Tinnitus

Many of these communications have one central theme, they have been told that tinnitus is permanent, there is no tinnitus cure and they must "live with it!"

They are bluntly told that they will have to "live with these noises", "there is nothing one can do about tinnitus", "there are no tinnitus cures", etc. etc.

Very little is actually explained to them about tinnitus and they are most often simply fobbed off with some anti-depressants and told to get on with it.

Little wonder then that these shell shocked people end up getting anxiety and panic attacks, (which obviously aggravate the tinnitus) and end up far too stressed as a result of lack of sleep, worry and those horrible continual noises that just never seem to go away.

The problem of course is that as one becomes more stressed, the more the tinnitus increases in volume and intensity. To compound the problem, many doctors prescribe treatment for tinnitus that can often exacerbate the problem instead of easing it!

Doctors often prescribe drugs as a tinnitus treatment that actually list tinnitus as a side effect. Imagine the depression that can result if the treatments for tinnitus that your doctor prescribed actually end up making it worse! Where do you go from there?

Many people having been told there are no cures for tinnitus and tried some prescription medication that ends up making their symptoms far worse, end up in what we refer to as the classic tinnitus cycle.

They have tried to a tinnitus cure from their doctor or ENT, and end up with far worse symptoms and as a result are not getting enough sleep, are tired, irritable and stressed which all leads to even higher levels of tinnitus noises.

With some understanding of what tinnitus is, what causes it and how you can cope with tinnitus, comes a relieving of the stress, your sleep patterns revert to normal and life starts getting back to normal again. That is not to say there is a cure for tinnitus, it is an established fact that there are no cures for tinnitus, but if you can identify the tinnitus causes, there is much you can do to get tinnitus relief.

This page is intended to help you get to grips with what this condition known as tinnitus really is, what you can do about it and even learn to live comfortably with tinnitus.

Tinnitus is best described as the perception of noise in the absence of any acoustic stimulus.

In plain English, you start hearing ringing or chirping type noises that seem to come from the middle of your head or deep inside your ears, but there are just no real noises around.

When you hear those noises, be they a ringing in your ears, whistling, hissing or roaring noises in the ears, you are experiencing tinnitus. These noises, which every one experiences somewhat differently, are subjective. i.e. only you can hear them.

The noises cannot be heard by anyone else and NO, you are not going crazy!

Tinnitus is experienced by most people at some time in their lives, but some 17% of the general population suffer quite severely from tinnitus. About 12 million Americans are so severely affected by tinnitus that they are unable to function normally i.e. they are unable to live normal lives, go to work, just can't sleep, and suffer severely from stress and anxiety.

It is estimated that up to 66 million Americans suffer from tinnitus of some sort.

Tinnitus Types

Objective tinnitus can be heard by the physician or other people and is not very common. Subjective tinnitus is far more common than objective tinnitus and is the type of tinnitus that is more difficult to treat.

Major Tinnitus Causes

There are many factors that can trigger or aggravate tinnitus but cochlea damage tinnitus is the most common.

By far the great majority of tinnitus sufferers have somehow damaged the delicate structures of the inner ear, resulting in damage to the cochlea, the cochlear nerve, the ascending auditory pathway, or the auditory cortex.

When the cochlear hair cells are injured by exposure to noise or head trauma, they discharge repetitively, thereby stimulating the nerve fibers to discharge synchronously in a way that the central auditory system cannot discriminate from actual sound.

This can be likened to a switch being left in the on position. i.e. Those hairs that are damaged are permanently in the "on" position, resulting in a continuous stream of perceived sounds being generated.

These are some of the 15,000 microscopic sensory hair cells which are very fragile and are easily damaged when subjected to sudden loud noises or are exposed to noise over a long period.

When the movement of the tiny bones in the middle ear vibrate the oval window of the cochlea, waves are created in the fluid surrounding the cochlea.

