Cortisol Concentrations in Tinnitus Sufferers: A New Study

An exciting new development into a health condition that affects an estimated six million people in the UK has been revealed by a leading researcher. 

Dr James Jackson, associate principle lecturer in psychology at Leeds Trinity University has led a pilot study, funded by the British Tinnitus Association, looking at the concentration of the stress hormone cortisol in tinnitus sufferers. 

His evidence suggests that people who report a high level of distress caused by their tinnitus also have a flat diurnal cortisol rhythm which could lead the way to developing more effective interventions. 

Tinnitus is an often debilitating condition that is described as a sensation or awareness of sound that is not caused by a real external sound source. It affects one in ten UK adults and there are approximately 750,000 tinnitus related GP consultations in England each year.  

The condition can greatly impact on a sufferer’s quality of life with approximately half of patients finding it moderately or severely distressing with complaints of intrusiveness emotional stress, insomnia, auditory perceptual problems and concentration problems. 

As part of his study, Dr Jackson asked participants to provide saliva samples first thing in the morning so he could look at stress hormone levels.   

Says Dr Jackson: “Waking up is the time of day when you are secreting the highest concentrations of stress hormones, particularly one called cortisol, in anticipation of the day ahead and I wanted to investigate the mechanism which produces it.  

"In general, you pump out cortisol first thing, and you reach peak secretion approximately 40 minutes after waking up. Levels then fall back all day, and should be down to nearly nothing at roughly midnight, when you fall asleep and have no energy. There is a set rhythm for this called the diurnal cortisol cycle. However, it’s already known that if you secrete too much cortisol in the morning it’s an indication that you're under a lot of stress but secrete too little and it’s more 'burnout' - you've been anxious/stressed for so long that your body has turned the tap off. Having too much cortisol in the system for too long is very damaging. 

“High levels of cortisol first thing can indicate conditions like anorexia and OCD and low levels can indicate things like depression, chronic pain and chronic fatigue syndrome. 

“My research has been looking at the effect tinnitus has on this morning rhythm and I hypothesised that it would have more in common with conditions such as chronic pain. It’s been a small study but I can conclude that there is evidence suggesting a flat diurnal cortisol rhythm in distressed tinnitus sufferers. Right now, this appears to be related to 'burnout' where, due to issues these particular patients have such as a lack of control, an inability to relax and emotional distress caused by the tinnitus, their bodies have shut down cortisol production. 

“The most logical explanation is that this is about whether or not patients feel a sense of control over their tinnitus - those that don't have a more blunted rhythm than those who do. This suggests three important elements. Firstly, that chronic tinnitus has real physiological effects. Secondly, it is caused by certain aspects of tinnitus which would allow for more targeted intervention and thirdly, that if we can measure distress, we can also measure effectiveness of any interventions.” 

It is estimated that 6 million people live with tinnitus in the UK and it can affect people of any age. In a bid to help find a cure for tinnitus, the BTA has spent over £575,000 in 2015 on research studies into the condition including funding Dr Jackson’s work.  

Dr Jackson added: “There is some excitement here about what we have found. Being able to distinguish between the most distressed individuals with tinnitus and those that have adapted more effectively, or have learned to live with their tinnitus would be a huge boon. We can aim to move people from one group to the other, and have an objective, physiological measure of whether the intervention has worked and has increased well-being too.  

“It also suggests real physiological changes in tinnitus patients, and that it is ‘real’. Evidence of physiological change frames tinnitus as being something more than irritation. It is early days though, due to the size and breadth of my study. What’s needed now is funding for a much larger study that can replicate these findings across the board in a more realistic sample.” 

David Stockdale, chief executive of the British Tinnitus Association, said: “When someone first experiences tinnitus it can be very frightening and have an enormous impact on their quality of life. Here at the BTA, we are committed to finding a cure for tinnitus and in that vein we fund a large number of research projects every year. We are really pleased to hear the results of Dr Jackson’s work and hope more research can be done in this area.” 

http://www.tinnitus.org.uk/exciting-new-researchgives-hope-to-tinnitus-patients

 

Very interesting.
I always thought that cortisol has some connection with anxiety, probably tinnitus as well.
I don't think that any medical professional would recommend messing with such an important hormone but there is a product (a supplement basically) called Lactium which is supposed to be a cortisol "blocker".
I might give it a shot, seems quite harmless.

