What Causes Tinnitus and Treatment Strategies

Chances are you or someone you know suffers from tinnitus , a phantom sound described as a continuous ringing, buzzing or whistling. This sound is perceived within the ears or the head that occurs without any external source of sound. However, it is not the ear that is responsible for tinnitus though it may be one factor. Instead, the cause of a person’s tinnitus can be found in the brain. Check out the video to understand how the brain causes tinnitus and what treatment strategies can be use…

6/10/2021 0

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Dr. Chang Quoted in a Refinery29 Article About Running with Allergies

With spring coming, people are running more outside. However, with the nice weather, allergies are also flaring up. So what should an allergic runner do? Dr. Chang was contacted by journalist Corey Stieg regarding this very situation, in an article published by Refinery29 on April 8, 2019. Quoted from article: If you have trouble breathing because your nose feels stuffy, for example, using a steroidal nasal spray ahead of time, such as Flonase or Nasacort, can be very helpful, explains…

4/10/2019 0

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Dr. Chang Quoted in a Refinery29 Article About Tinnitus

With the recent release of “ A Star is Born ” starring Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper, an important subplot of the movie is when the star developed debilitating tinnitus . Dr. Chang was contacted by journalist Corey Stieg regarding the tinnitus as portrayed in the movie, in an article published by Refinery29 on Oct 4, 2018. Quoted from article: Often, tinnitus is associated with noise-induced hearing loss, which is why it's common among musicians, explains Christopher Chang, MD , an …

10/07/2018 0

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Can Cell Phones Cause Brain Tumors?

I first blogged about this possibility in 2010 [ link ], but at that time, there were too many conflicting studies that definitive conclusions could not be made though precautions were advisable. However, in May 2016, the National Institute of Health  released partial findings from a 2 year study that exposed rats to the same radio-frequency non-ionizing radiation given off by cell phones. The study found that exposure to mobile phone radiation significantly increased the prevalence of heart…

10/01/2016 0

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Jaw Movement Causing Tinnitus and/or Clogged Ear Sensation

Not uncommonly, a patient can present with complaints of tinnitus , clogged ears , and hearing loss influenced by jaw movement. Specifically, opening or clenching the mouth excessively makes the tinnitus and clogged ear sensation worse. Relaxing the jaw decreases these symptoms. For some ear symptoms, contraction of the middle ear muscles ( stapedius and tensor tympani ) may contribute to "muffling" of sounds. Inflammation of the jaw joint can lead to ear pain ... but some other…

5/25/2016 1

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Where Does Tinnitus Come From? Ear or Brain?

It is invariable that when a patient comes to an ENT office complaining of tinnitus or ringing of the ears that only they can hear, that they feel this problem stems from purely an inner ear problem. However, the truth is WAY more complicated in that this phantom ringing actually comes more from the brain rather than the ear and as such, treatment (if any possible) is geared more towards the brain rather than the ear. The analogy I often use to explain this phenomenon is phantom limb pain.…

1/22/2016 1

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Does Magnetic Stimulation Help Tinnitus? (Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation)

Image from NeuroStar Given media exposure, there has been greater public interest in the use of powerful magnetic impulses applied to the head in order to treat tinnitus . It is hypothesized that this treatment called repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) works by temporarily disrupting abnormally hyper-excitable brain circuits within the auditory cortex and resetting it to a more "normal" baseline. At this time, rTMS is FDA approved to treat depression only, but an…

8/01/2015 0

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Video of Cochlear Hydrops (What Happens in the Inner Ear)

This video  demonstrates what is thought to occur in  Cochlear Hydrops  within the inner ear. It is hypothesized that  Cochlear Hydrops  is due to an excessive amount of fluid buildup within the endolymphatic chamber causing symptoms of  tinnitus  and  ear fullness . No dizziness is present.

2/11/2015 0

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New Test to Identify People at Risk of Permanent Hearing Loss from Loud Noises

In any industrialized country like the United States, everybody has been exposed to loud noises whether from a lawnmower, playing in a band, shooting guns, or going to a rock concert. It also seems that some people compared to others appear more prone to temporary hearing loss after such loud noise exposure. You know... it's the ringing, fullness, and hearing loss after leaving the loud noise event. And than over a few hours or days, the hearing comes back to normal. This temporary hear…

9/01/2014 0

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Ear Injection of AM-101 May Stop Tinnitus

Phantom ringing of the ears also known as tinnitus is an extremely frustrating condition that afflicts many people. Often triggered by hearing nerve damage, there's no good treatment to fix this condition once it sets in. Until possibly now...  AM-101 made by Auris Medical is an experimental drug containing esketamine hydrochloride embedded within a hyaluronic acid gel formulation. It works by blocking the NMDA receptors of the cochlear inner hair cell. Normally, when there…

