Welcome To My Tinnitus Help Blog!

First, I must inform you that I am NOT a doctor and that anything you read here is NOT meant to be construed as medical advice. Just so ya know.

Who I am:
Back in the ‘90’s I used to give hearing tests to factory workers and others who worked in high-noise environments. It was the best job I ever held, as I connected with thousands of people across the country. It gratified me to know that I was able to help them with some very serious, quality-of-life issues with which they were dealing.

I found that folks working in high noise environments often first complained of ringing in their ears. The ringing, called tinnitus, was often a fore-runner to advanced hearing loss. I never thought twice about letting them know that the ringing was their body’s way of telling them that some serious damage was being done, and if they didn’t want to spend their Golden Years completely deaf, they needed to start doing something about it NOW. I laid it on the line with them.

I would return every year, and many of these folks would recognize and remember me, especially the ones who had been the most shocked to learn of their impending hearing problems. My job was to ensure these folks not only knew how to use hearing protection properly on the job, but were also, actually using it! I would find out on my subsequent visits, that many of them had, indeed started using protection. I was happy about that.

But then there were those youngsters who still felt they were invincible. I’ve always had a “motherly” quality to me and this worked in my favour with this job. One of my tasks was to counsel and train, and in the course of my work, I would mention the types of hearing protection their company offered. Then I would stop, dead in my tracks, look sharply at the group and ask, point blank, “You are USING your hearing protection, right?”

The ones who drop their heads or avoided my eye contact were the ones I knew I needed to work on. I would often engage folks whom I had counseled in years past to ask about their tinnitus problems and how things were going, and then I would turn to the “avoiders” and ask about their lives.

It never failed to become a rousing group discussion. I loved it!

Brain Activity and Tinnitus

I recently found an article about the difference in the brain activity of tinnitus sufferers. This is significant, because brain studies like this just may lead to a cure for tinnitus, which, up to now, has known to be incurable. I’m excited to share this information with you!

Tinnitus affects around 50 million people. It has been shown that it has a neurophysiological base. Studies like this one will continue to further the cause of finding the cure.

From the article:
“In discussing their findings, the authors suggest that their study supports previous work indicating that the prefrontal cortex is a candidate region for integration of the sensory and emotional aspects of tinnitus.” ~emphasis mine

Some studies done have suggested that parts of the brain involved in attention and emotional regulation might be involved in the production of tinnitus. Wow!

In a study that examined the power spectrum of neuromagnetic oscillatory activity during rest, it was discovered through analysis of the frequency spectrum of recorded magnetic fields that the energy in the alpha band was strongly reduced and that of the delta band enhanced in a group with tinnitus, as compared with a group of individuals with normal hearing.

The “money shot”:
This study: “supports the idea that changes in cortical activity might be mediated by sensory deprivation, in this case that partial hearing loss might be involved in producing tinnitus.”

If you’re not scientifically oriented, what this means is that the more they study the brain, and in particular, the pre-frontal cortex, the more likely they are to figure out the mechanics of tinnitus, and THAT may lead to the cure!

I can only hope and pray!

Here’s that article

Tinnitus And Scientific Study Of The Brain

Tinnitus, simply put, is a ringing or buzzing heard within one’s own head, whether or not there is any external noise present. This condition can easily become a quality-of-life issue for the affected individual, as it can disrupt normal living.

Most causes of tinnitus are well-known and documented; medicines, certain beverages, stressful living, high-noise exposure—these are all know to cause tinnitus. What is unknown at this time is how the neurophysiological mechanism of the human brain may be involved, but studies are being done that increasingly point to a pre-frontal cortex involvement.

Typically, tinnitus and hearing loss go hand-in-hand. Because of the extent of considerable overlap between hearing loss and tinnitus, it is being suggested that these two events may be inteconnected. In other words, the neuronal reaction to hearing damage may be a factor of tinnitus.

There is evidence to indicate which changes are responsible for the perception of this “auditory phantom phenomenon”. In other words, they don’t completely know, just yet, why you hear the ringing in your ears. They just know it’s there and what might be causing it.

