How do I cure tinnitus?
Friday, October 30th, 2009 at
12:42 pm
I have an infernal ringing in my ears. How do I get it to stop? I have already stopped use of headphones, both in-ear and over-ear. I have turned down all the sources of noise that I can, but it still goes on.
Filed under: Tinnitus Treatment
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Treatment may be quite different in each case of tinnitus. In most cases there is no cure, and treatment is designed to help people manage tinnitus on a day-to-day basis.
Some people find that taking certain medicines can trigger tinnitus. If this is the case, your GP may advise changing medication to stop the tinnitus. Sometimes tinnitus disappears of its own accord, or may only occur in response to an obvious cause such as anxiety or stress.
There is no specific medicine to treat tinnitus, but research continues.
Tinnitus is strongly linked to stress, and sometimes people are prescribed sedatives, tranquillisers, or antidepressants to help lessen the effect that the tinnitus has on their lives. Normally these are more effective if prescribed together with on-going counselling.
Other medicines, such as local anaesthetics, those that interfere with nerve conduction, and anticonvulsants (drugs used to prevent seizures and convulsions), such as carbamazepine, have been tried to treat the symptoms of tinnitus. However, trials have been disappointing. Four randomized clinical trials of carbamazepine and trials of other anticonvulsants have failed to show any benefit.
There are a number of other things that may prove effective in controlling tinnitus:
listening to calming music on personal headphones, especially at bedtime,
white noise generators (tinnitus maskers) may make it less easy to hear the tinnitus,
use of a hearing aid if you have slight hearing loss. Being able to hear sounds you cannot normally hear may help to override the tinnitus noise,
deliberate effort to concentrate on something else and to ignore the tinnitus; and
cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) by a hearing therapist to help people change their response and lower their awareness of tinnitus.
Depression is not uncommon with severe tinnitus, and requires specific treatment such as antidepressant drugs or talking therapies such as counselling or cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT).
Check out Webmd.com
It depends on how you actually got tinnitus. It may be caused by many things including: an ear infection, build up of wax (especially if you "clean your ears regularly since that pushes more wax towards your inner ear), and as it seems you are hinting at; inner injury from loud noises.
In this case, the nerve that perceives noise may be damaged. In some cases, the ringing you hear will eventually go away, as irritating as it is. In other cases, it may be permanent.
Some other things you could try to get rid of this is controlling your blood pressure, decreasing your salt intake, avoid stimulants like coffee and soda, exercise, and biofeedback (learning how to control involuntary body functions). All of these may help cure tinnitus because they all relate to the nervous system that is responsible for perceiving sound.