7/19/2014 1

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Hearing Loss Over Time

It is well-known that professional musicians have a higher risk of hearing loss and tinnitus compared to non-musicians. According to one study , the risk for musicians is 1.5x for hearing loss and nearly 4x for tinnitus. And although people understand that as you get older, hearing loss increases, what is less clear is how quickly hearing loss occurs over time. After analyzing over 3 million subjects , here is the graph of hearing loss with age. Intuitively, I thought there would have bee…

5/03/2014 0

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Law Firm Launches Website for Tinnitus Sufferers

It would be a sad day indeed if a patient google searches a medical condition or symptom and the first page of results are all pointing to a law firm. In perhaps the beginning towards this possibility, personal injury law firm, Mercury Legal Online , has launched a website dedicated to patients who suffer tinnitus and hearing loss sustained from time working in a job that contained a lot of loud noise without using hearing protection . Thanks to  @earsurgeonuk who brought this to my att…

9/09/2013 0

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Medications that (Might) Help Tinnitus?

The blunt answer is that there is no drug or supplement that has been consistently found to help with tinnitus (ringing of the ears). Here's a partial table showing all the research that has been done either proving or disproving effectiveness to treat tinnitus (info collected from this review paper ). For a more comprehensive list going over 17 drugs, click here . Drug Research That Supports Research That Disputes …

7/09/2013 1

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Cicadas Can Cause Permanent Hearing Loss!

Cicadas are pretty darn ugly... But beyond their ugliness and making cars look pretty messed up... the sound they make is not only irritating, but potentially harmful. Sometime the end of this April 2013, billions of large flying insects called cicadas will make their appearance along with their characteristic stridorous noise. The male cicadas are the ones making this mating noise with "tymbal" soundmakers amplified by large resonance chambers found on body. Occurring every 1…

4/11/2013 2

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How Much Caffeine is Present in Coffee? Decaff? Chocolate?

©  Radu Razvan Gheorghe  |  Dreamstime Stock Photos There are quite a few ENT problems that can potentially be due to caffeine intake. Even death has been attributed to high caffeine intake in young adults who drink a lot of energy drinks like Red Bull. In any case, caffeine can contribute to (some proven, some suspected, some debatable): •  Tinnitus • Meniere's Disease •  Migraine Headaches •  Headaches •  Dizziness •  Reflux •  Lump in Throat Sensation (Globus) •  Chron…

2/06/2013 0

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Mozart May Help with Tinnitus

Currently, there is no fast, good, and cheap way of resolving tinnitus . Tinnitus is in essence hearing a ringing or buzzing that does not exist in reality. At best, it may be something you hear, but does not bother. At worst, it can literally drive a person crazy. Neuromonics is perhaps one of the very few treatment protocols that has been proven to work resolving/improving tinnitus in 80-90% of patients over a period of months. However, it is expensive... typically around $6000 out-o…

10/03/2012 0

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Sheryl Crow Blames Brain Tumor on Cell Phone Use

On the inaugural episode of Katie Couric's new talk show Katie , Sheryl Crow described her history with a brain tumor called meningioma which was found in her right temporal lobe. This diagnosis was reported in a previous blog post . Most interestingly, during the show, she blames the meningioma on excessive cell phone use years ago when she was on the phone for hours promoting her records using one of those archaic analog cell phones. The relationship between cell phone use and brain…

9/26/2012 0

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Movie Sets are Dangerous to Ears!

First it was Maggie Q, and now I learn that there are other celebrities with hearing loss due to movie set loud noise exposure. Leonard Nimoy (Spock of Star Trek fame) suffers from right ear tinnitus due to hearing damage from a special effects explosion during filming of Star Trek episode "Arena". Similarly, Steve Martin suffers from tinnitus due to hearing damage sustained during filming of a pistol-shooting scene for "¡Three Amigos!" in 1986. Here is a full l…

9/02/2011 0

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Do Cell Phones Pose a Health Hazard? Do Cell Phone Companies Know About Them?

With all the recent news about increased glucose metabolism in the area of the brain in proximity to cell phone antennas  (study abstract here ), I thought it worth re-printing this blog article I wrote back in November 2010 regarding the possibility that cell phone makers may know more about health risks associated with cell phone use than they may be letting on. There's another blog article I wrote regarding what studies ARE already out there regarding risk of developing brain tumors …

2/26/2011 3

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Wireless and Cell Phones Increase Risk of Brain Tumors

In an ongoing controversy regarding whether cell phones and wireless phones can lead to brain tumors like astrocytoma, malignant gliomas, and benign acoustic neuromas, several recent studies published since 2009 containing long-term (10+ years) follow-up have lent support that it does. The group at greatest risk for development of brain tumors have the following characteristics: 1) Use of cell/wireless phone younger than age 20 (the younger the age with first use, the worse the risk) 2) …

1/19/2011 0

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