Pulsatile tinnitus is a type of tinnitus that has rhythmic sound that beats in time with your heartbeat or pulse. There may be a single or multiple rhythms that can be heard as a low pitch thumping or booming sound or a high pitched clicking sound. This can be usually heard or this may not always be the case, through a stethoscope placed on the patient’s neck or using an ear canal microphone.

While this form of ear ringing is not common, it has well known causes why this type of tinnitus occurs in some people. Some of these causes are hypertension, heart murmur, glomus tumor, Eustachian tube disorder, abnormalities in the veins or artery. Pulsatile tinnitus is usually caused by the change in the blood flow in the large arteries, veins in the neck or the base of the skull, and the small blood vessels inside the ear.

Fortunately, this kind of tinnitus can be treated effectively, if the root cause is diagnosed properly. Treatment can be targeted in for specific cause to stop the sound that the patients hear. Blood circulation can be regulated with proper diagnosis and identification of the cause. In general, there are various factors that affect’s blood flow in the body.

These are:

v     Hardening of the arteries – the blood vessels becomes constricted and the blood flowing in the veins becomes erratic instead of smooth, thus, contributing to the pulsating sound that a patient hears.

v     Narrowing of the blood vessels – this will result in pulsatile tinnitus because of the adjoining blood vessels will carry the extra load of the other blood vessels, thus the flow will generate noise and nerve impulses movement are more pronounce.

v     If there are abnormalities in the arteries and the veins, such as the case of arteriovenous malformation, which affects the flow of blood in the ears, and an abnormality near the cranial cavity that is near the auditory nerve.

v     Severe head trauma

v     Severe or chronic inflammation of the middle ear, this type of inflammation causes an increase blood flow inside the ear.

v     Accumulation of ear fluid in the middle ear, making the Eustachian tube dysfunctional and accumulate large amount of fluid in the middle ear, this may be due to severe cases of sinusitis or infection.

v     High levels of cholesterol in the body can affect the blood flow in the body. This can obstruct the blood flow in body because of the thickening of the walls of the veins, which results in lesser blood and oxygen passage.

v     Tumors and polyps in the middle ear, this is commonly known as glomus tumors. Often these benign types of tumors affect the middle ear. Removal of the tumors is done via surgery.

v     Dehiscence or a missing bone in the jugular bulb, an area in the skull, which contains the jugular veins, can produce a pulsating sound.

If a patient is suspected to have pulsatile tinnitus, additional tests may be done to study the blood circulation, the state of the blood vessels and to check the pressure inside the head. The patient that has this type of ringing in the ears will generally undergo CT scans, Magnetic resonance scanning, Magnet resonance angiography or angiography. Fortunately, pulsatile tinnitus can be treated according to its specific cause. The treatment requires a multi-disciplinary approach that includes symptoms management. The treatments can be a variety of methods such as drug therapy, biofeedback, sound and or relaxation techniques and other alternative treatments. This targets the specific condition that the person has.

Tinnitus is a phantom ringing in the ears. This is not a disease instead, it diagnosed as a symptom of an underlying disease or health problem. The constant ringing in the ears can be accompanied by other medical conditions such mucus and wax build up, ear infections, foreign objects inside the ear, fluid drain abnormality, injury from loud music or noises, and sinus congestion. Sinus congestion occurs when the Eustachian tubes or sinus opening in the ears are being blocked by polyps or mucus. The thickening of mucus in the middle ear causes ear ringing sensation to sinusitis and allergy sufferers.

The mucus in the middle ear performs a vital function in the ear canal. The mucus membrane produces mucus in the ear to cleanse the middle ear of trapped dirt and other particles. Ideally, this liquid drains out via the Eustachian tubes and into the throat when it has finished its job. However, accumulation of mucus can occur due to the thickening of the mucus and change of viscosity of the fluid, which is the case of sinusitis, allergic rhinitis, and other forms of allergy. It then blocks the middle ear and the result is pressure build up, which can lead in the inner ear infection and causes tinnitus.

The ringing in the ears is further complicated by the prescribed medications to treat the inner ear infection. These medications are oftentimes antibiotics and anti-histamines to control allergies. This oftentimes has an ear ringing sensation effect to people suffering from sinusitis. This is a called type 3 Tinnitus that means drug induced tinnitus and would often go away after treatment has finished. However, there are those that have chronic sinusitis that could lead to severe ringing in the ears due to severe pressure and thickening of the mucus, which blocks the middle ear. Sounds like this inside your ear can be very annoying and depressing to the sufferer. Not only does the person with chronic nasal congestion have to suffer, they have to cope with the chronic buzzing, whooshing, crackling and popping sound, they hear in their ears. This can sometimes lead to gradual weakening of hearing and eventually hearing loss if the damage is extensive.

