Ever start to drift off to sleep only to be confronted with a mysterious ringing in your ears that seems to be coming from nowhere? This is tinnitus, a condition which effects 50 million people in the US, according to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. While some cases recede after some time, it’s estimated that 20 million report burdensome tinnitus which is hard to ignore for hours on end while 2 million reports symptoms severe enough to consider debilitating. It may come in a wide array of sounds from whooshing, to roars, buzzing to humming – some even report phantom music. What classifies tinnitus is that the sound is not coming form an external source- simply the source is from your own head. While there is still much debate around the actual cause of tinnitus, some studies show that one of the greatest contributing factors is hearing loss.
Understanding the Link Between Hearing Loss & Tinnitus
It’s believed that there are at least 200 contributing factors which can instigate tinnitus, such as impact to the head, stress, exposure to loud sounds, and certain medications, however hearing loss may be one of the most common contributing causes. The connection between the two conditions has long been documented as they often appear together. In fact, the Hearing Health Foundation reports that 90% of all cases of tinnitus occur with an underlying condition of hearing loss. Hearing loss is the third most common chronic condition that people live with today affecting a reported 48 million people and possibly more. What starts as issues with communicating on a daily basis and awareness of sounds in an individual’s immediate environment can cascade into a wide array of health effects including rifts in relationships, unemployment or loss of earnings at work, chronic depression, social isolation, cognitive decline and an increased risk of falls leading to hospitalization.
Overlapping Causes
Hearing loss can be caused by several factors including exposure to loud noise, changes in the ear as we age, and existing medical conditions like diabetes and hypertension which affect the blood supply, certain medications, impact to the head, chronic ear infections and even consistent exposure to environmental pollutants. All these conditions affect the tiny hair like cells of the inner ear, called stereocilia. These cells, housed in the cochlea of the inner ear transform audio waves into electrical impulses which are sent to the brain to be processed, via the auditory nerve. However, when these cells become damaged or destroyed it interrupts the delivery to certain parts of our hearing. This is considered sensorineural hearing loss—a permanent condition which makes up 70 to 80 percent of cases of hearing loss. The connection between hearing loss and tinnitus may lie in damage to the stereocilia. It’s believed that when the stereocilia are damaged they can emit an unintentional signal to the brain which we interpret as the phantom sounds of tinnitus.
Study on the Impact of Hearing Loss on Tinnitus
A 2021 study conducted in Amman, Jordan, published in in the International Journal of Audiology in 2021, evaluated tinnitus among two groups: people with hearing loss and people without the condition. The cohort consisted of 73 participants—34 with normal hearing and 39 people with hearing loss. Along with comprehensive hearing exams the participants were interviewed and examined for tinnitus as well and found that tinnitus was severe for 3 people among the non-hearing loss group, in comparison to 16 among the group with hearing loss. Though this study was small it is a first step leading researchers to conclude that tinnitus severity is significantly worse among people with hearing loss verses those with normal hearing.
Tips to Effectively Manage Tinnitus
While there is no cure for tinnitus there are treatment methods which can help reduce it’s severity as well as it’s frequency. Many of these have to do with lifestyle changes such as stress reduction, meditation, exercising, quitting smoking, reduce alcohol consumption, and getting plenty of sleep. If you do have tinnitus, it is also very likely that some degree of hearing loss is present. It could be worsening tinnitus symptoms by causing stress and anxiety in your daily life. Schedule a hearing exam with us today. We can diagnose your hearing issues and offer several effective strategies to help your tinnitus slip away into nothing.