If you’re one of the unfortunate adults who has discovered an incessant and annoying ringing in their ears, it may be good to know that tinnitus is not a disease. It’s usually just the result from some underlying cause such as medications or circulatory system disorder which can either contribute to your condition or worsen what might already exist.
The cause of tinnitus is a difficult puzzle with many possible solutions. For people who have hearing loss, the risk factors are numerous and may include genetics as well as environmental triggers such as cigarette smoke or loud noises like those from firearms. When we hear something that doesn’t make sense to our brain, it turns up the volume on what was there before so you can understand what’s happening in your environment more clearly – which could be why some patients develop this unpleasant side effect when they begin losing their hearing over time.
Tinnitus is something that’s often difficult to manage. However, knowing what causes it and how you can treat the symptoms makes finding relief a lot easier. If your tinnitus stems from hearing loss, there are multiple ways for you to help make managing it a little less stressful on yourself – medications may be able to stop or prevent the ringing in your ears. Prevention of the onset or progression can be done by using sound to mask tinnitus but also protecting your ears from loud noise, which may contribute to it.
While many medications and dietary supplements have been tried, success with most has been mixed. While recently Melatonin and Ginkgo biloba have shown to be a relief for tinnitus sufferers, further research needs to be done in order to determine how these help improve the condition of those suffering from it as well as why they are so successful in some people but not others before knowing who will benefit most from their use. Another interesting thing is that getting more sleep seems like one way we can make our tinnitus less bothersome since melatonin often taken by patients trying hard at improving their night’s rest may work this way even if you don’t suffer from insomnia or other sleeping disorders.
If you have tinnitus, the importance of an appropriate and timely evaluation cannot be understated. The physicians and audiologists at the Shea Clinic Ear Nose & Throat and Shea Hearing Aid Center have the experience, expertise and tools to help you understand and manage your tinnitus, and we welcome the chance to assist you.