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Tinnitus Affects Millions

| Health & Science

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Tinnitus Affects Millions.  

Ringing in the ears, also known as tinnitus, is a very common condition.

If you experience noise in your ears, you may have tinnitus. Tinnitus is generally not an indication of a serious illness and can range from mildly annoying to extremely disturbing.  Tinnitus can be hissing, buzzing, ringing, whooshing, pulsing, clicking or even a high pitched beeping.  Some experience it as a constant sound, while others hear it only intermittently.   Millions of people suffer from tinnitus, but most never get treated because it isn’t bothersome enough to seek medical help, or they think there’s nothing that can be done. Tinnitus can sometimes be cured as simply as having impacted earwax removed by an audiologist or doctor.   

Natural treatments that work well for some and not so well for others.  If you suffer from tinnitus, you may have to experiment to find what works best for you.  As is the case with hearing loss, tinnitus can be caused by excessive noise like loud music, loud machinery, and noisy environments in general.   Other culprits that have been found to cause tinnitus in some people are prescription drugs, antidepressants, migraine medications and over the counter drugs.  Poor diet has been proven to be a contributing factor in hearing loss and tinnitus.

Most natural treatments consist of herbal ingredients.  The one herbal that appears most often is ginko biloba.  Ginko thins the blood and increases circulation to the inner ear.  If you’re on blood thinners, you need to consult with your doctor before adding other blood thinners to your health regimen. 

Many of the treatments have a money back guarantee, but you need to read the fine print.  Some I found said that if they didn’t work, send back the unused portion to get your refund.  Usually that means you get back a refund for the unused portion only, even if the portion you used didn’t work you still have to pay for it. To me, that doesn’t really sound like a guarantee, except for the manufacturer who is guaranteed to get paid either way.

You can find effective treatments by searching the Int ernet or seeing your doctor.  There are several good websites that cover every aspect of tinnitus.  If you persist, you’ll find a way to alleviate the problem.

Other treatments that have worked for some people are acupuncture, hypnosis, dietary supplements and electrical stimulation.  For those who find tinnitus disruptive in their daily lives and have tried natural treatments, medical help may be their only choice.  Some find the answer in prescription drugs and others have to resort to surgical procedures.  Natural treatments are by far the easiest to try and the safest to use. When used according to directions, most have no side effects and cost very little to try them.

Some people have had great results with hypnosis and autosuggestion.  A book I’ve seen recommended various times is called “Stop The Ringing” by Geoff Barker.  I’ve found it on the Internet and it’s advertised as guaranteed to help you get rid of ringing ears forever.

If I’m out in high winds for extended periods of time, I’ll invariably have tinnitus, and find my hearing is also impacted.  My hearing problems center around loss in the higher acoustic range and wind in my ears aggravates the problem.  I can hear low noises at great distances and the click from the alarm clock will wake me up, even though I can’t hear the beep-beep of the alarm itself. 

Acupressure, and the tapping used in Emotional Freedom Therapy (EFT) as outlined in one of my other articles, helps reduce the effects of tinnitus for me, especially when the problem is connected with, or caused by, wind noise.  Hot, dry, strong winds have never been my friends and helping relieve the emotional attachment may be why EFT works.  The ringing doesn’t always go completely away, but it isn’t as much of a disruption.  Reduction of my tinnitus in any amount is welcome.

 

