What is tinnitus? This could be the very first question that would pop up in your head when you hear the word. If you can hear ringing in your ears, then you might have tinnitus. You may be hearing it in one or both of your ears or in your head. Or maybe you don’t exactly know where it is coming from. It should be taken note of that it is not a disease, but it is a symptom of an underlying health problem.
If you are fond of listening to loud music, then you should not be surprised if you are hearing this annoying and distracting sound. You should watch out of the medicines that you take because there are medicines that result to the presence of the noise. You may also want to consult your doctor because it could mean that you have circulatory system disease.
If you could not properly complete a task or you do not get enough sleep, then you should ask yourself, what is tinnitus because you might be needing some help. If you do research on it, you will know that thinking much about it would not help you cope with it. Thus, you need to have some activities that would help divert your attention away from the noise. You could listen to your favorite music if you like. Just watch those volume levels and I would have to remind you that smoking and excessive drinking of alcohol may worsen the ringing in your ears or head.
Tinnitus Research
If after you have done some research you still do not fully understand it, you may share what you are experiencing with someone. Both of you could talk about, and it will help you fight stress and anxiety. You may also want to communicate with your immediate family, so that they can adjust to your needs. You should know that it has no cure, but there are various treatments that could give you relief. It may be in the form of counseling or undergoing a tinnitus training therapy.
Tools are also available like hearing aids and maskers. You could also try homeopathic tinnitus remedies. Some people try acupuncture, cochlear implant and electronic stimulation. If you do not have tinnitus and you just decided to read the whole article because someone complains to you that he or she has been hearing that frustrating noise, then you will have the answer to the eternal question, what is tinnitus?
Most Common Causes Of Tinnitus
Many people who are suffering from tinnitus may be also suffering from another illness that has actually caused the symptoms of tinnitus. While there is no known cure for tinnitus, some of its symptoms can be relieved by getting to the root causes of another problem that may have tinnitus as side effect.
There are different factors that can cause or contribute to tinnitus. The aging process causes the human body to breakdown in many ways and the ear isn’t exempt. Deterioration of auditory cells due to aging can cause tinnitus. For those aging adults who are suffering from hearing loss and tinnitus as an unwanted side effect due to getting older, a hearing aid may help. By increasing the sounds around you, the noises you hear from tinnitus may be drowned out. Talk to your doctor about ways to live with tinnitus caused by the aging process.
If you have been around loud noises like machinery or even loud music, especially if you are exposed for a long or repeated time, you may begin to suffer the symptoms of tinnitus. Loud noises like fireworks and gunshots can cause a temporary onset of tinnitus while overexposure can cause permanent tinnitus. If you work in a place where loud noises are unavoidable, make sure to wear earplugs or other ear protection.
Different types of medical conditions can cause tinnitus. One of the leading causes is high blood pressure. An inner infection that causes the build of fluids in the inner ear will cause tinnitus. You may also experience the symptoms of tinnitus due to a build-up of wax in your ears. Visit your healthcare provider if you are hearing noises in your head that no one else can. Getting to the bottom of an underlying medical condition could save you from more than just the aggravation of tinnitus. In very rare cases, an aneurysm or tumor could be that underlying cause of tinnitus.
One disease that causes tinnitus is Meniere’s Disease which causes a disruption in the flow of the inner ear fluids. Most of the time, only one ear is affected but it is possible to have it in both ears. Tinnitus is a side effect of this disease that normally strikes both men and women between the ages of 20 to 50. He ringing or buzzing in the ears usually starts in Meniere’s Disease at the onset of vertigo, a dizziness also associated with the disease.
The medicines you take could be the reason you are experiencing tinnitus. Over 200 different medications are known to have tinnitus as a side effect. Consult your doctor if you begin to experience any foreign noises in your ears that can’t be heard by others around you.
Taking care of your health can alleviate the causes of tinnitus in many cases. Eat a regular and nutritious diet, get enough rest, and avoid putting yourself under too much stress. All of these things can bring on other problems that carry tinnitus as a side effect. Dealing with tinnitus can be stressful enough to cause another health issue to be worse. The best way to avoid all these kinds of problems with your health is to take care of yourself. The results of being inattentive to your body and its physical state could end up putting you at risk for having to deal with tinnitus on a daily basis. Understanding the causes of tinnitus can help you on the journey to a cure and finally living tinnitus-free.
Are There Specialist That Deal With Tinnitus
The number one symptom of tinnitus that one should watch out or rather hear of is the sound that seems to be coming out from inside the head. But you should also bear in mind that tinnitus can also be an indication of other things or other medical condition. Hence, you should not stop on knowing the symptoms alone but go further to other possible health conditions that can and may cause tinnitus, as well as its alternative treatments. And to get the answers to these, the one person to go to is a tinnitus specialist.
How are Tinnitus Specialists Qualified?
