What is Tinnitus?
Definition, Causes, Risks and Cures

If you have ever been to a House Concert which is so popular in theUnited States now, you must have wondered how the last traces of the orchestra ring in your ears even after the band has ceased playing – at least for five to ten more minutes. Well, that’s quite normal. Melodious composition lingers for sometime in our ears after the music has actually stopped. But if that ringing persists right through the day or the day after, day in and day out – you sure have got tinnitus. And there is nothing new or extra-ordinary about it. Millions of Americans suffer from tinnitus and they keep suffering, because it seems that the disease keeps coming back.

In short, the word Tinnitus that has been derived from the Latin word “tinnitus” signifying “ringing” represents the awareness of sound in a person’s ears, even though no such sound surrounds him/her. And it can be felt in one or both the ears and also in the head. Instead of the usual ringing tone, it can take the form of hissing, whooshing, roaring, ticking, clicking, humming or whistling tones. Tinnitus is the symptom of certain diseases that have been discussed here.

It may be pertinent to observe the various forms and types of tinnitus that often disrupts the life of the patient. For instance, there are subjective tinnitus and objective tinnitus – some of them are unilateral (heard in one ear) or bilateral (heard in both the ears). People affected with Pulsatile tinnitus can actually hear their own heartbeats, while Somatic tinnitus is caused by problems that are outside the ear or nerves but are located within the head or the neck region. This is believed to be caused by central crosstalk within the brain! Chronic sinusitis tinnitus can prove utterly distressing since this is caused by thickened mucous that gets trapped within the middle ear and are difficult to drain out.

Here are some of the principal causes of tinnitus that create enormous problems for the patient :

• Atherosclerotic Carotid Artery Disease that characterizes the narrowing of the arteries due to too much cholesterol buildup, resulting in erratic blood flow to the head and neck region. This gives rise to distressing heartbeat sounds that are heard in the ears of the tinnitus patient. It occurs mostly with elderly people who have a history of diabetes, angina pectoris, hypertension and highly irregular blood pressure.

• Benign Intracranial hypertension can cause tinnitus (Pulsatile) too which is characterized by increased pressure of the cerebrospinal fluid that surrounds the brain. Young overweight females mostly suffer from this kind of tinnitus.

• Damaged nerve, especially the nerve between the ear and the brain but rarely from injury to the brainstem can cause tinnitus as well. Tumors of the 8th nerve occasionally cause tinnitus also.

• Glomus tumor usually consisting of a bunch of entangled blood vessels and tissues found in the ear or immediately surrounding it often causes tinnitus. While surgery may help for younger people, nothing much is done for the seniors as these tumors take years to grow.

• Intracranial vascular lesions sometimes cause tinnitus on account of aneurism and arteriovenous malformation which is often characterized by irregular or abnormal liaison between the artery and the vein. What happens here is that the arterial blood goes straight to the vein, bypassing the capillaries. This results not only in tinnitus, but might also lead to minor bleeding in the brain causing fatal consequences.

• Middle ear effusion often causes pulsatile tinnitus in middle aged people. Collection of excessive fluid in the middle ear (which normally contain air) due to inflammation in the Eustachian tubes (thus blocking the drainage of the fluid) or infection gives rise to unusual noise in the ear.

• Meniere’s disease which is one of the commonest causes of tinnitus is related to a host of inner ear disorders, probably triggered by atypical inner ear fluid pressure.

• Stress and depression are on the priority list of tinnitus, particularly when usual hearing tests indicate no abnormality.

• Acoustic neuroma that consists of a benign tumor is often found responsible for causing this disorder. It usually occurs on the cranial nerve that runs from the brain to the inner ear and interferes with controlling of balance, giving rise to vertigo and allied complications. Also known as Vestibular Schwannoma, it affects only one ear in most cases.

• Incessant exposure to loud noise is considered to be one of the principal causes of tinnitus. Persons consistently exposed to deafening noise in steel mills or working in rifle shooting ranges often fall victim to tinnitus more easily than others.

Having taken a look at what tinnitus is , and what are its causes, now let us spend some time to find out a solution to this distressing condition. Did you know that tinnitus can be best treated through holistic remedies? Conventional remedies just treat the symptoms without really trying to find out the root causes and the triggers, and this is why the symptoms keep coming back even after they are gone – because the effect of drugs cannot be everlasting. Holistic remedies on the other hand treat the body as a whole and identify these root causes first, before prescribing any remedy. That is why, once the prescription is implemented, the disease goes away for good, never coming back to haunt you again.