Recent positron emission tomography studies have suggested that the brain areas involved in attentional and emotional regulation are huge factors in hearing loss and tinnitus.

A study done by Lockwood et al., investigated individuals with tinnitus who were able to enhance or reduce the perceived loudness of their tinnitus with oral–facial movements. Besides changes in auditory cortical activity contra-lateral to the affected ear, the authors of the study reported changes in hippocampal activity related to loudness changes.

The authors interpreted this as evidence for limbic system involvement.

This may sound like gobbledly-gook to you, but what it tells me is that “they,” the scientific community, are getting closer to finding a fix for the debilitating problem of ringing in the ears!

Acoustic Neuroma As The Cause Of Tinnitus

Charles Beatty, M.D., a Mayo Clinic specialist in head and neck disorders, says, “The good news is that (tinnitus) usually isn’t associated with a serious medical condition, and there are ways we can try to make the tinnitus less annoying and disruptive.” ~emphasis mine.

In the cases of other factors being the cause of tinnitus, this is absolutely true.

BUT… it does NOT mean that one should avoid seeing an ENT (Ear Nose and Throat) specialist to rule out the possibility of something called an acoustic neuroma.

Acoustic neuroma can be life-threatening. They are extremely rare, so the likelihood of your tinnitus being caused by this nerve-cell tumor are extremely remote. But, that chance (I don’t know what the percentages of occurrence are) is enough to at least make sure it’s not the reason you have ringing in your ears.

An acoustic neuroma is a benign (that means, NON-cancerous) growth on the eighth cranial nerve leading from the brain to the inner ear. It takes a long time for these tumors to grow—years, in fact. While growing larger, the tumor grows from the inner auditory canal into an area behind the temporal bone in the skull.

What’s important to realize, here, is that these tumors, as they get larger and press on other nerves, can threaten vital, life-sustaining functions in the body.

What meaning does this have for you?
For the most part, acoustic neuromas are diagnosed in patients of the age range 30 to 60. I am not trying to scare you. But, because of advances in MRI scanning both on incidental scans and for patients experiencing symptoms, there is an indication that occurrences of these tumors are on the rise.

Studies in Denmark published in 2004 show the incidence is 17.4 per million or close to 2 persons per 100,000. So, it is probably not likely that you have an acoustic neuroma, just because you have ringing in your ears.

But it IS worth checking out, in my opinion.

Tinnitus Resources

Tinnitus – ringing in your ears—buzzing noises in your head. What ever you call it, it’s not only annoying, it can completely disrupt your life! It can interrupt your sleep, make you cranky, because you are constantly asking people to repeat themselves, or turning the television up to levels that others in your household find annoying, or it can develop any number of other problems.

As a retired audiology technician, I saw many miserable people and tried my best to help them.

So, for the Internet, I’ve gathered some resources that I hope will help you out.

First, the official Wikipedia page on tinnitus:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinnitus

The American Tinnitus Association:
http://www.ata.org/
(Yes! Tinnitus is such a huge problem in people’s lives, there’s an actual non-profit organization dedicated to support and care!)

And there’s one in Canada, too!
http://www.kadis.com/ta/tinnitus.htm

And so do the Brits!
http://www.tinnitus.org.uk/

The Mayo Clinic on Tinnitus:
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/tinnitus/DS00365

I highly recommend this eBook (immed. digital download):
http://howtostoptinnitusnaturally.com

From the National Institute of Health:
http://www.nidcd.nih.gov/health/hearing/noiseinear.asp

This eBook (another immed. digital download) has a dirt-cheap 3 minute test that will instantly tell you which of the 3 root causes of tinnitus is your biggest contributing factor.
http://qualityarticles.com/TinnTest

Cure For Tinnitus membership site:
http://qualityarticles.com/Tinngrp
(I’ll be perfectly honest with you, I haven’t had a chance to review this one yet. But from the information page, it looks to be a very supportive group, with an 11-step method to control and/or eliminate tinnitus completely)