Why tinnitus occurs

A referral to an otolaryngologist, or ear, nose, and throat specialist, may be necessary. Tests may include :. The most common cause of tinnitus is damage and loss of the tiny sensory hair cells in the cochlea of the inner ear. This tends to happen as people age, and it can also result from prolonged exposure to excessively loud noise. Hearing loss may coincide with tinnitus. Research suggests that the sensory loss of certain sound frequencies leads to changes in how the brain processes sound.

As the brain receives less external stimuli around a specific frequency, it begins to adapt and change. If a foreign body or earwax causes tinnitus, removing the object or wax often makes the tinnitus go away. Tinnitus that sounds like a heartbeat may be more serious. It could be due to an abnormal growth in the region of the ear, such as a tumor or an abnormal connection between a vein and artery.

One study found that out of teenagers, over half had experienced tinnitus in the previous year. However, the investigators found that those who were prone to tinnitus tended to keep their music volume down, suggesting they may already have a hidden susceptibility to hearing loss in the future. They propose monitoring for tinnitus and a low tolerance for loud noise from an early age, as these could be early signs of future hearing loss.

Tinnitus is a common problem in the general population, especially among those with certain risk factors. It can lead to vertigo, tinnitus, and progressive hearing loss.

Learn more…. The ears are complex and delicate organs. In this article, we explain how ears work, how they detect sounds, and how they help people keep their…. Acoustic neuroma is a benign tumor that affects the nerves between the inner ear and the brain. It can lead to hearing loss, tinnitus, and a loss of…. Earwax is a yellowish waxy material produced by the sebaceous gland in the ear canal. If too much collects and hardens, it can pose a problem.

People with a hearing impairment, hearing loss, or deafness will have either a partial or a total inability to hear sound. Some will rely on lip…. What you need to know about tinnitus. Medically reviewed by Daniel Murrell, M.

When you live with tinnitus—the medical term for ringing in the ears —the sound never stops, but it rarely remains consistent. For a lot of different reasons, your perception of the sound can fluctuate. Occasionally it changes for the better. But more often than not, the sound changes in a way that temporarily intensifies suffering. This is known as a tinnitus spike.

Most patients think of a tinnitus spike as an increase in volume or intensity, but it can be also be a change in tone, pitch, or sound that makes it harder to ignore. All of these different types of tinnitus spikes can last for minutes, hours, or even days or weeks.

Regardless of how a tinnitus spike occurs, they are some of the most difficult challenges a tinnitus patient must face on a regular basis. And for most sufferers, these kinds of fluctuations are simply unavoidable.

Spikes are an unavoidable part of the habituation process that everyone must endure as they work to find lasting relief. Once you understand the underlying psychology and nature of tinnitus spikes, you can learn to not just better cope in the moment, but to become more confident and resilient against the difficult moments yet to come on your journey.

When a tinnitus sufferer experiences a spike, it can often feel random, but it was likely caused by some combination of internal or external factors. For most tinnitus patients, stress, anxiety and sleep deprivation are the biggest factors.

The vicious cycle of tinnitus always starts with a fight or flight stress reaction in the nervous system, and so additional stress or anxiety will always make tinnitus worse, while sleep deprivation will exacerbate any health problem, tinnitus or otherwise.

But beyond the big three, every case of tinnitus is unique to such an extent that some specific triggering element for one person be it dietary, environmental, or otherwise , could be something that improves tinnitus for someone else. This will vary for everyone, but generally within a couple of days. If your tinnitus was triggered by loud noise, it's critical to rest your ears so you don't cause further damage to your hearing.

Keeping track of possible common triggers in a daily journal is always helpful. If you can identify triggers, you can eliminate these factors with lifestyle changes, and that can smooth out the up and down emotional rollercoaster ride.

But even if you take meticulous notes on all aspects of your diet, lifestyle, and environment, you still may not ever be able to find a pattern. The math equation for tinnitus spikes often just has too many variables to consider. And trying to figure it all out can just end up being another source of frustration and anxiety.

Luckily, identifying tinnitus triggers is not necessary for coping, or even for habituation to occur. If you never figure out what causes your tinnitus to spike, you can still find lasting relief from your tinnitus. When you are actively suffering from tinnitus, there is a lot more going on than just the perception of a sound that other people cannot hear.

