Hearing Loss Help  

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A lady wrote,

I am 64 years old, and I have had tinnitus since around 1990. I have been taking Propranolol since 1979, which was originally prescribed for my migraines. At this point in my life, I have developed hypertension which is not controlled by this dose of Propranolol. My doctor is trying to find the proper blood pressure drug for me, but unfortunately, she knows little about ototoxic drugs, so I have to make my own suggestions to her. I realize that most ace-inhibitors, calcium channel blockers, and beta-blockers can be ototoxic.

My question is, ‘Are there any blood pressure drugs that do not seem to cause tinnitus or harm our ears?’ I understand that no drug is perfect and may cause other side effects, but I am feeling desperate to find a medication that would help control my blood pressure without worsening my tinnitus.

I sure understand your desire, but I can’t tell you which drugs do not cause tinnitus because I don’t compile information on non-ototoxic drugs, just on ototoxic ones. Thus, I really don’t know if there are other drugs in the above classes that are not ototoxic.

Since I list all known ototoxic drugs in the above classes in my book Ototoxic Drugs Exposed, if you find drugs in these classes that are not in my book, there is a good chance they are not ototoxic (unless they are new drugs just on the market).

If you want to stay on the typical prescription drug blood pressure medications, rather than use natural means to lower your blood pressure, then you need to look for the drugs with the fewest ototoxic side effects—and in your case, specifically for drugs that are not listed as causing tinnitus.

You can quickly and easily find this out if you have the latest edition of Ototoxic Drugs Exposed. All you’d need to do is turn to Table 14-1 and under section 20.8 you’ll find all the ototoxic anti-hypertensive drugs listed by class.

Thus, for example, if you wanted to know whether there are any Beta-blockers (section 20.8.12) that are not known to cause tinnitus, of the 19 Beta Blockers listed there, 4 of them are not listed as causing tinnitus. Therefore, you might want to suggest to your doctor that if you have to take a Beta Blocker, you’d like to try one of these four drugs if he thinks they will do the job—namely Labetalol, Levobunolol, Nebivolol or Sotalol—since none of these are known to cause tinnitus.

You can take this one step further and of these 4 drugs find the one that is the least ototoxic by looking each of these up in the main drug listings and compare all their ototoxic side effects. If you did this, you would find that Levobunolol is the least ototoxic, followed closely by Nebivolol. These two drugs are much less ototoxic in my opinion than the most ototoxic Beta Blockers such as Betaxolol and Propranolol.

However, if you want to bring your blood pressure down by natural means and not use prescription drugs you have other choices.

First you need to determine whether your blood pressure is too high or not. Far too many doctors want everyone to have ridiculously low blood pressure according to complementary medicine standards. You see, some people naturally have higher blood pressure and that is normal for them and is not wrong.

The rule of thumb seems to be that you should keep your blood pressure below 140/90, so if it is lower than that, you probably don’t have to worry about it. The book “Prescription Alternatives” explains that if you are over 60 (which you are), your blood pressure can be up to 180/100 and still be “normal” (although that is a very high “normal”). Thus, trying to get your blood pressure down to 120/80 may be completely wrong for you (but its a good way to sell more drugs).

You want to keep your blood pressure at a reasonable level to be sure. I suggest you first try to do this naturally, and only use drugs as a last resort.

The four main factors that can help reduce your blood pressure naturally are weight loss, exercise, diet and stress reduction. Here are a few examples to get you started.

Weight Loss: If you are overweight, for every 2 pounds of weight you drop, your blood pressure will drop at least 1 point.

Exercise: Just a brisk walk for 30 minutes 3 or more times a week can lower your blood pressure between 3 and 15 points in just 3 months.

Diet: Eat lots of fiber-filled vegetables and whole grains and drink plenty of water. For example, just eating 4 stalks of celery a day can significantly reduce blood pressure. So can taking garlic every day. Another secret to reducing blood pressure is drinking 6 to 8 glasses of clean water a day. It’s so simple that few people believe it works.

