Let’s set the stage: you’re lying in bed at night trying to relax after a long, tiring day. You feel yourself starting to drift off to sleep. Then as you lie there in the quiet of the night, you start to notice the sound of buzzing in your ears. Your phone, TV, and radio are all switched off so you’re sure it’s nothing in your room. Unfortunately, this noise is inside your ears and it won’t go away.
If this scenario has happened to you, then it’s likely that you’re one of the 50 million people who are afflicted by tinnitus. Ringing, Buzzing, and a range of other noises will be heard inside of your ears when you have this problem. For most people, tinnitus will not have a substantial affect on their lives beyond being a simple inconvenience. For other individuals, unfortunately, tinnitus can be unbearable and cause them to lose sleep and have difficulty performing work and social activities.
What Causes Tinnitus?
Tinnitus remains somewhat of a mystery, but specialists have focused in on a few triggers for this problem. It’s most common in individuals who have damaged hearing, as well as people who suffer from heart conditions. It’s believed that tinnitus comes about due to limited blood flow around the ears, which makes the heart pump blood harder in order for it to get where it needs to go. People who have iron-deficiency anemia often suffer from tinnitus symptoms because their blood cells do not carry enough oxygen throughout their body, which, again, makes the heart work overtime to get oxygen and other nutrients where they need to go.
Tinnitus also occurs as a symptom of other conditions, such as Meniere’s disease, ear infections, and ear canal blockages. Scenarios where tinnitus becomes more pronounced occur with all of these condition because they all affect the hearing. In other situations, there might not be an evident cause of tinnitus, which can make treatment challenging, but not impossible.
Is There Any Treatment For Tinnitus?
Depending on the root cause of your tinnitus, there may be several possible treatment options. One significant thing to take note of, however, is that there is currently no known cure for tinnitus. Despite this fact, there’s still an excellent chance that your tinnitus will improve or even go away completely because of these treatments.
Research has revealed that hearing aids help mask tinnitus in people who suffer from hearing loss.
If masking the noise isn’t helpful, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) has been shown to help people live with the ringing in their ears that doesn’t go away with other treatments. This kind of mental health treatment helps people change their negative thoughts about tinnitus into more positive, realistic thoughts that help them function normally on a regular basis.