Picture displays inner ear hair cells.
Tinnitus
Have you ever heard of Tinnitus? Tinnitus is defined as a ringing, whistling, chirping, hissing, humming, roaring, and constant buzzing or even shrieking in the ears. High-pitched sounds indicate hearing loss is in the high-frequency range and low-pitched sounds indicate the opposite. You are often the only one who can hear these differently pitched noises. This experience is most often brought on by damaged hair cells from loud noises or ototoxic drugs. When damaged, hair cells are prevented from sending signals to the brain, which triggers abnormal neuron activity and results in the illusion of sound, or tinnitus.
Tinnitus can be short lived or it can be long lasting (more than 6
months). In the United States alone, an estimated 50-60million people suffer
from this condition. It is highly prevalent among people over the age of 55 and
is strongly correlated with hearing loss. However, after individuals experience
this hearing loss, it rarely leads to deafness.
Pulsatile tinnitus is the
medical phenomenon in which the heartbeat can be ‘heard’ by individuals. This
is usually noticed in the evening, as more blood reaches your head when you lay
down. In this case you may be able to hear turbulent blood flowing through the
arteries. If you experience new pulsatile tinnitus, you should talk with your
healthcare provider to rule out any underlying, but rare causes like tumors or
blood vessel damage.
What you can do to prevent tinnitus:
- Improve your diet, physical activity, sleep, and stress level.
- Get treated for depression, anxiety, insomnia, and pain with medications and/or psychotherapy.
- Reduce your exposure to loud noises at work and home.
- Use earplugs or earmuff-like devices to protect your hair cells.
- Avoid loud music; if you are 3 feet away from someone and can’t hear what they say, that means you are damaging your hair cells.
- This includes when you are wearing headphones. You should still be able to hear others speaking around you.
Fun Fact: When noise level increases from 90db to 100db the volume
seems twice as loud!
Remember, once hair cells are damaged they’re gone. They cannot be
repaired, so treat your ears like the precious organs they are!
Watch this video to learn more about sound:
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