Stress Reduction: Getting your stress under control is almost guaranteed to bring down your blood pressure.

There are many natural and healthy ways to reduce your blood pressure if you are so inclined to try. I took much of the above information from the book “Prescription Alternatives” (1st edition) by Earl Mindell and Virginia Hopkins.

If you are serious about reducing your blood pressure the natural way without taking drugs, I recommend you carefully read the chapter “Drugs for Heart Disease and Their Natural Alternatives” in this book.

To find a good price on this book, go to Amazon and in the search box type the words “prescription alternatives”. You will have a number of choices from the 1st to the latest editions.

You can actually get this hardcover book on Amazon for as little as 1 cent to 10 cents (plus shipping which is typically about $4.00) so it is well worth it. There are newer editions too—you can get the latest edition in paperback form for as little as $11.48 (used).

Don’t let ototoxic drugs inadvertently damage your ears and cause hearing loss, tinnitus or balance problems. To learn which drugs are ototoxic, get the 3rd edition of  Ototoxic Drugs Exposed. This book contains information on the ototoxicity of 877 drugs, 35 herbals and 148 chemicals.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A man wrote,

Three weeks ago I started taking Esomeprazole (40mg) 1 tablet daily in the morning before breakfast because of a case of stomach and gastric reflux sufferings. Everything was going well, but about four days ago I started to suffer from strange noises in my ears like bells—very sharp ringing sound. This makes it impossible to lead a normal life, and I can hardly sleep. Yesterday I decided to stop the drug and consult with my doctor. Please, I need your advice because I am concerned that my persistent tinnitus will not go away.

It is interesting that you are the second person in the past few days to tell me much the same thing about this side effect of taking Esomeprazole. A man on the other side of the world from you also took Esomeprazole for three weeks and then began experiencing tinnitus too.

And you two are not the first to report this either. I’d previously heard from another man with much the same story. Furthermore, officially, Esomeprazole causes tinnitus in somewhere around 1% of the people taking it.

Stopping taking the drug as soon as you realized that it was causing your tinnitus was a good first step. The sooner you do this, the greater the chances that your tinnitus will go away.

However, tinnitus doesn’t typically go away immediately after stopping a drug. It can take some days for the drug to get out of your system and your tinnitus to die down. As a rule of thumb, I tell people to give it at least two weeks before they start worrying whether their tinnitus will go away or not.

There are no guarantees that your tinnitus will ever go away—it may or may not. Hopefully it will go away. However, one of the best ways to help it go away is to completely and totally ignore your tinnitus by focusing your mind on other things.

If you worry over, and focus on, your tinnitus, it will just become even louder and more intrusive, and it won’t go away. So treat it as a “non-person”, as though it were a constant inconsequential sound such as a fridge motor running, or a fan, or traffic noise—and just ignore it. Hopefully, it will begin to fade into the background and finally you’ll realize its gone, or it will become very faint and you will only hear it when you really listen for it.

If you want to learn more about tinnitus and the things you can do to help bring it under your control, check out the book, When Your Ears Ring! Cope with Your Tinnitus—Here’s How.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A lady wrote,

I think the tinnitus and intense ear pain I’ve had for 17 months might be a combination of things—Eustachian tube dysfunction from a lot of airplane flights, and some arthritis in my jaw joint aggravated from dental work? I have been taking 5 mg. Ambien to sleep all this time. As an experiment I stopped the Ambien one week ago and slowly have less pain and tinnitus every day that goes by.

It is true that Eustachian tube dysfunction could result in ear pain and tinnitus. Although, personally, I don’t see why flying should cause Eustachian tube dysfunction. I can see it happening the other way around—Eustachian Tube dysfunction causing problems with your ears during and after flying.

Dental work, especially on the upper molars also can cause tinnitus and ear pain. I’ve had a number of people complain about that.

Thus, it seems perfectly logical to blame the various ear conditions you suffer on your Eustachian tubes or your dental work. At the same time, it never crosses your mind that the drug your doctor prescribed is actually causing your problems.

