Causes of Ringing Ears - Try This Checklist to Find Out

“Ringing ears” is the usual popular name for a disorder medically known as tinnitus. In the strictest sense, a type of tinnitus called tonal tinnitus is the one characterized by ringing sensation as if a high note keeps playing in ones ear. This is not usually serious, but the discomfort it causes to the person afflicted with it is enough to call for visits to specialists. The causes of ringing ears however are several factors linked mostly to bad habits and unhealthy lifestyle and some natural causes.

Try the following checklist and find out if you’re likely to have tinnitus.

• I am regularly in contact with noise. (places like factories, construction areas, engine rooms, rock concerts, etc)

Noise, especially the loud ones, is the primary cause of tinnitus and hearing problems. Loud noise exposure is the major cause of hearing loss and tinnitus. Cochlear damage due to loud noises accounts for most tinnitus cases. The cochlea is where the hair cells responsible for conducting impulses to the acoustic nerve are located. Damage to these tiny structures causes them to release abnormal signals which the brain reads as noise. This ringing or buzzing noise is what tinnitus sufferers hear. 

• I am fond of turning your component system, stereos, speakers, mp3 players, and television sets at high volumes.

The blast in loud speakers can be enough to injure your ears and worse, you don’t notice it, but if you notice a ringing sensation after a rock concert, that’s the first sign of serious damage and some hearing loss. Young people love to turn their fashionable mp3 players at maximum volumes. Take note that the susceptibility to hearing loss and tinnitus increases the more you expose yourself to loud sound and the louder the sound gets. Hence, it is necessary to note that loud music is one of the causes of ringing ears.

• I am constantly fatigued, anxious, and stressed.

Fatigue, anxiety, and other stress factors harm your ears. Although, it has not yet been clear whether stress precipitates tinnitus, some experts believe it does. Furthermore, it is apparent that stress and anxiety worsens an existing tinnitus. Many tinnitus patients say that the ringing in their ears becomes louder when they are stressed.

• I indulge in salty snacks, caffeine-laden drinks, and high-fat diet.

One can make a clumsy assumption that diet has nothing to do with tinnitus. On the contrary, your diet has something to do with it. High salt consumption, caffeine-laden drinks, and high-fat meals lead to various blood circulation problems. To mention two, hypertension and atherosclerosis – both believed to produce throbbing or pulsating sensations in the ears called pulsatile tinnitus.

• I have frequent earaches and ear infections.

Infections in the middle ear and inner ear can cause hearing loss and tinnitus. Punctured eardrums and the rare Meniere’s disease may cause ear ringing.

• I got earwax build up. 

Any blockage in the ear canal, whether from foreign objects or from ear wax, may cause hearing loss and tinnitus. The loss of external sound perception makes your ears more sensitive to the internal bodily “noises.”

• I recently sustained a head injury.

Head injuries may damage some organs and tissues in the ears. If after a sharp blow on the head, you hear some ringing, have yourself checked.

• I took aspirin and ibuprofen containing medicines.

One of the adverse effects of these over-the-counter drugs is ear ringing. Better read the labels of medicines and check their side effects.

• I am 60.

An age-related hearing loss happens when you’re somewhere around 60. It’s sometimes an inevitable part of aging.

• I have hearing loss.

Tinnitus is usually, but not always, accompanied by total or partial hearing loss. Specialists agree that hearing loss caused by loud noise exposure is the one frequently coupled with tinnitus.

Here’s the catch. If you have ear ringing and you haven’t had what was mentioned above, visit your ear specialist. Some causes of ringing ears are not yet identified.