In honor of this special week I wanted to discuss the importance of tinnitus and its affects on your health. In particular, tinnitus could be a warning sign for us. It frequently is a symptom of neck injury, hearing loss, or too much stress in our lives. These noises of various types that we hear in our ear, which can be disruptive , and very distracting, can also be very stressful. Actually, when taken into consideration, most tinnitus would not be even present or observable to someone without the presence of stress. So actually stress could be looked at as one of the triggers of tinnitus. Other so-called triggers are sinus or ear pressure problems, noise exposure , or neck pain.
Tinnitus is a potential sign that we have too much stress in our lives and it really needs to be dealt with. So, if stress is causing tinnitus to become more prevalent, what is the best way to treat this? It has been shown that meditation, or mindfulness, has an 85% chance of decreasing the perception of tinnitus. When the brain has the perception of this noise and the person experiencing this noise is stressed, the noise is perceived as much louder because of the involvement of the emotional center of the brain. It can be so stressful at times that the brain can turn to the fight or flight mechanism, which is somewhat of a panic reaction. That is why meditation can become very valuable as an alternative or addition to masking or hearing aid use. It’s all about helping the brain relax, and stop concentrating on this obnoxious noise.
Masking may be the first treatment choice and it has been shown to be very effective. This is just using background sound to try to let the brain concentrate on something else. Ultimately, if there is a hearing loss, hearing aids might be the most effective tool, but don’t forget the effect of stress. Come talk to us at the South Lake Hearing and Tinnitus Center about how we can help you treat tinnitus from any source.