When the house silence in the dead of night, or after the kids go to school in the morning, I can hear a high-pitched, sometimes pulsating sound. If I focus on it, the noise gets louder and might even keep me awake. At first, I suspected a device in the house was the culprit—perhaps a faulty power adapter. But after no one else could hear it and then consulted my doctor, I realized my tinnitus was tinnitus.
Julie Prutsman, a respected audiologist and founder Acoustic Hearing Loss Center. “A lot of people perceive it to be moderate. They will say “my ears are ringing”. But when you try to measure it in one’s ear, there is no signal at all.”
Tinnitus (correctly pronounced ti-nuh-tuhs or ti-night-us, although Prutsman prefers this) is a very common condition. The National Institute of Deaf and Other Communication Disorders It is estimated that 10 percent of the U.S. adult population has experienced tinnitus that lasts at least 5 minutes by 2020. Most tinnitus cases occur with underlying hearing loss, and the majority of those with tinnitus. suffers from tinnitus, buzzing, or hissing, but it can even sound like music or singing.
What causes tinnitus?
Noise exposure is the number one cause of tinnitus, so it’s no surprise that military service member and musician often suffer. The World Health Organization (WHO) warns that nearly half of people aged 12 to 35 are at risk of hearing loss due to excessive and prolonged exposure to loud sounds from personal audio devices and other sources.
“Exposure to loud noises leads to changes to the inner ear, auditory nerves or synapses in the brain,” says Prutsman. “But there are other things that can also cause tinnitus, including wax buildup in the ears, head trauma, genetic factors, and other changes in health.”
Researchers used to think that tinnitus was a sound emitted by hair cells in the inner ear, but that has been proven to be incorrect. They also suspected the auditory nerve but found that when you sever or cut the nerve, the tinnitus becomes louder, not softer.
My tinnitus is noticeably worse when I feel stressed or tired, and Prutsman says these are common causes. Anxiety and depression are also linked to this condition, and it can even be a side effect of certain medications, including antibiotics, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), and chemotherapy drugs.
Coping with tinnitus
For most people, tinnitus is short-lived and does not require treatment. If the condition is persistent and persistent, lasting more than a few days, you should seek advice and help from a medical professional. It is often said that there is no cure for tinnitus, but more precisely there is no cure that works for everyone. From research There are many effective ways to manage your symptoms and reduce the impact on your life.
“Avoid silence and stay in a sound-rich environment,” says Prutsman. “Many people think masking would be the right approach to mask tinnitus with louder sounds, but my experience is that you just keep making that level of mask louder and louder. Low-level sounds are more mellow and soothing, and can mix with tinnitus to distract the brain.”
