I was in a bar where live music was playing. The person I was with, who was showing discomfort, said: “The music is worsening my tinnitus.”
For those of us who don’t suffer from this uncomfortable condition, we don’t have a clue as to how it must feel to go through life with noise in our ears all the time. Never to benefit from total silence, even when we are in a place where there is no traffic, people or lifestyle noise, there is still a continuous noise for those who suffer from tinnitus.
The frontman from British band Coldplay, Chris Martin, revealed that he suffers from tinnitus. He joins a long list of celebrities with the same condition, including Pete Townsend (The Who), Phil Collins and Ozzy Osborne.
It is true these people have one job in common: they are all rock stars. However, tinnitus can affect anyone, from any walk of life. You don’t have to be a rock star to suffer from the ringing, buzzing, hissing, whooshing or whistling noises that accompany this condition.
A German study published online found that professional musicians have a 57 per cent increased risk of suffering from tinnitus when compared to the general population (Occup. Envrion. Med., 2014).
Ten per cent of the population in the UK are sufferers (that’s around six million people) and the total seems to be increasing globally.
The use of digital media players like MP3 players, iPlayers or mobile phones, seem to be held out as the culprits. Their usage has increased over the past 10 years and those using them are more likely to suffer tinnitus than those who have never used such devices. The louder the music and the longer you listen, the more you are at risk in the long term (J. Acoust. Soc. Am., 2010).
Mobile phones have been largely implicated. It is not the noise but the electromagnetic radiation emitted that is blamed for increased tinnitus. A group of researchers in Austria, who found a higher risk of tinnitus among long-term mobile phone users, have suggested that mobile phones could cause a calcium imbalance in the neural acoustic pathway, as well as having effects on nitric oxide levels, both of which could play a role in tinnitus (Occup. Environ. Med., 2010).
There are other, more established causes of tinnitus, ranging from ear infections and ear wax, build-up of blood vessel disorders and even prescription drugs. Many cases have no definable cause and medicine has little to offer for sufferers, with no surgical treatments. So, very often, sufferers are told to live with it.
I’ve looked for alternative treatments which have been researched and used.
• Sound therapy: one of the most commonly used treatments for tinnitus, its aims are to provide a sense of relief (soothing sound) and to distract the sufferer from tinnitus passively (background sounds) or actively (interesting ones). Bedside sound generators producing pleasant music or background noises have been shown to improve sleep in tinnitus sufferers. Acoustic stimuli delivered through hearing aids can also provide relief.
A recent Italian study found that tinnitus sufferers who have listened to Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos in D major for an hour every day for a month saw significant improvements in the intensity of their tinnitus, as well as their quality of life (Acta. Otolaryngol., 2012).
• Qigong: this is a traditional Chinese practice that combines slow, gentle movements with meditation and breath regulation. As tinnitus seems to be related to stress, relaxation techniques such as meditation may help.
In one randomised, controlled trial, this technique improved tinnitus. There were 80 patients who engaged in regular Qigong sessions and found it dramatically reduced its severity, with effects lasting at least three months after stopping the practice.
• Tinnitus retraining therapy: this is a combination of sound therapy and educational counselling which aims to train the brain to ignore the sounds of tinnitus.
You don’t have to be a rock star to suffer from the ringing, buzzing, hissing, whooshing or whistling noises that accompany tinnitus
One study reported that a 78 per cent improvement was found in patients treated with TRT, while another suggested that this therapy is more effective for tinnitus than sound-masking therapy alone.
• Supplements: several nutritional and herbal supplements seem to improve tinnitus. A qualified naturopath would help with advice for individuals, but here is a selection that has proved positive in studies:
• Ginkgo biloba: this is traditionally used to improve blood circulation. A standard extract of this herb was better than a placebo for improving tinnitus in eight separate trials.
• Zinc: evidence suggests that sufferers of tinnitus tend to be deficient in zinc. One study reported that zinc supplements in people who were only slightly zinc deficient improved tinnitus and hearing loss in about one third of the elderly participants.
• CoQ10: an antioxidant which improved symptoms in people with low blood levels of the nutrient in one study.
• Antioxidants: in general, these free-radical fighters are showing promise for noise-induced hearing loss and tinnitus. In a small trial, oral antioxidant therapy, including vitamins C and E, reduced the intensity of tinnitus and the discomfort experienced by sufferers.
Tips to help sufferers include looking for a cause, checking your medication, turning the volume down and wearing hearing protection.
kathryn@maltanet.net