Tips for Reducing Tinnitus

These are by no means cures to tinnitus, but may reduce the symptoms as it is important to realise the Tinnitus is the result of some other underlying problem that you have.

Tip Number One #    Stay away form Loud Noise.

Quite simply, loud noise aggravates the problem and can even lead to severe hearing loss. There is a big temptation when you have tinnitus to turn up music, the TV, etc, to a higher volume to ‘drown’ out the buzzing background to make the listening more pleasurable. Wrong way to go. Instead, seek a quieter environment which you can implement by taking control.

Some suggestions include:

1.      Turn down the volume so that you are listening to a softer volume of music or sports commentary. This goes against the grain with followers of heavy metal and rock music but you have got to work out how much you value your hearing.

2.      If you do go to a music concert where the volumes are high, then put in some ear plugs. These are practically invisible and will prevent the excesses of volume.

3.      Wear protective headgear (ear muffs) when using any machinery, especially saws, grinders, planers, electrically driven power tools. It is so easy just to think that one little job taking only a minute or so will have no effect. Put those ear protectors on for everything and don’t forget when mowing the lawns.

4.      If you do have problems in getting to sleep at night, then having a low noise in the background may actually help. Some people have found a small fan left running at night (maybe on a timer cut-off), or an mp3 (or similar) playing very quiet music can help the mind to focus on that rather than the tinnitus and then onto sleep.

   Ear wax is the cause of a small percentage of Tinnitus in the population. As it builds up, it starts to put pressure on the eardrum. Too much pressure can damage the inner ear and generate everlasting tinnitus. Sometimes it can be just a plane trip or even a car trip up into the mountains when the ears have trouble ‘equalising’ that is enough to trigger the tinnitus into action.

It is very important to clean your ears regularly and we don’t mean with cotton bud sticks and the like. Some people’s ears fill up with wax on a regular basis while other luckier folks don’t have such a problem. Obviously, the best place to go is to an Ear Cleaning Specialist or your local GP (Doctor) but if this is not an option, you can attempt the cleaning yourself.

Put a little warm water (blood temperature only) in an ear (use a syringe or dropper) and tilt your head. This will help to break up the wax and with luck it may fall out under its own steam. The syringe can be used more forcefully by directing a stream of warm water from the ear entrance so that it flows down to the wax plug resting against your ear drum. After several squirts, the wax should wash free of the ear drum and flush out of your ear.

Tip Number Three #  Reduce the stress in your life.

As everybody knows or should know, stress can be a killer but more importantly, it can manifest itself in many other body complaints with Tinnitus being one of them. Without going into what causes stress, suffice to say that many of us good folks are victims to varying degrees of stress in this modern day and age.

Once you recognise that you are under stress, and the hardest person to convince is the person who is stressed I might add; then you can put in steps to reduce that stress. Mental relaxation techniques such as yoga and meditation along with physical exercise all have their part to play in reducing stress levels. Also eliminating from your life or distancing yourself from sources of stress is important. Obviously removing all stress from your life is nearly impossible but at least having techniques to master and control it will prevent it taking control and exhibiting itself in complaints such as tinnitus.

To help reduce stress, use some of these guidelines:

1.      Put unimportant things out of your mind; “don’t sweat the small stuff”.

2.      Take a compulsory rest period in every day; program it in so that you know this is the relaxation time. This is not when you go to sleep at night.

3.      When you feel stressed, stop, breath in deeply, hold, count slowly to ten letting out breath slowly and repeat several times. Take time to regroup.

4.      Take a long walk, read a chapter from a book, take a long relaxing bath or spa and then utter these words, “arrrrrrr…… this is the life”

Tip Number Four #  Reduce High Blood Pressure.

This tip is closely related to information in the previous tip regarding stress. Increased blood pressure with a corresponding increase in heart rate will lead to an increase in the intensity of tinnitus noises. You maybe one of the 3% of tinnitus sufferers who have pulsatile tinnitus where you hear a rhythm that matches your heartbeat or pulse rate. These rhythmic sounds are produced by an increase or decrease in the pressure of  blood flowing in blood vessels in the head region as well as small blood vessels in the ears.

This change in pressure can be due to hypertension (high blood pressure), twisted arteries changing blood blow, malformed capillaries between your arteries and veins, anemia, turbulent blood flow due to hardening of arteries, over active thyroid gland, etc. Obviously, if you can reduce blood pressure and improve your blood flow, then you are getting rid of the root cause of pulsating tinnitus.

Here are some natural ways of improving blood flow:

1.      Take Ginkgo biloba extract. This herb contains ‘terpenoids’ which improve blood flow by dilating blood vessels and making the blood platelets less sticky.

2.      Reduce high blood pressure by a low fat, low cholesterol and salt free diet. Do regular exercise as well as other relaxation activities.

3.      Treat your anemia by increasing the iron in your diet by eating foods high in iron such as green leaf vegetables, bran flakes, brown rice, lentils, wholegrain bread, liver, red meat, prunes, resins, etc.

If you are in the habit of using the above, then you really need to seriously decide to end your bad habits. Any stimulant used by you can act as a triggering agent for tinnitus and other complaints. Alcohol consumption and intake of caffeine rich beverages including cocoa based products need to be stopped as they cause continuous excitement of the nerves in the ear. Stop smoking; difficult I know but benefits far out weigh any perceived advantage.

Many people take asprin, or medications containing asprin as the main ingredient, for rheumatoid arthritis, cardiac ailments and many other diseases. Asprin if used over a long period of time is known to induce tinnitus and so you need to look for medications in which asprin is not present.

Start using alternative natural herbal medicines such as carbo vegetalis, cimicifuga, calcarea carbonica, cinchona officinalis, coffea cruda, lycopodium, graphitus, hawthorn, ginkgo biloba and feverfew to help reduce tinnitus symptoms. Finally, you need to take vitamins and minerals as supplements especially if you smoke as this habit creates nutrient deficiencies.

 I hope this short series of ‘tinnitus tips’ have been of use and have given you more hope that a cure or reduction in the symptoms is possible.