Let’s set the scene: You’re lying in bed trying to sleep after a long stressful day. You feel yourself starting to drift off to sleep. Then you start to hear it: a buzzing sound inside your ears. You know it’s nothing in your room because the radio, TV, and phone have all been turned off. No, this noise is coming from inside your ears and you’re not sure how to make it stop.
If this situation sounds familiar, then it’s likely that you’re one of the 50 million people who have tinnitus. This condition causes you to hear ringing, buzzing, and whooshing sounds, among others, inside your ears. For the majority of people, tinnitus will not have a significant affect on their lives beyond being a simple irritation. For other individuals, unfortunately, tinnitus can be unbearable and cause them to lose sleep and have a hard time engaging in work and social activities.
What’s The Underlying Cause of Tinnitus?
Tinnitus remains somewhat of a mystery, but this condition has been narrowed down to a few causes. It appears mostly in individuals who have damaged hearing, and also people who suffer from heart conditions. It’s believed that tinnitus comes about due to restricted blood flow around the ears, which causes the heart to pump blood harder in order for it to get where it needs to go. People who have iron-deficiency anemia frequently experience tinnitus symptoms because their blood cells don’t carry enough oxygen throughout their body, which, once 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. All of these conditions affect the hearing and lead to scenarios where tinnitus becomes more prevalent. In some cases treatment can be challenging when the cause of tinnitus is not evident, but that doesn’t mean treatment is impossible.
Is There Any Remedy For Tinnitus?
Depending on the underlying cause of your tinnitus, there may be several possible treatment choices. 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 possibility that your tinnitus will improve or even vanish completely because of these treatments.
Research has revealed that hearing aids help mask tinnitus in people who have hearing loss.
If masking the noise isn’t helpful, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) has been proven to help people deal with the buzzing in their ears that does not go away with other treatments. This mental health style of treatment can help individuals who suffer from tinnitus to function more normally on an everyday basis by helping them transform their negative thinking into a more positive mindset.