Let’s set the scene: you’re lying in bed at night trying to unwind after a long, exhausting day. Your eyelids are starting to get heavy and you recognize that your about to fall asleep. Then as you lie there in the quiet of the night, you begin to notice the sound of buzzing in your ears. You know it’s nothing in your room because the TV, radio, and phone have all been turned off. No, this sound is coming from inside your ears and you’re not sure how to make it stop.
If this situation has happened to you, then odds are that you’re one of the 50 million people who suffer from tinnitus. Ringing, Buzzing, and a range of other sounds will be heard inside of your ears when you have this condition. For the majority of people, tinnitus will not have a substantial impact on their lives besides being a simple irritation. For other individuals, however, tinnitus can be debilitating and cause them to lose sleep and have difficulty performing work and recreational activities.
What’s The Primary Cause of Tinnitus?
Tinnitus remains somewhat of a mystery, but specialists have focused in on a few causes for this problem. It shows up mostly in people who have damaged hearing, and also people who have heart problems. Restricted blood flow around the ears is commonly believed to be the underlying cause of tinnitus. This causes the heart to have to work harder to pump blood to where it’s needed. People who have iron-deficiency anemia often suffer from 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 ear infections, canal blockages, and Meniere’s disease. All of these ailments impact the hearing and result in scenarios where tinnitus becomes more prevalent. In other cases, there might not be an evident cause of tinnitus, which can make treatment difficult, but not impossible.
What Treatments Are Available For Tinnitus?
There are a few treatments out there to help stop the buzzing in your ears, all dependent on the root cause of your tinnitus. One relevant thing to note, however, is that there is currently no known cure for tinnitus. But these treatments will still offer a good chance for your tinnitus to improve or disappear completely.
Studies have shown that hearing aids help cover up tinnitus in individuals who have 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 does not disappear with other treatments. This kind of mental health treatment helps people change their negative feelings about tinnitus into more positive, practical thoughts that will help them function normally on an every day basis.