What Happens When You Get Ringing In Your Ears?

Tinnitus is what makes your ears ring after a loud noise. And it's really annoying.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:02):
Welcome to brain stuff from how stuff works. Hey, brain stuff,
it's Christian Sager here. Imagine the following sounds ringing, hissing, static, crickets,
screeching sirens, whooshing, roaring, pulsing, ocean waves, buzzing, clicking, or

(00:27):
a dial tone. What if you heard one of these
sounds all the time. Fifty million people in the United
States experience this kind of ringing ear to some degree,
and of these, sixteen million half to seek medical attention.
Two million are so seriously debilitated they can't function on

(00:49):
a normal basis. So why do our ears ring? What
is causing it? And is there any way to prevent
it or remedy it. Well, let's start with the cause.
Usually it's loud noises that are the leading cause. At concerts,
for instance, or sporting events or jobs with extreme noise
like firefighting. Anything louder than a shouting match can damage

(01:12):
the hair cells in our inner ears, basically anything over
nine decibels. When sound hits these cells, they convert the
vibrations into electrical currents that auditory nerves then carry to
our brain. These hair cells reside in the inner ear
inside the cochlea, which is the size of a p

(01:33):
bundles of hair like extensions called stereocilia, those rest on
top of them. Vibrations deflect off the stereocilia, causing them
to move according to force and pitch. How they move
then triggers the electrochemical current that sends information through the
nerves and to our brain. But there are other causes

(01:56):
for ringing ear, and it's basically practically everything, but I'll
give you the list here. Infection, allergies, higher low blood pressure, diabetes,
thyroid problems, TMJ, lime disease, Minnaire's disease, fibromyalgia, perforated ear, drums,
circulation problems, and even menopause. All of those things can

(02:19):
cause ringing ear, and some medication can cause it to
particularly aspirin and common antibiotics. Some of these medications are
auto toxic, meaning that they're harmful to the ear. Another
cause could be nerve damage. Sometimes there's tumors of the
hearing or balance nerve that can cause this. There's also
neurological disorders or head trauma that caused five to ten

(02:43):
of tonitis, for example, a skull fracture or a closed
head injury, maybe whiplash or multiple sclerosis. All of these
can count as head trauma that could lead to ringing ear.
And then finally we've got good old ear wax or
really any blockage in your hearing pathways or degeneration of
those hair cells I mentioned earlier from aging. So then

(03:07):
what is tonitis? We hear this term thrown around a
lot with ringing ear. Tonitas is the medical term for
the perception of sound in one or both ears or
in the head when no external sound is present. It
is often referred to as ringing in the ears, although
some people hear hissing, roaring, whistling, chirping, or clicking. In particular,

(03:31):
I hear the dial tone sound for instance. Tonitas can
be intermittent or constant, with single or multiple tones, and
it's perceived volume can range from subtle to shattering. But
if hair cells are repeatedly damaged, they can become permanently
turned on, making your brain believe that it's receiving sound

(03:54):
vibrations and your brain perceives sound then when no external
sound exists. This affects of US soldiers returning from a
rack in Afghanistan, but its origin is still unknown. So
there's one theory that damaged hair selves move randomly, sending

(04:15):
your brain electrochemical messages when there aren't any actual sounds.
Since you can regrow the tips of stereocilia, the ringing
is often temporary, but this could occur along our auditory
pathways or be a breakdown in our brains noise filtering system.
This muffles the sound of our own neurons firing, So

(04:37):
maybe tonightus is the sound of our own nervous system working.
So you're probably wondering, well, how do I prevent this
from happening to me? Well, when you're exposed to sound
levels of over eighty five decibels, you should probably wear
ear plugs or any other kind of hearing protection, and
you should avoid the following things that are just going
to make it worse. Stress, lack of sleeve, caffeine and aspirin. Yep.

(05:03):
And what are the remedies. There's a bunch that people list.
Ginko apparently decreases inflammation. A hundred and twenty milligrams a
day in divided doss will help. You could also take
b complex vitamins magnesium, calcium or zinc, or you know,
you could just take a multi vitamin. There's also cranial
sacral therapy and acupuncture that's known to help. Surgery is

(05:26):
sometimes a possibility, especially if there's a tumor involved, and
hearing aids may actually mask tenitis. Some people use masking
devices to block the sound, and there's a company called
Neuromonics that claims to have a treatment with a device
that eases symptoms and trains your brain to block the noise.
The only problem is it's only five thousand dollars. There's

(05:49):
also tenitis retraining therapy, which uses low level broadband noises
along with counseling to get you used to the unwanted
sound and find Antidepressants and anti anxiety medication can sometimes help.
Also biofeedback and hypnosis, or when in doubt, turn to

(06:10):
good old exercise. It can improve the circulation to help
your tonitus. Check out the brain stuff channel on YouTube,
and for more on this and thousands of other topics,
visit how stuff works dot com.