Did you know that Zolpidem (Ambien) can cause tinnitus, ear pain, and middle ear infection problems—in other words the very problems you list above?

When your ear problems exactly correlate to the time you are taking a given drug, you need to be highly suspicious of that drug. You did a little experiment that proved to me that the Zolpidem you are taking is the real culprit.

When you stopped taking the Zolpidem your tinnitus and ear pain immediately began to diminish. It had stayed constant for 17 months—during which time you were taking Zolpidem. Then within a day or two of stopping it the pain and tinnitus began to go away. That’s not a coincidence. It’s the Zolpidem. To me, this says that your ear pain and tinnitus are more Zolpidem-related than anything else.

Incidentally, you don’t want to be on Zolpidem for very long as it can be dependence-forming, much like the Benzodiazepine class of drugs. If this happens you will have a lot of difficulty getting off it—and may experience horrible tinnitus and other problems in the process.

Don’t let ototoxic drugs inadvertently damage your ears. Learn which drugs are (or can be) ototoxic. The book Ototoxic Drugs Exposed contains information on the ototoxicity of 877 drugs, 35 herbals and 148 chemicals.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A lady wrote,

I am currently feeling like I am losing my mind due to the ringing in my ears. I have Lyme Disease, and have been on Minocin for one year. I was off it for about two weeks, and just got back on it. I thought it was the Savella that I started on. I have very little patience right now. Can you tell me specifically about this? Is it from Lyme disease or the medications? What, if any, are the remedies?

Relentless, unceasing tinnitus can be a bit much if you let it, can’t it? You want to know what caused your tinnitus—the Lyme disease, the Minocin or the Savella.”

The bad news is that all three are possible culprits. Lyme disease by itself can cause tinnitus. Minocycline (Minocin), a tetracycline class of antibiotics, can cause tinnitus in about 2% of the people taking it. Milnacipran (Savella) is also listed as causing tinnitus in some people, but I don’t think this is very common.

As you can see above, it can be from the Lyme disease, the Minocin, the Savella or any combination of the above. I don’t know which is contributing most to your tinnitus at this point.

Did you notice any difference in your tinnitus when you went off the Minocin or the Savella? That could give you a clue as to which drug is making it worse if one of them are.

It may not be easy to get rid of your tinnitus until you get your Lyme disease under control—and you need the drugs to do that—and that could make your tinnitus worse in the meantime.

At the same time, your emotional reaction to your tinnitus is also making it worse. The more you focus on your blankety-blank tinnitus, the more your emotional (limbic) system flags these tinnitus sounds, and as a result, they become even louder and more intrusive.

Thus, you need to learn to focus on other things—the loves of your life—and by doing so, totally ignore your tinnitus. You must not have any emotional attachment or feelings towards your tinnitus. When you feel totally neutral towards your tinnitus (treat it as though it didn’t exist), your limbic system slowly but surely turns down the internal volume on your tinnitus, and it begins to fade into the background. (This is easier said than done—I know—but it is something that you also need to do if you want to get your tinnitus under control.)

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A man wrote,

I started taking Citalopram (Celexa) in mid-April. I was on it for a week and got ringing in my ears. This was 7 days at 10 mg., and 2 days (days 8 and 9) at 20 mg. when the ringing became severely loud.

I got off the Citalopram right away, and found out that tinnitus is a common side effect. However, it has been 3 months now, and I still hear the ringing. I don’t know what to do. Some people say it will take up to 7 months for it to go away!

Citalopram (Celexa) is a Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI). It causes tinnitus in perhaps 1% or more of the people taking it.

In hindsight, you should have stopped taking the Citalopram as soon as the ringing started. Taking the increased dose and getting worse tinnitus obviously wasn’t a smart move. However, that is all in the past. You want to know to deal with your tinnitus now.

You now know that your ears are particularly sensitive to Citalopram, so this drug is not a good one for you to take in the future, as you will likely get even louder tinnitus if you do.