 

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Yes, seems promising! Now, where to get it?

 

Why not let us read that too?

 

It was my understanding that excess cortisol combined with the Acoustic damage resulting in the glutamate rush is what causes the onset of tinnitus. AM101 is what hopes to prevent this.

 

It seems to be know as Casein Decapetite as its real name.

http://www.newhope.com/supply-news-...tide-ingredient-reduces-stress-improves-sleep

iHerb sells it

 

I recently took part in this or a comparable study in the university clinics at my home town Tübingen, Germany.

It consisted of:
Questionnaire
Hearing test
BERA
3x urine (morning, afternoon, night)
3x saliva ('')
fMRT

 

That's a good question.
I asked some random pharmacies, they never heard of it.
I found it on an on-line Greek e-shop, I'm thinking about ordering it.
You will probably find it on Amazon or some other on-line shop in your country.
It is actually hard to find.

 

Not hard to find -

http://www.iherb.com/search?kw=LACTIUM&sug=lactic Just make sure you're looking for Casein Decapeptide.

 

More about cortisol and T
http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/health/mystery-injury-lead-to-tinnitus-torment-for-ian-1-8213954

 

Hi, I tried the site but it is gone. Are you still able to connect to it?

 

No couldn't the BTA must have taken it down...anyhow got my cortisol tested and it was u remarkable...I know it's not as straightforward...

 

Meant unremarkable...

 

BTA does this regularly.

The article is apparently referencing this project: http://research.leedstrinity.ac.uk/...rs(ce9f729f-cfa8-4fee-8404-b0c53973ff02).html

Not clear when the study was done since that page says 2015 but the BTA press release is late 2016 (assuming it was new when posted). There are no publications. In fact, based on his publication record, I wouldn't expect anything earth-shattering: http://research.leedstrinity.ac.uk/...86b-4165-91c2-55c4e97924e2)/publications.html

 

Seems to me like a chicken and egg problem. Something causes the initial T, and then stress rises, and it feeds back into T. Thus it seems that lowering stress won't get rid of the T, but it won't make the T worse either. It's good for getting back to "baseline" T, but not addressing the cause of the T in the first place. Good research, but I'm not holding my breath for it.

 

Why woukd we want a product that blocks cortisol? Doesn't the study show that the body isnt produciing enough cortisol in the first place so surely blocking it is a step in the wrong direction?.

 

One thing that the doctors noticed last month when when git tinitus was something with the cortisal in a blood test

 

Tweet by the BTA:
We're delighted Dr James Jackson's BTA funded research into #cortisol awakening response & #tinnitus has been published in the American Journal of Audiology @ASHAJournals

A summary: The cortisol awakening response: could this be an effective measure of tinnitus distress?
Author: Nic Wray
Published: 23rd October, 2019

 

Yet another useless study, cortisol is induced by a stress response, which itself is induced by.... you guessed it, tinnitus.

No rocket science involved in this conclusion. Care to enlighten us as to how many thousands of taxpayers and donation money were spent on that study?

 

I agree - somewhat interesting, but ultimately, yeah, it's pretty unremarkable.

 

Why don't they send money to Dr. Shore instead of these worthless pretty researches?

They always do this, start something, say it should be looked further into, then start a different research and do the same thing!

Jesus Christ, we are suffering!

 

Ok, but tinnitus isn't the only stress inducer in the world. It also isn't a guaranteed stress inducer. Some people are more stressed by it than others. Which leads us back to CBT, mindfulness, healthy lifestyle, coping strategies... And that kind of talk annoys the cr*p out of some people because it draws attention away from the only thing we should be talking about (apparently) - that magic silver bullet that we're all (even me) waiting for. Hang out here long enough and these arguments keep going around in circles.

