As soon as your health care provider tells you that you have tinnitus, the first question you are going to ask might be, "What is the cause of tinnitus?" The first answer that may come to your mind is overexposure to loud noise, which just makes sense as ringing in the ears is often associated with loss of hearing. It is true that constant exposure to loud noise causes this ringing in the ears, but do you know that there are more?

Perhaps we have to rephrase the question "What is tinnitus?" to "What are the causes of tinnitus?". There are several factors that cause a person to develop the annoying sound. These are medical conditions, procedures, injuries, stress, and the long-term use of certain medications.

These medical conditions include:

• Meniere's disease

• acoustic neuroma

• sinus problems

• age-associated loss of hearing (presbycusis)

• thyroid disorder

• hyperlipidemia

• vitamin B12 deficiency

• lyme disease

• depression

Furthermore, procedures such as dental, head, ear, and nasal passage surgeries, ear wax removals, ear candling, and injuries caused by swimming accidents are probable causes. The long-term use of aspirin and certain prescription drugs are also known causes.

The factors mentioned above may damage the auditory cells. These auditory cells, where microscopic hairs form a fringe on their surfaces, maintain an electrical charge. When bent or broken, these hairs move randomly in a constant state of irritation. When this happens, they will not be able to hold their charge, thus causing the auditory cells to leak random electrical to the brain as noise.

Knowing the specific cause of your tinnitus is very important as its treatment is usually dependent on its cause. However, it is not always that the specific cause is identified. If this is your case, then you should start practicing general and natural treatments. This may mean that you have to change your lifestyle. If you are a lover of chocolates, salty foods, soda and coffee, then perhaps it is about time to eliminate them from your diet and consider keep a diet that is rich in protein, zinc, choline, and the vitamins A, B, and E instead. Also, have proper exercise to improve your blood circulation - tinnitus may also be due to circulatory conditions such as high blood pressure and anemia.

To properly educate yourself of tinnitus, the questions that are you going to ask yourself or your health care provider should go beyond knowing what is the cause of tinnitus. You would also have to inform yourself of the available tinnitus treatments as well as the right attitude in dealing with it.