Tinnitus is a strange “beast”. Sometimes getting off the offending drug is all that you need to do, and your tinnitus will go away on its own in a few days to a few weeks to a few months. Unfortunately, sometimes it never goes away—especially if you are anxious, worried, stressed or depressed over your tinnitus. You see, tinnitus has an emotional (psychological) component. (You can think of it as a psychosomatic condition.) As a result, worrying about your tinnitus makes it even louder and more intrusive.

Thus, one of the better ways to deal with tinnitus is to learn about it (we are anxious about the unknown), then choose to completely ignore your tinnitus by focusing your energies on the loves of your life. As you do this, your tinnitus will (hopefully) fade into the background. This will take some months (or even a couple of years depending on how strong the emotional bond is that you need to break). This is known as becoming habituated to your tinnitus.

If your tinnitus never goes away (it may or may not), when you become habituated to your tinnitus, it will not bother you even though it is still there. For example, I’ve had tinnitus for many decades now. It’s always “there”, but I don’t let it bother me—although my ears are ringing away rather loudly at the moment since I am thinking about tinnitus while I am writing this. However, my tinnitus will soon return to its usual level when I focus on other things. You, too, can have the same experience.

If you want to learn more about tinnitus and the things you can do to help bring it under your control, check out the book, When Your Ears Ring! Cope with Your Tinnitus—Here’s How.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

Researchers are busy looking for ways to reduce tinnitus. A recent study (1) that caught my eye, and one that shows promise, consists of listening to your favorite music for about 2 hours a day for a year. How hard can that be when one of the benefits is reducing the volume of your tinnitus?

In order for this to work, there are two conditions you must meet. First, your tinnitus must be a tonal kind of tinnitus that stays at a constant frequency. Second, the music you listen to must be digitally modified to take out the frequency of your tinnitus—hence the term “notched music”—as you have a notch where there is no sound at your tinnitus frequency.

(The way the researchers created this “notch” was to filter out a whole octave of sound centered around the frequency of the person’s tinnitus.)

Then, you just listen to your music for about 2 hours a day for the next year. By the end of 6 months, you’ll notice that the volume of your tinnitus is dropping significantly.

After 12 months, the people in this study found their tinnitus had dropped in volume by about 28%, and their annoyance at their tinnitus had dropped around 22%. In contrast, those in the placebo group (who listened to their favorite music without the notch) actually had their tinnitus increase about 9% and their annoyance at their tinnitus increase about 7%. (There was no indication as to what kind of music people listened to, nor at what volume.)

The reason this notched music therapy appears to work is that our brains are “plastic”. That means they can adapt and change their responses over time. Apparently our brains are more amenable to changing based on listening to sounds we like rather than to ones we dislike—hence the need to choose music you particularly like.

Researchers are beginning to understand that tinnitus arises when the auditory cortex in our brains inadvertently changes in inappropriate ways.

Researchers feel that tinnitus is “associated with a relative excitatory-inhibitory cortical neural network dysbalance, at the expense of the inhibitory system.” Say what? In plain English, what this means is that when everything is functioning properly, some auditory neurons in our brains may get too excited and “talk” out of turn so to speak. When they do this, the surrounding neurons tell them to “shut up”. This maintains order in the auditory cortex.

However, when too many begin to talk out of turn and not enough tell them to “shut up”, things get a bit wild and the result is tinnitus. If this situation is allowed to continue, it becomes the new norm and you end up with constant tinnitus.

Furthermore, if you have a hearing loss, some neurons in your auditory cortex are deprived of normal sound signals. Since neurons are not happy doing nothing, they “rewire” themselves so that they are no longer excited by the frequencies they were originally tuned to. Instead, they tune in to the frequency of their neighboring neurons. When a bunch of them do this, the resulting synchronized spontaneous neural activity apparently results in what we call tinnitus.

The good news is that previous research has shown that this “rowdy” behavior can be modified by behavioral training. The way the researchers did this in this study was to eliminate sounds at the frequency of the person’s tinnitus. Now, since there was no “sound stimulus” at the frequency of the “tinnitus neurons”, but at all other frequencies, the “neurons that weren’t stimulated were suppressed via lateral inhibitory inputs originating from surrounding neurons.” In other words, enough of the surrounding neurons told the “tinnitus neurons” to “shut up” and thus the volume of their tinnitus went down, and things became more normal once again.

