Southwest Florida's Health and Wellness Magazine Health and Wellness Articles
By Dr. Noël Crosby, Au.D.
Ringing in the ears is called tinnitus, which can be a challenging condition to live with as it can create incredibly uncomfortable sensations and pain known as hyperacusis in many individuals. It can also cause communication issues that can affect social and work-related problems, as well as withdrawal.
If you have ringing in the ears, it’s important to seek a proper diagnosis and treatment. Tinnitus can cause balance issues. If you suffer from hearing or balance disorders, seeking treatment can help relieve ringing in the ears, pain, dizziness, and other adverse effects that are damaging to your overall health. Although there is no cure, there are multiple ways to manage tinnitus.
CBD for Tinnitus Treatment
Within the brain, two receptors respond to CBD; these are CB1 an CB2. Studies show that the same receptors are involved in the roll of hearing and balance. The results are torn, and more human trials are needed to show in-depth results for larger groups. However, many individuals report that CBD is effective for them personally when it comes to improving balance and reducing tinnitus symptoms. All CBD use and results tracking should be considered by each individual and their personal results. Due to its safety, many patients feel like it’s worth it to try CBD and judge the results for themselves.
How CBD Works
Hemp Derived CBD has significantly helped numerous individuals with numerous conditions. CBD is free of THC, which is the psychoactive component of marijuana, and CBD is thought to be very safe and well tolerated. CBD has been used for thousands of years in ancient medicine to modern day. Our brain and nerve cells have cannabinoid receptors, so our bodies naturally react to CBD. The structure of cannabis interacts directly with our cells. Our natural endocannabinoid system works synergistically with CBD, creating a multitude of beneficial reactions in the body. The endocannabinoid cells have tiny receptors that take in chemicals and produce responses. This natural system in our bodies regulates things like pain-reception, mood, sleeping, immunity, pleasure, memory and much more.
More on Tinnitus
Common Causes of Tinnitus include:
• Hearing loss
• Exposure to loud noises
• Earwax buildup or blockages
• Abnormal bone growth in the ear
• Meniere’s disease
• Head or neck injuries
• Benign tumor of the cranial nerve
• Medication
• Aging
• Vascular disorders
• Stress or depression
In order to find out the root cause of your tinnitus, your hearing specialist will conduct a complete medical history, as well as a complete examination.
What Other Treatments Are Available?
Tinnitus can be caused by many things and is usually a symptom of an underlying condition. The treatment for your tinnitus will depend on the condition that is causing it, the severity, any accompanying issues such as hearing loss, and the impact the tinnitus has on daily activities.
Common causes of tinnitus include:
• Stress and depression
• Hearing loss
• Exposure to loud noises
• Earwax buildup or blockages
• Abnormal bone growth in the ear
• Meniere’s disease
• Head or neck injuries
• Benign tumor of the cranial nerve
Sound Therapy
Depending on the cause of your tinnitus and other factors, several treatments are available, including medical options as well as alternative therapies.
A common treatment is acoustic therapy or sound therapy. Sound therapy makes use of sounds to help the brain re-focus and diminish the emotional impact of the tinnitus.
Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT)
One treatment that incorporates sound therapy is called Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT), also known as habituation therapy. This therapy attempts to retrain your brain into perceiving the tinnitus in a different way.
About 75% of people with tinnitus are not bothered by it because their brains process it and file it as another everyday noise. TRT tries to teach your brain how to process the noise so that it doesn’t bother you anymore (or not as much).
Medications may be an option, especially if they are to treat an underlying condition and relieve its symptoms. However, no medications have been approved specifically for the treatment of tinnitus.
Your physician or hearing specialist will also be able to refer you to psychological treatment or support, as tinnitus can be life-changing and hard to deal with, especially when it is a chronic problem. A tinnitus support group may also be of help.
ABOUT ADVANCED HEARING SOLUTIONS
Using the latest and most sophisticated technology, we determine if you have hearing loss–and, if you do, we determine the degree and type of hearing loss. If your hearing loss requires medical or surgical intervention, we can refer you to a physician (otologist or neurologist) for appropriate treatment. If your type of hearing loss can best be treated with the use of hearing aids and/or other assistive listening devices (which is true in the great majority of cases), we can select any of a wide range of hearing devices and custom fit them to your ear, programmed to augment your hearing at those frequency levels where your hearing loss is greatest.
Call Advanced Hearing Solutions today at (941) 474-8393.
