Are you going mad with that tinnitus in your ears? Discover whether your tinnitus is inherited or what the cause might be.
What is tinnitus?
Tinnitus is the term describing a person’s perception of a ringing, droning, or buzzing in the ear with no external stimulus present to explain this experience. The term tinnitus translates to “ringing like a bell.”
How will tinnitus impact my daily living?
Tinnitus can disrupt personal connections in several aggravating ways. It’s normally an indication that you have damaged hearing or some underlying health condition and not a disease in and of itself. Your ability to stay focused can be significantly disrupted when you begin to hear tinnitus in one or both ears.
Regardless of how you’re experiencing tinnitus, it’s always disruptive. influence your sleep and even cause anxiety and depression.
What are the causes of tinnitus?
Tinnitus can be constant or temporary. Lengthy exposure to loud noise, like a rock concert, is typically the cause of short-term tinnitus. There are a few medical issues that tend to go hand-in-hand with tinnitus.
A few of the conditions that could play host to tinnitus include:
- Age-related hearing loss
- Injuries that impact nerves of the ear
- Accumulation of excessive earwax
- Acoustic neuroma where a benign tumor grows on the cranial nerve going from the brain to the inner ear
- Inner ear cell damage and irritation of the sensitive hairs used to conduct sound, causing random transmissions of sound to your brain
- Meniere’s Disease
- Anxiety or depression
- Teeth grinding (bruxism) related to a TMJ disorder
- Injuries to the neck or head
- Exposure to loud sound for prolonged periods of time
- The ear bone has undergone changes
- Inner ear infections
- Numerous medications
Is it possible that my parents may have passed down the ringing in my ears?
Tinnitus isn’t directly hereditary. But the symptoms can be influenced by your genes. For example, ear bone changes that can lead to tinnitus can be inherited. Abnormal bone growth can cause these changes and can be handed down through family genes. Some of the other conditions that can result in ringing in the ear could be passed down from your parents, including:
- Being predisposed to depression or anxiety
- Specific diseases
- Being prone to inner ear infections or wax build-up
The ringing in your ear is not directly inheritable, but you might have been genetically susceptible to the conditions that are breeding grounds for tinnitus.
If your family has a history of tinnitus, you should definitely come in for an assessment.