If you have tinnitus, you may eventually encounter claims that hypnotherapy can make the ringing disappear or somehow “reprogram” the brain to stop producing tinnitus. That can be appealing when tinnitus is frightening or exhausting. But it also creates confusion: if tinnitus is an auditory symptom, how could hypnosis affect it? Is hypnotherapy treating the … Read more
If you have tinnitus and suddenly find ordinary sounds painful, frightening, or unbearably loud, it can be difficult to understand what is happening. A conversation may feel too loud. A car horn may cause actual ear pain. Dishes clattering in the kitchen may seem intolerable. Even sounds that other people barely notice can trigger a … Read more
If you have recently developed tinnitus, being told that a hearing aid might help can create more questions than answers. Does a hearing aid actually treat tinnitus? Does the masking sound need to cover the ringing completely? Is white noise better than nature sounds? Should the sound generator be on all day? And what happens … Read more
If you have tinnitus, protecting your ears from loud noise seems like an obvious solution. Earplugs can feel reassuring: if loud sound can damage hearing, surely wearing earplugs as often as possible must be safer. The complication is that more protection is not always better protection. Earplugs are extremely useful in genuinely loud environments. They … Read more
If you have diabetes and have recently started hearing ringing, buzzing, hissing, or another unexplained sound in your ears, it is natural to wonder whether the two conditions are connected. The answer is possibly, but not as simply as many websites suggest. Diabetes is associated with hearing impairment, and newer research also finds an association … Read more
Tinnitus can be difficult enough to understand without wondering whether it is affecting your mental health too. You may notice ringing, buzzing, hissing, or another sound that nobody else can hear. Then sleep becomes harder. Concentration takes more effort. You start checking the sound repeatedly. Eventually, you may feel exhausted, discouraged, or less interested in … Read more
If you have recently developed tinnitus, you may have come across claims that inflammation inside the ear is responsible for the ringing or buzzing and that curcumin, the major biologically active compound in turmeric, can calm that inflammation. It sounds reassuringly simple: inflammation causes damage, curcumin reduces inflammation, so perhaps curcumin should reduce tinnitus. Unfortunately, … Read more
If you have recently developed tinnitus, it is understandable to look for a physical explanation. Hearing a ringing, buzzing, hissing, or humming sound when there is no obvious external source can be unsettling, especially when you start reading about possible causes such as oxidative stress, mitochondrial dysfunction, and nutrient deficiencies. Coenzyme Q10, usually called CoQ10, … Read more
If you have tinnitus, you may eventually come across cochlear implants while searching for treatment options. That can be both confusing and frightening. A cochlear implant is a surgically implanted hearing device, so it is reasonable to wonder: Is an implant actually a treatment for tinnitus? Could it make tinnitus worse? Do I need severe … Read more
If you have tinnitus along with a feeling of pressure in your ear, fluctuating hearing, or episodes when sounds suddenly seem muffled, you may eventually encounter a term that is not always explained clearly: cochlear hydrops. It can be confusing because “hydrops” sounds like a diagnosis in itself. It is actually a description of excessive … Read more