 

Studies like this will eventually allow the doctors to verify people's claims that they suffer from tinnitus. This will allow the sufferers to sue the people or organizations that gave them tinnitus. It would also allow one to apply for disability payments.

 

That would only happen if we had a scientific method to detect tinnitus (which we kinda do, it's called a functional IRM, it's just way too expensive to be used for such endeavor), until then it will remain poorly recognised, meanwhile money would be much better invested into research of actual, non palliative, treatments (or a cure).

 

I completely agree with you, I'd also like to find a solution for my tinnitus, but people seem to forget that lifestyle change may be as important in curing your tinnitus as finding the silver bullet.

 

And what about most people that do change their lifestyle but are still here suffering?

We don't need a silver bullet right now. Maybe just something that works in the meantime to reduce the symptoms. We just want more research in the direction of "this is working so let's focus on this" like bimodal neuromodulation. If you look at tinnitus research it goes back years, most of it worthless hogwash like this. We want progress, not a dog chasing it's own tail. It can be proven that someone has it as Mathieu said, they just don't care to because it's too expensive and too much of a hassle.

The VA pays out millions of dollars to veterans with tinnitus, I will likely be one of those recieving it myself soon, but do they do an fMRI? Nope, it's done the way it should be with credibility and respect to the veteran complaining of ear ringing.

This kind of research is crap. Even more so in respect of trying to use cortisol. It's like trying to objectively measure people's vision. If someone with perfect vision wanted to say they have bad vision, all they have to do is say they can't read the next letter and their word is the "objective" measure. When I say "my ears are ringing" that alone should receive the same credibility and taken every bit as serious, or even more.

The real research that isn't a complete waste of time and money is what Dr. Shore, Dr. Tzounopoulos, and Dr. Bao are doing. Especially in regards to Dr. Shore. Her research is already pretty deep in coming through with a treatment, while these guys are barely getting their feet wet with merely measuring it. By the time anything comes of it, these treatments would be already rolling out and this research just wasted time and resources from theirs, and consequently adding more time to our suffering. They should focus on what is already moving forward, instead of this "ugh these people should have low cortisol because they're hopeless, right?" Garbage.

 

With lifestyle changes, that can be quite a lot of things, eating habits, exercise, trying to cope better with stress doing yoga, mindful meditation, etc. more social interaction...

Don't get me wrong, I have had tinnitus for 20 years, and I always was hoping for a magic solution until I observed important changes and those occurred at moments I was really relaxed. I just finished a 2 month heavy load work period and guess what? Now my tinnitus is way up again. So yeah tinnitus is fully linked to stress to me.

In regard to this study, the problem is that it's hard to tell if your stress comes from tinnitus or if your tinnitus comes from the initial stress. For me it's quite clear that my tinnitus may come from stress (and anxiety, when they measured my cortisol levels they were too high), in the end it's like a vicious circle, tinnitus will also add their portion of stress, that's why it's so hard to calm down once you have it. But for me even more important to work on your stress.

 

Lifestyle changes alone aren’t enough for millions of people worldwide. We also know that the process of habituation doesn’t work for everyone.

Because those coping techniques are still being used to downplay how debilitating tinnitus can be and severe sufferers are still being told it’s their fault if they can’t cope better.

 

Cortisol can be used to measure your stress levels, not where your stress comes from or if tinnitus induced your stress (or vice versa), all this study says is that as a tinnitus sufferer, you have elevated levels of Cortisol (as if we couldn't guess that already), it reminds me of that other study which claimed that women with tinnitus were more likely to commit suicide than those who do not (no shit Sherlock!)

It just happens that some "researchers" are technically useless but still need to get paid, so they do so off research grants/donations by crafting bogus/useless studies all year long.

I have a word for those people, I call them parasites, because that's what they literally are, they divert money that could be used to fund useful research into their own pockets in the guise of conducting a study, which it turns out is very much useless and will be very much forgotten, meanwhile as proper research gets stalled others are still suffering, awaiting actual results, which gets further delayed because of BS like this.