I recently talked with my brother-in-law, an ophthalmologist on the East Coast, about his tinnitus. I was delighted/honored he reached out to me for help
He’s had tinnitus intermittently for years, but over the last year, it’s been getting worse. It’s now to the point that it’s making it difficult to get to sleep or even waking him up.During the day, he’s able to effectively tune it out, which is the ultimate goal of treatment for tinnitus.
He’s a very intelligent and passionate physician, so naturally he’s been reading up on the latest medical research on tinnitus. He forwarded a recent article from the Annals of Medicine and Surgery, entitled “SARS-CoV-2 vaccine-associated-tinnitus: A review”. It’s an interesting article reviewing available medical literature on the possible relationship between tinnitus and the vaccines against COVID. Without going into the details, suffice it to say that tinnitus doesn’t appear to be a side effect associated with the vaccines, or if so, is extremely rare.
The article got us talking about his specific case, since his symptoms got worse around the time he got vaccinated. He’s a little bit older than me, in his early 60’s. Like me, he has a passion for live music, attending a lot of concerts without hearing protection back in the day. We know loud noise exposure causes damage to the nerve cells in the inner ear, resulting in hearing loss and/or tinnitus. In addition, he’s a very active outdoor enthusiast (cycling, paddle surfing, skiing, etc.) with his share of blows to the head, including being hit by a drunk driver on his bike a few years ago. Head trauma is also strongly associated with tinnitus and hearing loss.
He had a hearing test ~2 years ago, diagnosed with mild, high frequency hearing loss. Even though his tinnitus has increased, he didn’t report any particular communication difficulties. I recommended that he get retested, but I’ll be surprised if his test reveals a statistically significant shift in that short a time. Regardless, I strongly encouraged him to begin treating his hearing loss with amplification (hearing aids) due to the documented short and long-term auditory & cognitive benefits of early/consistent treatment of sensorineural hearing loss. And to his main complaint, according to the American Tinnitus Assocation, the majority of hearing aid users report some reduction in their tinnitus. This jibes anecdotally with the experience of my patients over the last 25+ years. We also talked about diet, particularly reducing his caffeine and salt intake.
Specifically to address his sleeping issues, I recommended having some sort of soft, pleasant sound in the background (‘white’ noise, waves, rain, etc.).
Not to mask or cover the tinnitus he’s hearing, but to allow his brain to acclimate/habituate to the comforting sound, thereby ‘training’ the brain to do the same to the tinnitus.
The scientific community is constantly striving to better understand tinnitus and its many causes. With better understanding will come better, more effective treatments.
Please continue to love your community by getting vaccinated/boosted & masking up where appropriate. And please always support our local businesses.