These waves bend the basilar membrane in place corresponding to specific frequencies. Hair cells in those places then brush against the overlying tectorial membrane (shown in blue) generating an electrical impulse which gets sent to the brain. The brain interprets those electrical impulses as sound.

The nerve endings are shown in yellow in the illustration. When the tiny hairs and nerve endings become damaged as a result of exposure to noise, tinnitus often results.

The video below graphically demontrates how the basilar membrane reacts to individual sounds.

Sinusitis and allergy sufferers also frequently suffer from tinnitus. This tinnitus "type" is caused from blocked Eustachian tubes, which results in a pressure buildup in the inner ear.

This condition is normally caused by prolonged taking of anti-histamines and antibiotics which can cause a thickening of the mucous in the inner ear.

Excess inner ear mucous would normally simply drain out through the Eustachian tubes but is prevented from doing so because it has become too thick to drain out of the very narrow Eustachian tubes.

Another major cause of tinnitus is a long continued exposure to stress or traumatic events such as the death of a loved one.

Thyroid dysfunction is definitely associated with tinnitus. When the thyroid produces too much thyroid hormone, this is a condition known as Hyperthyroidism. These additional hormones have a direct effect on most bodily organs, including the heart which beats faster and harder under the influence of thyroid hormones.

Hyperthyroidism, by increasing cardiac output, can cause a pulsatile or rushing noise.

Another cause of tinnitus is presbycusis (hearing loss that occurs as people age).

Hearing loss is the single most consistent factor in people with tinnitus. As a rule the tinnitus will occur at the same frequencies as the hearing loss.

Many prescription medications list tinnitus as a side effect. These include anti-malarials, anti-inflammatories, antibiotics, and antidepressants.

Aspirin and aspirin-containing compounds were identified as the most common inciting medications. As little as 600 to 1000 mm/day of aspirin can create symptoms. Aspirin-containing medications, such as Percodan, Darvon, Bufferin, or Ecotrin, are often overlooked as possible causes of tinnitus.

A golden rule here is to read the literature supplied with your prescription carefully. If you notice the onset of tinnitus after starting a course of drugs, or after you have changed to a different brand of drug, then it is most likely that medication that is causing the tinnitus as a side effect

The Noises Of Tinnitus

We have found that it is sometimes helpful to take the tinnitus noises one is hearing into account when trying to determine the cause of the tinnitus on your quest for a tinnitus cure or at least some tinnitus relief.

Please bear in mind that the noises and sounds associated with tinnitus are many and varied and everyone describes those sounds differently. One persons "high pitched ringing" could well be described by another as a "whistling" or even as a "continuous screaming in my ears."

So you cannot always rely on the noises that you hear and describe, to correctly determine the tinnitus type or cause with any degree of certainty.

However from our dealings and communications with many thousands of tinnitus sufferers over the years, the table below lists the most common tinnitus noises associated with the most common tinnitus.

Tinnitus Noises	Tinnitus Causes
Ringing bells, chirping sounds, sounds like cicadas or crickets, roaring, hissing and fluttering sounds	Tinnitus from noise damage - Exposure to noise, a blow to the head, cochlear damage, ear wax removal.
Ear ringing, whistling, high pitched whistling, whizzing sounds, rushing sounds like water in a waterfall.	Tinnitus from trauma or stress - Stress, depression, traumatic life events.
Clucking or cracking sounds, gurgling whirring sounds, a ringing tone in the affected ear which comes and goes periodically, lasting a few seconds at a time.	Tinnitus from Sinus - Sinus or Allergies.

The contents of the table above is based on success stories from tinnitus sufferers who have found relief using our treatments and have used the remedy recommended for the tinnitus type as described in the right hand column.

You can use these noises to identify the cause of your tinnitus (with a view to finding a treatment of tinnitus) with a fair degree of accuracy but you must also take into account the life events that could have have lead to your tinnitus problems to make an informed decision as to the cause of your tinnitus.