Pathologies of Tinnitus: Why Do So Many Different Things Cause Tinnitus?

I’ve wondered for a long time why do so many totally separate things cause tinnitus?

TMJ, noise induced hearing loss, infections, allergies etc. All very different causes that can cause tinnitus.

What if they all share a common pathology? Like inflammation.

@JohnAdams' tinnitus got silenced for a while when he took a high dosage of curcumin, which is known for its anti-inflammatoric properties and he has noice induced tinnitus.

Others have experienced reduction or total remission of their tinnitus by changing their diets to anti-inflammatoric diets.

What do you guys think? Why do SO many different things cause tinnitus as a symptom?

 

What it tells me is that people are clueless as to how much they really need to protect their hearing.

 

The people who post stories here with: ' I just woke up one day and it was there' terrify the absolute shit out of me. Makes me so scared of mine just becoming terribly loud one day without me having any control over it.

 

@Suzerman I think most people will say that is true; that they just woke up one day and it was there. True for me. But as to it becoming terribly loud one day is less likely as long as you take care of yourself, eat right and don't put yourself in situations that might exacerbate the issue.

 

It was the same for me really. No direct cause, just woke up one night with a loud tone in my ear (fleeting tinnitus), which went away, but the hissing remained and fluctuates daily. Some days I have to plug my ears to hear it other days I can swear I hear it over the tv. I do count my blessings everyday when I read stories here on the forum of people who are suffering so so so terribly, but at the same time knowing that a similar fate could be lurking around the corner is absolutely terrifying at times. I have a lot of fleeting tinnitus attacks as well which does not help. Sometimes I have five or so daily, which really makes me wonder what I am doing to trigger those, because they do not seem to be particularly linked to anything I do. These attacks have been quite loud at times, to the point where I was shocked my brain could produce such sounds which would leave me in a state of anxiety that could last hours sometimes. It makes me feel like my tinnitus could get extreme at any point no matter what I do to might prevent that. This condition just sucks so incredibly much. And I have had terrible eye floaters since I was 15 so I know a thing or two about conditions that eat away at your sanity like this

 

Couldn't agree more!

 

But like why do we all experience the same fuckin symptom when we have so different problems!? There has to be a connection, some middle pathway symptom!

 

@Kappdog, here's my best take (I'm no expert): -- I would say the commonality is "neurological disharmonies" resulting from "impacted nerves" and or "impacted micro-circulation", or something to that effect. Which I believe connects in with "impacted neurological communication" in the body itself.

Tinnitus can be a result of ear injury from acoustic trauma or ototoxic drugs (or other discordant hearing loss). It can also be a result of thyroid dysfunction, liver/kidney dysfunction, serious neck and/or TMJ misalignment, sinus infection, ear infection, whole body infections like Lyme, candida, some kind of virus, etc. All affect the immune system, which can send out cascades of cytokines which can cause or aggravate tinnitus.

Essentially, tinnitus is a symptom. Tells us something has gone wrong in the body somewhere. Thus the importance of doing the best we can to discern what thing or combintion of things is causing this symptom.

 

Hmm thats a good explination Its just wierd still! Im looking forward to the day that they know for sure!