Complaints & connections · borters.ch
A sound that arises in the hearing system, not in the environment — the less attention it gets, the more it recedes.
Also known as: tinnitus · ringing in the ears · ear noise
Open in the tool — with search and all the links →This compilation is for information and replaces neither medical diagnosis nor treatment. If you have symptoms, see a doctor.
A sound only the affected person hears — ringing, hissing, humming or buzzing. It usually arises not in the ear but in hearing processing: when part of hearing drops out, the brain fills the gap with a substitute signal. Common triggers are noise, sudden hearing loss, age-related hearing loss, tension in the neck and jaw joint, and certain medications. Acute tinnitus, especially with hearing loss or dizziness, should be seen by an ENT doctor promptly. If it persists, the goal is less to remove it than to make it recede in daily life — hearing aids, sound enrichment and behavioural therapy help many people effectively.
A rushing that grows louder before an attack of dizziness and fades again afterwards, always in the same ear and tied to a feeling of pressure, is not an ordinary tinnitus. This combination deserves a targeted look.
In quiet the brain has nothing else to listen to. A soft background — a fan, rain sounds, music just below the loudness of the tone — makes falling asleep possible again for many.
Very often a hearing loss in exactly that frequency range sits behind the tone. If that range is supplied with sound again, the tone recedes into the background for many.
A newly appeared one-sided tone with a dull feeling in the ear can be sudden hearing loss — and there the first days count.
A concert, a building site, a chainsaw, a brass band: a single loud event can strengthen the tone for good. Custom-made filters damp it without distorting the sound.
The tone does not get quieter, but it can stop standing in the foreground. Behavioural therapy with that aim is the best-supported treatment — and it still works after years.
About ten to fifteen in a hundred people have a lasting ear noise; in most it moves into the background over the months, because the brain filters it out. A noise that is new and one-sided belongs assessed promptly.
There is no drug that removes a ringing in the ears — neither circulation drugs nor cortisone nor ginkgo managed it in comparisons. What works in studies is aimed not at the sound but at the burden it causes: behavioural therapy over eight to twelve weeks lowers it distinctly without the tone getting quieter. A hearing aid helps if there is hearing loss, because it fills the silence in which the sound stands out.
At night let a quiet source run, no louder than the ringing itself. It does not disappear — what changes is the space it takes up.
Put the plugs in beforehand, not once it hurts, and keep distance from the source. Inner-ear noise damage comes from loudness times duration and does not reverse.
In silence, when falling asleep, when tired, after noise and under tension. This dependence on situation and attention is typical — and it is where the treatment starts.
A high-pitched whistle on both sides usually goes with a hearing loss in the high tones. A one-sided tone that is new or sounds clearly different belongs examined — as does a one-sided hearing loss.
A rushing or throbbing sound exactly in time with the heartbeat is something different from the ordinary tone. A vessel is behind it — that belongs investigated.
If biting down, opening the mouth or turning the head changes the loudness or the pitch, the jaw or the neck is taking part. That is good news, because it can be treated there.
Trouble falling asleep, an irritable mood, problems concentrating and withdrawal from silence. These accompanying effects often matter more for the burden than the loudness of the tone itself.
No value explains a noise in the ear. These values look for the few accompanying causes that can be treated — the thyroid is the commonest of them.
Anaemia strengthens noises in the ear and dizziness, because the inner ear reacts very sensitively to its supply.
An iron shortage without anaemia belongs to the same considerations and is simple to correct.
A blood sugar raised over years damages the fine vessels and nerves of the inner ear. The value does not change the noise at once, but it changes the long course.
Without B12 the insulating layer of the nerves is not maintained. A lack causes tingling, numbness and unsteadiness in the dark — and it is one of the few reasons for nerve trouble that can be fully undone if found early.
The nerves cover their energy needs through thiamine. It runs short with alcohol, after stomach operations, with long-lasting vomiting and under water tablets.
Here both count: a lack harms the nerves, and too high an intake over months harms them as well. Supplements therefore belong taken in a dose that has a reason.
Works together with B12. Given alone, folate can improve the blood count while the B12 deficiency goes on damaging the nerves — which is why both are looked at together.
The most-named remedy for ringing in the ears. The pooled studies at 120–240 mg a day over 12 weeks find no reliable difference from placebo. What helps in studies is the handling of it — behavioural therapy and sound therapy.
With a proven zinc deficiency an improvement was reported in small studies, without one not. The value can be measured before taking it over months.
3 mg in the evening over 4 weeks improved sleep above all in studies — and with sleep the burden of the sound. The sound itself does not get quieter.
Clearly worthwhile and well supported when deficient — vegan, older adults, certain drugs. No energy boost without a deficiency.
In pregnancy clearly established against neural-tube defects, otherwise mainly with deficiency. Can mask a B12 deficiency — watch both.
Both directions of the thyroid can cause ringing in the ears — overactivity through the raised turnover, underactivity through fluid retention in the inner ear. The value belongs to the first work-up.
Strain makes the sound louder — not because it increases, but because attention on it rises. That is the point behavioural therapy works on, and it has the best numbers here.
At night, when nothing else can be heard, the sound is at its loudest. Sleep is therefore the most important lever — not against the tone, but against the burden it causes.
For a long time cutting coffee was advised. In a controlled trial caffeine withdrawal even led to more complaints. Anyone who likes coffee need not give it up because of tinnitus.
With a proven deficiency correction improves the perception of the sound in some. Without deficiency studies show no benefit — measuring is worthwhile, blind supplementing is not.
Does not change the sound but the attention paid to it — the best-studied path.
Sound and noise therapies cover the tone and especially ease falling asleep.
Ear and kidney belong together in TCM — hence this point for ringing in the ears.