Tinnitus Explained
Tinnitus is a condition wherein the patient hears ringing, swishing or other kinds of noise that seems to be produced inside the ear or within the head. In many cases, tinnitus is not a serious problem which does not usually cause life threatening situations but it is rather a nuisance that can cause irritation and discomfort to the patient. Most of the time the disorder is only a result of a medication or perhaps stress and eventually goes away. However, there is literature that supports the fact that some patients experience tinnitus for long periods of time and can even cause sleep disturbance.
Doctors often describe tinnitus to be a symptom rather than a real singular disease. Almost 36 million Americans are suffering or have suffered from this disorder in their lifetime and in most cases, the type of tinnitus that they have is subjective wherein only the patient can hear the noise.
So what causes this irritating disorder? First of all, this disorder can start in any of the four parts of the ear, the outer ear, the inner ear, the middle ear, and yes, the brain. Some occurrences of this disorder are pretty normal and should not be cause for distress. For example, people who go into a booth that is sound proof, where the outside or ambient noise is decreased, can hear a whining or metallic sound because the ear is straining to make out the loss of ambient noise. However, tinnitus can also be caused by fluid or infection inside the ear or some disease of the middle ear bone structures. Damage to the ear drum can definitely cause this disorder if not total hearing loss.
One of the most common reasons as to why this disorder occurs is damage to the stereocilia, which is the lining of the inner ear. Of course hearing disorders are generally apparent to people as they are growing older, so age is the usual reason for elderly people who suffer from this disorder. But in younger people who are supposed to have good health, when this disorder occurs to them, it is usually due to exposure to loud noise. People in noisy occupations like firearms and music are very vulnerable to experiencing this disorder.
There is also evidence that some medications like aspirin and erythromycin, which are common medications found in almost home, can cause this disorder. Disease of the inner ear like Meniere’s syndrome and otitis media can also cause this disorder to occur. In general, any change in the health or in the matrix of the inner ear can cause the person to hear ringing as the body’s response to the change.
However, this disorder can also be a signal to bigger complications. This disorder can sometimes be a symptom to serious and even deadly cardiovascular problems like aneurysm. It can also be indicative of a brain tumor. Because of the many reasons and causes for this disorder, people who are experiencing a ringing noise in their ears should have them checked before it will become even worse.