
- cucumbers
- peaches
- grapes
- oranges
- nectarines
Aspirin is not the only drug known to cause tinnitus. Many prescription and over the counter drugs have tinnitus as a side effect. Quinine and ibuprofen are two that can cause ringing in the ear.
The condition known as temporomandibular joint, or TMJ disorder, is linked with tinnitus. Many people with TMJ also experience ringing in the ears. TMJ treatment may involve physical therapy, moist heat, or the use of retainer-like mouth appliances.
Nystagmus, which is a condition in which the eyes are shaky or jerky, often goes along with tinnitus. Nystagmus can be caused by chemical exposure, fumes, and certain medications. Sometimes one of the alternative treatments to stop tinnitus may include increases in zinc and magnesium, which are vital to detoxifying harmful substances.
Tinnitus is a common problem that has numerous possible causes. But there are many cases in which no specific cause can be determined. That is one reason why ringing in the ears is so frustrating. In fact, experts in tinnitus believe that 85% of tinnitus cases have unknown causes. The condition often occurs in conjunction with other symptoms, including nystagmus (shaky eyes), high noise sensitivity, and TMJ syndrome.
Alternative treatments to stop tinnitus include increasing dietary levels of vitamin B12, magnesium, and zinc. For these reasons, and because foods containing high levels of salicylates (aspirin-like substances) can aggravate tinnitus, keeping a food diary if you have ringing in your ears can be the first step to finding a remedy for ringing ears.
Anyone who experiences tinnitus should consult with their physician. Further steps may involve visiting an ear, nose, and throat specialist, or an audiologist, who is a professional that diagnoses hearing problems and prescribes and programs hearing aids.
Treatment of hearing loss is one of the most common treatments for tinnitus, because once a person can hear the sounds he or she wants to hear better, the tinnitus may seem to fade into the background. If medical causes and treatments do not help, then it may be worthwhile to consider alternative treatments to stop tinnitus.
If anyone should ever discover how to cure tinnitus, he or she will be praised by millions of people the world over who suffer from this condition. Today, alternative treatment methods to stop tinnitus run the gamut, from well-thought out remedies to outright quackery. Ringing ears affect 25 million people in the U.S. alone, and neither traditional nor alternative medicinel has not found a solution for ringing ears.
Hearing protection, the use of hearing aids when indicated, a healthy diet, and treatment for conditions like TMJ disorder and nystagmus are some of the best ways that patients and medical professionals have found to stop ringing in ears.