Tinnitus Sucks!

The National Institutes of Health recently produced this educational piece.Tinnitus is commonly described as a ringing in the ears, but some people also hear it as a roaring, clicking, hissing or buzzing. For some, it’s a minor annoyance. For others, it can interfere with sleep and grow to be a source of mental and emotional anguish. source.. http://newsinhealth.nih.gov/issue/Aug2011/Feature2

There are many tinnitus causes, but here are nine causes you may not know about:

Allergies
Allergies can trigger tinnitus. Many people don’t connect what they have eaten with the level of their tinnitus, they don’t notice the mold that may be lurking inside their homes, or the pollen they are surrounded by when outside.

Ear Problems
There are some ear conditions that may also trigger tinnitus. Many experience tinnitus when they have a middle ear infection, or a sinus infection. If this is the case, the tinnitus usually lessens and gradually fades away when the infection subsides. Buildup of excess wax in your ears can also trigger it.

Hearing Loss
In many cases hearing loss and tinnitus go hand in hand. The tinnitus does not cause hearing loss, it is actually the other way around. Often times the tinnitus fades away when wearing a hearing aid to correct the hearing loss. However, it can come back when you remove the hearing aid at night to sleep.

Foods
Red wine, grain-based spirits, cheese, high sodium diets, high fat intake, MSG, caffeine and even some spices can all make tinnitus worse in some people.

Stress
While stress, anxiety and tension is not a direct cause of tinnitus, it can make your tinnitus worse.

Exposure to Loud Noise
Exposure to loud noise and hearing loss generally go together. Exposure to harmful sounds causes damage to the hair cells as well as the auditory, or hearing, nerve. Impulse sound can result in immediate hearing loss that may be permanent. This kind of hearing loss may be accompanied by tinnitus—a ringing, buzzing, or roaring in the ears or head—which may subside over time. Hearing loss and tinnitus may be experienced in one or both ears, and tinnitus may continue constantly or occasionally throughout a lifetime.

Medications
Many medications also can cause tinnitus (see list below). Generally this is thought to arise from their effect on the cochlea (inner ear).
NSAIDS (motrin, naproxen, relafen, etc)
Aspirin and other salicylates
Lasix and other “loop” diuretics
“Mycin” antibiotics such as vancomycin
Quinine and related drugs
Chemotherapy such as cis-platin

Other Tinnitus Causes

TMJ Disorder
For unknown reasons, approximately 33% of patients with a TMJ disorder experience noise or ringing in the ears (tinnitus). Of those patients, it is estimated that approximately half will have resolution of their tinnitus after successful treatment of their TMJ disorder.

Other Causes
Meniere’s disease includes dizziness, tinnitus, and fullness in the ear or hearing loss that can last for hours, but then goes away. This disease is actually caused by a problem in the ear itself. The tinnitus is merely a symptom.
Acoustic Neuroma (brain tumor) is a rare cause of tinnitus The tumors grow on the nerve that supplies hearing and can cause tinnitus. This type of tinnitus is usually only noticed in one ear, unlike the more common sort caused by hearing loss usually seen in both ears.
Injury involving neck or head such as whiplash.

Did you learn any tinnitus causes that you didn’t know? What is the cause of your tinnitus?