With all this taking place inside the ears, frustration and depression sets in. Thus, contributes to stress which will further complicate things, as there is also a so called stress induced ringing.

Cures for sinus problems are nasal sprays, decongestants, and in the case of allergy induced congestion cases, allergic medication are prescribed by doctors. Once the problem has been treated with these medications, the strange noises that one hears should gradually disappear. Another cure is surgery, many people who have chronic sinusitis, often decides to have surgery to alleviate the problem.

However, if the problem persists after these treatments, your physician will look into other underlying medical conditions that you have. This condition can cause a person some potential problems like anxiety, insomnia, depression, affects concentration, and it can affect the quality of life of an individual so therefore it is important to seek medical advice at once.

Tinnitus at a Glance: What Causes the Swishing Sound inside Your Ear

Tinnitus is described as the ringing in the ears, from its Latin origin, which means ringing. A sufferer from tinnitus hears a ringing noise, buzzing sound, whistling sound, or sounds of a blowing wind usually describes this symptom. Millions of people all over the world suffers from Tinnitus, in fact, one out of five Americans suffers from this symptoms. The sounds that one can hear ranges from a quiet cricket like background noise or those that can be heard over loud external sound. The sound that one can hear oftentimes creates distress and interferes with the sufferer’s daily activities. In most severe cases, a sufferer finds it difficult to hear, work, have problems with balance, and even have difficulty in sleeping.

However, this is not a disease or a disorder in itself but it is a symptom associated with hearing loss or an underlying poor health condition. The ringing in the ears can come from any of the four section of the ear, namely: the outer ear, the middle ear, the inner ear, and the brain. Sometimes head sound is normal, often, we are not aware of these sounds because the outside noise masks them. 

Diseases in the eardrum or tympanic membrane can cause tinnitus, fluid retention or infection in the middle ear can also cause ringing ears. One of the most common causes is the damage of the ears microscopic endings; this is the hearing nerve inside the ear. It is a hair like membrane or cilia, which is responsible in sending the signals that our ear receives and then sends this signals in our brain. Older people are more prone because of their age, which results in hearing nerve impairment, thus hearing loss is inevitable to older people and consequently tinnitus.

The underlying health condition that causes ringing in the ears, are allergies, elevated blood pressure, low blood pressure, increase in the blood sugar level, tumors or polyps in the ear, problems in the heart and blood vessels, high cholesterol levels, stress, are disorders that contributes to blood vessels contractions thus, restricting blood flow and oxygen flow to the blood vessels. Another, problem is that, if there are jaw and neck problems, such as tooth impaction and other neck injuries.  It can also be a symptom of serious health problems such as aneurysm, brain tumor particularly acoustic neuromas (a benign tumor that presses against the auditory nerve), and diseases in the inner ear, such as Meniere’s syndrome. It is a disorder wherein the flow of the fluid and regulation of the fluid in the inner ear is abnormal. Some medications can also contribute to tinnitus, according to doctors and pharmacists, there are more than 200 medicines that can cause tinnitus, and they are aspirins, antibiotics, anti-depressants, anti-inflammatory drugs, those with naproxen sodium as one of their drug components, oral contraceptives, and medicines for chemotherapy to name a few.

Today, exposure to extreme loud noises contributes to ringing in the ears. People who are constantly exposed to loud noises like those that operates heavy machinery, works in factories with large equipments, and those that loves high intensity music, musicians, and works in a firing range or has a hobby of firearms shooting, has a harmful effect in the ear.

It is very important that you see a doctor when you suspect that you are suffering from tinnitus. This is not a disease in itself but it is a symptom with an underlying health condition, your doctor will run a series of test to know the exact cause of the symptom.

Tinnitus affects everyone young and old alike. However, much of our attention is given to adults because of the underlying factors that accompany tinnitus. Another is that children cannot specifically say what they feel or if there is something wrong with them. More often, children that hear some ringing in the ears will only take the sounds for granted, and accept the fact that their ringing ears are normal occurrences. Especially those children that are born with tinnitus, they will assume that the sounds that they hear inside their ears are normal. Some will disregard these sensations because they have learned to mask the unusual sounds, and assumes that all children experience the same thing.

