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 referring to a person’s perception of a ringing, droning, or buzzing in the ear with no external noises present to explain this sensation. The word tinnitus translates to “ringing like a bell.”
How will my daily living be affected by tinnitus?
Tinnitus can be frustrating and can interrupt intimate connections. It’s normally an indication that you have damaged hearing or some underlying health condition and not a disease in and of itself. You may hear tinnitus in one ear or both ears and it can impede your ability to concentrate.
Regardless of the way in which you’re experiencing tinnitus, it’s always bothersome. influence your sleep and even cause anxiety and depression.
What are the causes of tinnitus?
Tinnitus can be enduring or it can come and go. Short term types of tinnitus are usually brought on by prolonged exposure to loud noises, such as a rock concert. Tinnitus has been known to co-occur with a few different medical issues.
A few of the circumstances that might play host to tinnitus include:
- Anxiety or depression
- Injuries that impact nerves of the ear
- Meniere’s Disease
- Inner ear cell damage and irritation of the fragile hairs used to conduct sound, causing random transmissions of sound to your brain
- Hearing loss associated with aging
- Changes in the composition of the ear bone
- Head or neck injuries
- Excessive earwax accumulation
- Inner ear infections
- Different medications
- Bruxism, more commonly referred to as teeth grinding stemming from temporomandibular joint problems, or TMJ disorder
- Exposure to loud noise for prolonged periods of time
- A benign tumor, called acoustic neuroma, grows on cranial nerve
Is it possible that my parents could have passed down the ringing in my ears?
Generally, tinnitus isn’t a hereditary condition. But the symptoms can be affected by your genes. You can, as an example, inherit a tendency for your ear bone to change. These changes are related to abnormal bone growth that can be passed down through family lines. Some of the other conditions that can result in ringing in the ear could be passed down from your parents, including:
- Specific diseases
- Being prone to inner ear infections or wax build-up
- Predisposition to anxiety or depression
You can’t directly inherit tinnitus, but there are conditions that become breeding grounds for tinnitus which you could have inherited.
If your family has a history of tinnitus, you should definitely come in for an assessment.