Tinnitus specialists are medical professionals who are well educated and well trained to diagnose and treat ear-related disorders like tinnitus. An otologist-neurotologist is a physician who deals with chronic ear problems, tinnitus, facial nerve disorder, dizziness and hearing loss. An audiologist, on the other hand, is a trained healthcare professional who specializes in the identification, diagnosis, treatment, and monitoring of vestibular system and auditory disorders. Also, you may refer to an otolaryngologist, a neck and head surgeon who provides and diagnoses comprehensive treatment for the nose, ears, respiratory system, head-related, neck-related disorders, throat and sinuses. This specialist performs reconstructive and plastic surgery, as well as treats hearing and larynx disorders.
They Can’t Cure You
But even with tinnitus specialists around, still you must know of the fact that complete medical cure is not yet available for tinnitus. You may hear of various tinnitus treatments but they do not totally eliminate the problem but only minimize the symptoms. This explains why a good number of individuals with tinnitus are in active search of other probable approaches apart from medical drugs to treat their condition.
Oftentimes, in cases like tinnitus, the sufferer hears noises or sounds that do not actually exist or are not present in his or her surroundings. Tinnitus is classified into two: subjective and objective. If the sound is heard only by the person with tinnitus and no one else can recognize the sound, then it is deemed as subjective tinnitus. Objective tinnitus is categorized as such when a tinnitus specialist can hear similar sound with the aid of audio instruments. However, subjective tinnitus is more prevalent compared to the objective type.
They CAN Help You Get Relief
Normally, specialists try to implement several treatments such as drugs, biofeedback, surgery, tinnitus maskers, and complementary treatments. Treatments are given based on a patient’s condition or the severity of tinnitus. Some are lucky enough to find comfort after a certain treatment while others are not fortunate enough to be relieved from the symptoms. Then again, the relief is temporary. Medical researches and programs are still ongoing to find a proper cure to tinnitus. So far, success is not yet on hand.
So if you think you are suffering from tinnitus, scout for a tinnitus specialist near you. Consult someone with the knowledge and expertise as soon as you can in order for you to be guided accordingly and you will be able to positively deal on the matter.
Tinnitus Relief – 5 Simple Steps To Stop The Ringing
Well, you have probably already heard from your doctor or otherwise that curing tinnitus is not as simple as it seems. There are huge number of possible causes for tinnitus, as it is not an illness in itself but a symptom. This is what makes it very difficult to stop the buzzing in you ear what remedy used depends entirely upon the cause of the ringing in the ears. Before we look at the tinnitus treatments, lets take a look at the four common causes for tinnitus:
- Hearing loss Researchers have discovered that people with different forms of hearing loss often have tinnitus.
- Loud noise Prolonged exposure to noise can damage your hearing and cause tinnitus.
- Medicine Tinnitus is a side-effect of many drugs the most common being aspirin and some antibiotics are possible causes for tinnitus.
- Health problems such as allergies, tumors, heart problems and neck and jaw problems.
If your ears are ringing and you want to cure your tinnitus, the first thing you should do is go and see your doctor to stop the buzzing in your ear. He or she may be able to easily fix tinnitus if it is caused by wax build-up simply by removing the wax and curing the tinnitus. If your tinnitus is not due to this problem your doctor will suggest the best course of tinnitus treatments. So, what options are available to you when you want to cure your tinnitus?
- Maskers. These are small electronic devices which emit sounds to make tinnitus less noticeable. This helps to quieten rather than cure your tinnitus. However, for some people this is enough to help them forget about their tinnitus.
- Hearing Aids. As mentioned above, tinnitus is very often caused by hearing loss so people with hearing loss related tinnitus who wear these hearing aids find that the more they can hear the things going on in the world, the less they can hear the ringing in their ears.
- Medicine. This is one of the tinnitus treatments to speak with your doctor about when curing your tinnitus. There are medicines available to help stop the buzzing in your ears but as we already know there are medicines which can trigger tinnitus instead of curing tinnitus.
- Counselling. It helps a lot to talk about it, you could even join a support group. If you are becoming depressed as a result of your tinnitus, this may be a good option for you to try. Stress worsens the buzzing in your ears so try to relax if you want to stop the buzzing in your ear. If you join a support group you could meet someone with a tinnitus tip that can help you find some tinnitus relief.
- Tinnitus retraining therapy. This method uses a combination of maskers and counselling and helps you get used to the ringing in your ears. The use of the maskers helps you not to notice the tinnitus. It can take a while for you to see the results but is worth it in the end.
Tinnitus Resources On The Web
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinnitus
http://www.ata.org/
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/tinnitus/DS00365
http://www.emedicinehealth.com/tinnitus/article_em.htm
http://www.medicinenet.com/tinnitus/article.htm
http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/ringing-in-the-ears-tinnitus-topic-overview
http://www.entnet.org/HealthInformation/tinnitus.cfm
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/tinnitus.html
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