Tinnitus is an ear discomfort that bothers millions of people all over the world. Adults especially those who are old are more prone to have tinnitus because of some health complications and other causes. Unfortunately, this kind of hearing abnormality not only affects the adult population but the younger generation as well. In fact experts say that more children especially those that are in school are affected by this ailment. Children with tinnitus are sometimes caused by excessive wax build-up, abnormalities in their ear canals, fluid retention, middle ear infection (sometimes children do not know how to expel fluids in their nose, this viscous fluid being full of bacteria can be trapped inside the sinuses, thus creating ringing in the ears). Children can also damage their eardrums because of sticking objects in their ears that can damage their eardrums or cause infections due to foreign objects or parents push up the waxes inside by cleaning them with cotton buds pushing dirt, and other wax build-up inside along with it.

As a parent, you can watch out for some signs or clues that they are experiencing this kind of ailment. Children with tinnitus show behavior changes and moods which are different from their usual behavior, they become distracted and unable to concentrate, they have poor attention, depressed, unable to focus, poor hearing abilities, insomnia, restlessness, and will always complain about pain in their ears, or have chronic ear infection. Parents need to identify these changes in their behavior and talk to your children right away. Most of the time this condition can be treated and temporary, however, if a child is born with tinnitus early intervention might be able to stop the progression of the condition, save his hearing, and examine the extent of the damage. The doctor can offer masking devices to lessen the sounds that child hears, and undergo therapy.

Other reasons why children are experiencing this condition are mostly like the same as that of the adults although, it is rare for children to have extremely high cholesterol levels at a very young age, but those other underlying health condition cannot be discounted until further medical test have been done. A child may have diabetes, which also contributes to erratic blood flow, heart problems or had some head injury due to a fall and the like. Another reason is that it can be a precursor for deafness. In general, parents have to be aware of the condition of their child and how are they feeling. Always talk to them and listen to what they are saying.

          Tinnitus is a condition wherein the patient hears ringing, swishing or other kinds of noise that seems to be produced inside the ear or within the head. In many cases, tinnitus is not a serious problem which does not usually cause life threatening situations but it is rather a nuisance that can cause irritation and discomfort to the patient. Most of the time the disorder is only a result of a medication or perhaps stress and eventually goes away. However, there is literature that supports the fact that some patients experience tinnitus for long periods of time and can even cause sleep disturbance.

          Doctors often describe tinnitus to be a symptom rather than a real singular disease. Almost 36 million Americans are suffering or have suffered from this disorder in their lifetime and in most cases, the type of tinnitus that they have is subjective wherein only the patient can hear the noise.

          So what causes this irritating disorder? First of all, this disorder can start in any of the four parts of the ear—the outer ear, the inner ear, the middle ear, and yes, the brain. Some occurrences of this disorder are pretty normal and should not be cause for distress. For example, people who go into a booth that is sound proof, where the outside or ambient noise is decreased, can hear a whining or metallic sound because the ear is straining to make out the loss of ambient noise. However, tinnitus can also be caused by fluid or infection inside the ear or some disease of the middle ear bone structures. Damage to the ear drum can definitely cause this disorder if not total hearing loss.

          One of the most common reasons as to why this disorder occurs is damage to the stereocilia, which is the lining of the inner ear. Of course hearing disorders are generally apparent to people as they are growing older, so age is the usual reason for elderly people who suffer from this disorder. But in younger people who are supposed to have good health, when this disorder occurs to them, it is usually due to exposure to loud noise. People in noisy occupations like firearms and music are very vulnerable to experiencing this disorder.

          There is also evidence that some medications like aspirin and erythromycin, which are common medications found in almost home, can cause this disorder. Disease of the inner ear like Meniere’s syndrome and otitis media can also cause this disorder to occur. In general, any change in the health or in the matrix of the inner ear can cause the person to hear ringing as the body’s response to the change.

          However, this disorder can also be a signal to bigger complications. This disorder can sometimes be a symptom to serious and even deadly cardiovascular problems like aneurysm. It can also be indicative of a brain tumor. Because of the many reasons and causes for this disorder, people who are experiencing a ringing noise in their ears should have them checked before it will become even worse.