It appears that notched-music therapy may prove to be an enjoyable, low-cost and casual (relaxed) treatment for reducing tinnitus a significant amount.

If you want to learn more about tinnitus and some of the things you can do to help bring it under control, see the book, “When Your Ears Ring—Cope with Your Tinnitus—Here’s How“.

(1) “Customized notch music training reduces tinnitus loudness” by Henning Stracke, et. al. Communicative & Integrative Biology 3:3 pp. 1-4, May/June 2010.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

In a previous article “Nodding Chime Tinnitus“, a woman explained that she heard chiming tinnitus whenever she nodded or shook her head.

I asked anyone reading that article if they had ever had somewhat similar experiences. Here are five responses I received.

One lady reported:

I also have the same type of thing when I shake my head. At the same time, I have a constant sound in one of my ears regardless of what I am doing.

A man explained:

This is one of my symptoms. The note is slightly different for yes and no—yes is higher-pitched. I think I’ve experienced this for many years, but only started to notice continuous tinnitus at the age of 50, about 8 years ago. I have been wearing higher-frequency hearing aids since then, have had tests for acoustic neuromas, and have undergone tinnitus retraining therapy with some success.

In addition to the nodding/shaking symptoms, I get similar chimes when I jog. I can also reduce or increase my steady- state tinnitus by pressing quite hard on various parts of my jaw. Pressing the jaw into the joint tends to decrease the tinnitus, pushing my chin to one side tends to increase it. The effect is quite dramatic.

A lady wrote:

I also have a type of tinnitus that happens when I shake my head up and down or side to side. It’s not chimes to me but more like a static or buzzing. I can’t remember when it started, but I have a progressive hearing loss that resulted in my surgery one year ago for a cochlear implant. I can provoke it at will—pretty much all the time.

Another phenomena I’ve had for a few years—worse before the CI—has what I’ve found on the web as an “audible wakening”. Basically when changing consciousness stages I sometimes hear a “wraaanggg” type of almost screaming “sound”. Can’t explain it much better—sorry. I wonder whether others have reported this to you.

Another lady reported:

I’m writing regarding the woman who hears a chime sound when she nods or shakes her head.

In addition to ongoing mild tinnitus, I experience movement-induced sound as well. Unfortunately, the sound is not a pleasant chime tone, but a very startling loud buzz—like a noisy fly or bee right inside my ear! The first time I heard it I was terrified that an insect had flown into my ear and would sting me or get stuck and have to be removed surgically. The sound (so far) only happens when I shake my head from side to side to signify “no”.

I hear a variety of other tinnitus sounds intermittently that don’t seem to be related to any particular activity or situation—loud squeals, clicks, and the occasional whooshing noise. They are irritating when they happen, but aren’t terribly disruptive.

Still another lady explained:

I identify with the “chime” tinnitus report—I just tested myself by nodding my head vigorously. I confirmed that indeed, the movement changed the volume of my tinnitus, especially on the head upward movement of a “yes” head nod, and a leftward head movement in a “no” nod. (The ‘yes’ movement yields more dramatic results.) I have unilateral sensorineural loss in my right ear, with tinnitus that is not bothersome—it’s simply “there”.

When I wear my hearing aid, it plugs that ear with the ear mold, and this somehow calls attention to my tinnitus—when I walk, I get a modulation of the tinnitus that reflects the rhythm of my footsteps. That’s annoying. This is akin to my ability to “ding” my head—if I plug my right ear, and flick my finger just so around my cheekbone, I can produce a “ding” sound in my head. (Fun, huh?)

Interesting, isn’t it? Thank you all for sharing some of the weird tinnitus sounds you experience. This once again proves the enormous variety of tinnitus sounds we hard of hearing people experience.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A lady wrote:

I was diagnosed with Meniere’s disease. I have horrible tinnitus and can tell my hearing has gone horribly downhill. My question is, can a hearing aid help with the tinnitus to shut it out or anything? When I’m in a room with stuff going on I don’t usually hear it AS well as I do in a quiet room, but it’s still enough to really bug me.

