What Causes Ringing in my Ears, or Tinnitus

What causes the ringing in my ears, or Tinnitus? There are many causes for the ringing in your ears. Tinnitus can be a simple experience where you bend over to fast and your ears start to ring and you stand up and in a few seconds it stops. Or it can be a never ending trauma that almost drives you insane.

Having high blood pressure, a sinus infection, a headache, a buildup of wax in your ear, or a low potassium level can all cause Tinnitus. Many children, who suffered from ear infections when they were young, grow up to have tinnitus. Damage to the Cochlea inside the ear, or dental surgery, and even some sports accidents, all are causes for tinnitus.

Malformations in the ear as well as both outer and inner ear infections are notorious for causing tinnitus. One of the biggest culprits that cause ringing in your ears is noise. After a concert, many people get a good case of tinnitus. Usually it passes in a few hours to a day or two, but sometimes it won't. Loud noise of any kind can be very detrimental to your hearing. Lots of machinery produces extremely loud noises and you should always protect yourself by wearing ear plugs. Your hearing is not something you should play around with.

Certain medications, both over the counter as well as prescription medications can also cause that ringing in your ears. There are over 290 different medications that have been proven to cause tinnitus. Everything from antibiotics to aspirin, yes, aspirin! Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs have been shown to cause tinnitus as well.

Loop Diuretics, Psychedelic Drugs, Chemotherapy, Antiviral Drugs, and other medications such as anti- depressants are all proven causes of tinnitus. If you are on any of these medications and your start to have ringing in your ears, get to your doctor as soon as you can, and make sure you inform he/she about your tinnitus symptoms. Your doctor should be able to substitute other medication that doesn't have tinnitus as a side effect. Luckily, if caught in time your doctor should be able to reverse your tinnitus, easily.

Another more prevalent cause of Tinnitus comes from sinus infections. With your doctor's help, you can alleviate the noises caused by the pressure in your sinus canal, but do seek medical help, because this type of infection can linger even after the symptoms of the sinus infection are gone.

Barometric pressure changes have been known to cause ear ringing. If you're flying on board an air plane, the changes in altitude can cause tinnitus as well. Some patients can be affected by the simple change in the weather. When a storm rolls in, so does tinnitus.

The worst though, is when you can't find a cause. Many doctors treating tinnitus patients have a hard time due to the fact that they can't diagnose the cause of their patient's tinnitus problem. Sometimes there is no cause to be found, but there are new treatments and medications and holistic cures available now that make suffering from tinnitus a thing of the past.