Let’s set the scene: you’re in your bed at night trying to chill out after a long, exhausting 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 TV, radio, and phone are all off so you know it’s nothing in your room. Unfortunately, this sound is in your ears and it won’t stop.
If this situation has happened to you, then it’s likely that you’re one of the 50 million people who suffer from tinnitus. This problem makes you hear buzzing, whooshing, and ringing sounds, among others, in your ears. For the majority of people, tinnitus will not have a significant affect on their lives besides being a simple annoyance. But this is not the case with everyone who has tinnitus. For some, it can cause them to lose sleep, to disengage socially, and to have a hard time working.
What Causes Tinnitus?
Tinnitus remains somewhat of a mystery, but this problem has been narrowed down to a few causes. It appears commonly in individuals who have damaged hearing, and also people who have heart conditions. It’s believed that tinnitus happens due to limited blood flow around the ears, which makes the heart pump blood harder so that it can get where it needs to go. People who have iron-deficiency anemia often suffer from tinnitus symptoms since their blood cells do not carry enough oxygen throughout their body, which, once again, works the heart harder to get nutrients to the right place, often leading to tinnitus.
Tinnitus also occurs as a result of other conditions, such as ear infections, canal blockages, and Meniere’s disease. Situations where tinnitus becomes more pronounced occur with all of these condition because they all impact the hearing. In other cases, there might not be an easily discernible cause of tinnitus, which can make treatment challenging, but not impossible.
Is There Any Treatment For Tinnitus?
Depending on the underlying cause of your tinnitus, there may be several possible treatment options. One significant thing to note, however, is that there is currently no known cure for tinnitus. In spite of this fact, there’s still a good chance that your tinnitus will improve or even disappear altogether because of these treatments.
Studies have revealed that hearing aids help cover up tinnitus in people who have hearing loss.
If covering up the noise doesn’t help, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) has been proven to help people live with the ringing in their ears that does not go away with other treatments. This mental health type of treatment can help individuals who are afflicted by tinnitus to function more normally on an everyday basis by helping them transform their negative thinking into a more positive mindset.