Excellent question. Hearing aids in and of themselves do not affect the loudness of your tinnitus as such. Rather, they amplify sounds so you hear more (and louder) sounds. The good news is that this partially masks your tinnitus so you don’t notice it as much.

It is basically the same effect as you have already found when in a noisy room—your tinnitus doesn’t appear to be as loud because your brain has lots of real sounds on which to concentrate. Furthermore, in a noisy situation, the contrast between the background sound level and your tinnitus is much less than if you were in a quiet room.

However, when you are in a quiet location there is nothing to mask your tinnitus sounds. Thus, you perceive them as louder and more intrusive. Wearing a hearing aid in a quiet room will pick up the softer sounds you can no longer hear and thus help mask your tinnitus.

When your tinnitus is bothering you and you are in a quiet place, you need to enrich your environment with real sounds—turn on the TV, listen to a radio, stereo, iPod or MP3 player, and/or wear hearing aids.

This is especially important at night when the room is quiet. Some people find that just having a fan running, or a clock radio playing music really helps take their focus off their tinnitus. Use whatever works to give your brain real sounds to listen to so you don’t focus on your tinnitus.

You see, if you focus on your tinnitus, you will perceive your tinnitus as becoming louder and louder and more and more intrusive as the days go by. Therefore, you want to focus on the loves of your life, and the things you are doing, rather than on your tinnitus. When you do this, you’ll notice, if you stop at that point and think about it, that your tinnitus now appears softer and much less intrusive. This should be your goal.

If you want to learn more about tinnitus and the things you can do to help bring it under control, see the book, “When Your Ears Ring—Cope with Your Tinnitus—Here’s How“.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A woman explained:

When I nod my head, or shake it from side to side (yes-ing or no-ing), I hear chimes. Kind of like those chime toys that babies have, that when they are touched sway side to side and there’s a little chime inside. Do you know of anyone else that experiences this?

Hearing chimes when you nod or shake your head is not particularly common to be sure, but it is not unknown either. I knew a lady that every time she shook her head she heard the pure tone “F”. You have some thing like she has.

There are all sorts of strange kinds of tinnitus. For example, some people hear a special tinnitus sound when they turn their head all the way right or left, or bend over (somatic tinnitus). Others hear their tinnitus when they move their eyes (gaze-evoked tinnitus). Your tinnitus chimes when you nod or shake your head.

I’m curious how common this kind of tinnitus is. If any of you reading this have a similar kind of tinnitus, I’d love to hear of your experiences.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

Here’s a shocking statistic—75% of 18 to 30 year-olds who go to nightclubs and concerts may experience tinnitus, according to an article published in a recent edition of the Journal of Clinical Nursing.

That’s a lot of people flirting with disaster to their ears. You see, in such situations tinnitus is your ears’ warning that you are damaging your ears by exposing them to sounds that are much too loud. When this happens, pay attention. Protect your ears, or get out of the noisy environment if you value your ears.

Fortunately, for most people this resulting tinnitus is temporary and disappears in hours or a few days. However, be warned, typically the more you listen to loud sounds, the louder your tinnitus becomes, and the longer it lasts, until finally it never goes away. You don’t want that to happen to you!

In addition to being a real “pain” in and of itself, tinnitus is also often a warning of impending or actual hearing loss. Studies reveal that 85% of people with hearing loss also have tinnitus.

Incidentally, some people are more susceptible to tinnitus than others. For example, some studies show that depression and bothersome tinnitus go hand in hand. If fact, 62% of tinnitus sufferers have a “lifetime prevalence of major depression” according to the above article. In addition, tinnitus causes things such as tension, frustration, anger, loss of concentration and sleep disturbance.

If you want to learn more about tinnitus and the things you can do to help bring it under control, see the book, “When Your Ears Ring—Cope with Your Tinnitus—Here’s How“.