Let’s set the scene: you’re lying in bed at night trying to unwind after a long, exhausting day. Your eyelids are getting heavy and you recognize that your about to fall asleep. Then as you’re lying there in the quiet of the night, you begin to notice the sound of buzzing in your ears. Your phone, TV, and radio are all off so you’re sure it’s nothing in your room. No, this sound is coming from within your ears and you don’t know how to stop it.
If this scenario sounds familiar, then it’s likely that you’re one of the 50 million people who are afflicted by tinnitus. Ringing, Buzzing, and a variety of other sounds will be heard inside of your ears when you have this problem. For most people, tinnitus won’t have a significant impact on their lives besides being a simple inconvenience. For other people, unfortunately, tinnitus can be unbearable and cause them to lose sleep and have a hard time doing work and social activities.
What Causes Tinnitus?
Tinnitus is still a bit of a mystery, but specialists have narrowed down a few triggers for this condition. It appears commonly in individuals who have damaged hearing, and also individuals who suffer from heart problems. It’s believed that tinnitus happens 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 frequently experience tinnitus symptoms since their blood cells do not carry enough oxygen throughout their body, which, once again, makes the heart work extra hard to get oxygen and other nutrients where they need to go.
Tinnitus also happens as a result of other conditions, like ear infections, canal blockages, and Meniere’s disease. Scenarios where tinnitus becomes more pronounced happen with all of these condition because they all impact the hearing. In other cases, there might not be an evident cause of tinnitus, which can make treatment challenging, but not impossible.
What Treatments Are Out There For Tinnitus?
Depending on the root cause of your tinnitus, there might be several possible treatment choices. One important thing to note, however, is that there is presently no known cure for tinnitus. Despite this fact, there’s still a good possibility that your tinnitus will improve or even vanish completely because of these treatments.
Studies have revealed that hearing aids help mask tinnitus in people who have hearing loss.
If covering up the noise isn’t helpful, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) has been proven to help people live with the buzzing in their ears that does not go away with other treatments. This mental health style of treatment can help people who are afflicted by tinnitus to function more normally on an everyday basis by helping them change their negative thinking into a more positive mindset.