          Tinnitus and hearing loss poses a great possibility of it being a permanent condition. It is also generally accepted that it cannot be cured anymore. Therefore the single most effective way to avoid any hearing disorders like tinnitus is to take certain precautionary measures. However, if you hear a ringing or buzzing in the ears after you have been exposed to a loud environment like a rock concert or noisy traffic, it means that there is a huge fraction of your stereocilia have already been destroyed or damaged. You can experience the early signs of the disorder with prolonged and frequent exposure to noise levels of more or less 70 decibels because this is already enough to cause damage to hearing. Musicians or DJs are the most susceptible victims of this disorder. Therefore if you are in this industry, then you might consider wearing earplugs that keep the noise to an ear friendly level. These earplugs play a huge role in preventing the disorder and can even prolong your ears’ health without compromising your ability to listen to the music. This also follows for people working with loud electrical appliances like vacuum cleaners, hair blowers and lawn mowers.

          It is also important that you check the medications that you usually or regularly take for their potential risk for ototoxicity. Ototoxicity is a condition that is cumulative, so even if you do not overdose on a medicine or if you do not take it so often, if the level of ototoxicity of the medication is high, then you might still develop tinnitus in the long run. While these drugs are not actually the ones that cause the stereocilia to die or get damaged, it greatly multiplies the effect of noise to the ear. In case you really need to take ototoxic medication like if you are undergoing chemotherapy where most of the medicines have high levels of ototoxicity, then pay close attention to the instruction of the physician and the prescription details especially when it comes to dosage and intervals between dosages to reduce the possible damages.

            There are a number of drugs that are known to damage the cochlea. These drugs include aminoglycoside antibiotics and aspirin. Other substances that damage the ear are nicotine, and loop diuretics used for weight loss. Medicines like erythromycin and other varieties of macrolide antibiotics can cause temporary deafness, but is quickly resolved when the drug is withdrawn from the body.

          Tinnitus can come from many causes, but the most common reason for tinnitus is otologic disorders, which is the same cause of hearing loss. Another reason for tinnitus is noise-induced hearing loss, but there are also rare circumstances wherein the tinnitus is caused by no apparent external cause. With the condition of people’s lifestyle today, it is hard not to get exposed to loud music and noise. It is simply the price that we pay for technology. However, this does not mean that you can just allow the noise to destroy your ears rather you should take this cue to take care of your ears more by wearing earplugs when you know that you will be exposed to loud environments like traffic or concerts.

The most common basis for a scientific and quantitative measurement for this disorder depends on the brain’s capacity to pick out only the loudest of the sounds heard. Because of this discovery, the level of a patient’s hearing disorder can be almost accurately measured by playing a few sample music or sounds with amplitudes that are already known. After which the patient will be asked which of the sounds played is most audible to him or her. The level of a patient’s tinnitus will always be equal or a bit less than the sounds heard by the patient. For example, Patient A reports that he is hearing a buzzing sound in both ears. For a doctor to be able to know how loud the buzzing is in the patient’s ears, he will play, perhaps, a song in ten decibels only. If the patient cannot hear it, then the buzzing sound must be stronger than the song. So the doctor goes up to 20 or even higher until the patient will say that he can hear what the doctor is playing. So say, for example, that the patient said that he can faintly hear the song that the doctor is playing at 100 decibels, that means that Patient A’s disorder is around 100 decibels loud. This method works particularly well to measure the gravity of objective tinnitus.

Objective tinnitus is a type of tinnitus that occurs when a doctor or clinician can actually hear the sounds, like cracking or hissing, from inside the patient’s ear. This is caused by muscle spasms that may cause clicks or crackling in the middle ear. It can also be caused by blood turbulence in the ear. In some instances, though very rarely, it can be a signal for a carotid artery aneurysm, which can be life threatening.

However, objective tinnitus is not very common. Most of the time, patients with pulsatile tumors (one of the causes of the objective type) will continue describing other sounds in their ears even after the tumor has been removed. So this disorder is generally subjective and subjective tinnitus cannot be tested by comparative methods. Up to this day, there is no quantitative method that can be used to test this disorder.

If a patient can hear only one sample noise and they can detect it to five decibels and below, that would mean that the level of the disorder is very low and almost impossible to hear. However, there are some instances that the same patients who can hear a sample noise of below five decibels will describe the ringing in their ears to exceed 70 decibels when they are asked to focus on it. At 70 decibels, the sound that they hear is louder than a ringing telephone. This means that the patient can hear certain sounds, but need to focus on a particular sound to tell how loud or soft it is. This, again, makes subjective tinnitus hard to categorize. Some researchers say that this disorder is a form of obsession of the patient. He or she is simply obsessed with the noise that even if it is quite low, they feel and perceive it as very bothersome. This is partially true, but is lacking in heavy scientific evidence.

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