Human beings are fully capable of tuning out and ignoring meaningless sounds and other sensory perceptions with a mental process known as habituation. It happens unconsciously, all the time. The problem is that we are unable to ignore any sounds that our brain or nervous system thinks might be the sound of something dangerous, problematic, or threatening. You would never want to be able to ignore the sound of anything actually dangerous. And over time, it can get worse as the emotional and psychological effects of tinnitus — the anxiety, negative thoughts, hopelessness, panic, frustration, and anger — continuously accumulate until our nervous system is hijacked into a constant state of over agitation and anxiety.

Fortunately, you can work to change your emotional, psychological, and physiological reaction to the sound of your tinnitus, and when you do, you can get to a point where you are no longer aware of your tinnitus most of the time, even if it never goes away — just like how you rarely ever feel your clothing against your skin. And even if you do everything perfectly as you work to habituate, spikes are an unavoidable and expected part of the process.

This happens because the emotional and behavioral patterns and programming of my childhood are carved deep into the neural pathways of my brain, and so who can push my buttons to activate these old patterns quite like the people who installed these buttons in the first place? Of course, once the argument ends, we all get along fine as if nothing ever happened. But this is very similar to what is happening on an emotional and psychological level during tinnitus spikes, and why it can be so difficult to cope: The negative emotional and psychological patterns associated with bothersome tinnitus like fear, anxiety, powerlessness, and hopelessness will almost always be triggered as well.

Trying to actively ignore a sensory perception is an act of giving it attention. If your tinnitus resembles a pumping, beating or pulsating sound, it could be caused by damage to your blood vessels. This is known as pulsatile tinnitus.

Some common underlying cardiac causes of tinnitus include high blood pressure, turbulent blood flow, heart disease , and malformations of the small arteries. Seek prompt medical care if you hear pulsing sounds. The most common drugs known to cause tinnitus are non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs like aspirin , diuretics, certain antibiotics and cancer drugs, and the malaria drug quinine.

But many others can cause tinnitus, too. If you experience tinnitus after starting any new medication, or changing a dosage, discuss it right away with your pharmacist or physician to determine if you should stop, reduce, or change the medications you are currently taking.

Did you know? One of the most common drugs known to cause tinnitus is aspirin, especially when taken in high doses. Aging, loud noise exposure, and certain habits are all strongly linked to tinnitus. However, you can still develop tinnitus even if you have none of these risk factors. Hearing loss due to aging is called presbycusis, and it often starts around the age of This gradual loss of hearing as the inner ear deteriorates can cause tinnitus as well.

The worse the hearing loss, the more likely you are to have tinnitus, too: "Those with a hearing impairment have a higher risk for tinnitus, and the associated increase in risk is dependent on the severity of hearing impairment," state the authors of a large survey of U. Being exposed to loud noise on a regular basis from heavy equipment, chain saws, or firearms are common causes of hearing loss and tinnitus.

This is a big problem among both active military members and veterans, who experience tinnitus more often than the general public. Noise-induced hearing loss and tinnitus also can be caused by listening to loud music through headphones or attending loud concerts frequently. It is possible to experience short-term tinnitus after seeing a concert, but long-term exposure will cause permanent damage.

Researchers are not entirely certain why, but drinking alcohol excessively, smoking cigarettes, eating certain foods and consuming caffeinated beverages can play a role in tinnitus. Frequently being fatigued or stressed can also be a factor. In short, if you're not taking good care of your overall health, you are more susceptible to tinnitus. If you are experiencing tinnitus symptoms such as ringing in your ears , visit our directory of hearing health care professionals to find a clinic that tests for tinnitus near you.

Please note that not all hearing clinics treat tinnitus, so you may need to browse several clinic pages to find the right provider. Joy Victory has extensive experience editing consumer health information. Her training in particular has focused on how to best communicate evidence-based medical guidelines and clinical trial results to the public.

She strives to make health content accurate, accessible and engaging to the public. Read more about Joy. More information about hearing loss , hearing aids , hearing aid brands and assistive devices. Side Menu. Assistive listening devices Amplified phones Captioned phones Hearing aid compatible phones TV hearing aid and listening devices FM systems Alerting devices.