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About Larry Miller

I was born in Los Angeles in 1940. My father was a fighter pilot instructor during WWll and we moved from coast to coast, maybe that’s where I got the nomad in my blood. After graduating from high school in 1958 I joined the Marines. That lifestyle wasn’t for me and upon my discharge I went on with my life, and have never looked back. I worked briefly for a Caterpillar dealer in Riverside, CA before moving back to N. California where I was a welder and truck driver for a chemical company. Truck driving wasn’t my calling anymore than being in the Marines, and I went back to work for another Caterpillar dealer steam cleaning dirty tractor parts and welding. They sent me to schools, lots and lots of schools. I spent as much time going to trade schools as I did at work. I went from cleaning parts to apprentice field mechanic, to mechanic to the parts department to satellite store manager in less than two years. They wanted me to move to Sacramento and be a salesman: I moved to Oregon to learn to commune with nature. I went to work for another heavy equipment dealer and was later contacted by the World’s largest Lorraine Crane dealer and offered the position of purchasing agent and general parts manager. In 1967 I was offered a line of automotive parts and supplies and went into business for myself. My business revolved around eleven race cars that we maintained for others, driving race cars professionally and maintaining high end sports cars. I was a championship and regional champion driver. My business was the largest import parts and service, non dealer, in the state until I sold it in 1979. We went sailing in 79, first to Mexico and then Hawaii. I was an award winning Trans-Pacific sailor and sailor of the year, Hawaii, Island of Kauai. An opportunity presented itself in Hawaii during 1981 and I was back in business, importing Japanese auto body and hard parts. I also felt the pull to write and began freelancing for magazines and newspapers in 1982. My main focus in my articles is, and always has been, health, wellness and fitness. Most of us have heard the saying, “Time is all we have.” I disagree. Our health is all we have, because without our health, we have no time. I was a US Olympic team hopeful in racewalking and held all the records for the state of Hawaii. As a sponsored athlete in my forties, I finished first in nine marathons in a row in my division, qualified for the Ironman® and was the state USCF cycling champion five times in Hawaii and Oregon. Celinda and I were married in 1988 after a three year engagement. We sold our businesses and organic farm and sailed back to Oregon. After our sailboat boat was sold, we moved to Joseph, Oregon, two miles from the trailhead into the Eagle Cap Wilderness. We were caregivers for my mother the last ten years she was alive. We moved to New Mexico in 1995 because it was too cold for my mom in Oregon during the winters. Celinda designed, and I engineered and built our strawbale house. I began writing the weekly health column for a local newspaper in 1996, and still do. In 2000, I took the summer off to do a four month, 4000 mile, hike, bike and kayak odyssey. I’d been writing health, fitness and sports articles since 1982 and the journey produced a full-length, nonfiction, first person adventure book, Yol Bolsun, May There Be A Road, which can be bought from Amazon.com and others over the Internet. The summer of 2001 was spent hiking. kayaking, fishing and exploring the southwest. In 2002 Celinda and I spent the summer in Canada learning the hospitality business at a resort in preparation for doing promotion for the resort in the US. Most of 2003 was spent reestablishing the trees and landscape that had died during the stay in Canada. We had a house sitter and the house sitter had an ex-husband, and that’s a long story. In July of 2004 I did a solo kayak trip on the Snake River, taking pictures, writing articles and pencil sketching the journey. I hope to do another kayak adventure on the Snake River during the summer of 2008, on the section I missed in 2000 and 2004. In 2005, I returned to Canada to the resort where we’d spent 2002. I was supposed to be there for the month of June. I’d contacted people I’d met in 2002 and they came back to Canada to fish, hike and spend time at the resort, Echo Valley Ranch and Spa, while I was there. My one month became five and then it was off to Spain to do the El Camino de Santiago as a travel companion with one of the guests who’d returned to Canada in June. During the summer of 2006 a friend from Ireland, who I’d met in Spain the year before, came to visit in NM and we fished, hiked and explored the White Mountains of AZ. He’d never slept out in the wild in a tent before, and it was quite an experience, for both of us. My newspaper articles were put on the Internet beginning in 2002. I was asked to give public speaking engagements, photo and video presentations, on various subjects for the library in Deming, NM and continue to do so. In 2006 I videoed and produced a DVD for the Smithsonian Institute’s travel exhibit “Between Fences.” NMFILMS had a conference by invitation only, which I attended. While attending the conference, I realized that film making wasn’t what I wanted to do but I still wanted to use my sixteen years of experience and enjoyment of videoing and photography. During the winter of 2005, I discovered that no one on record had ever run from the Arizona border to the Texas border, a distance of 165 miles. During the spring and summer of 2006 I trained for the run and the run was completed in October, 2006. In late 2005, I began building and maintaining websites incorporating all the things I enjoyed about video, photography, travel and the out of doors. 2007 has been a summer of upgrading the home and property which resulted in a downgrading of my enthusiasm for being located in one place. If we don’t like what’s happening in our life, we need to change what we’re doing. Celinda and I are ready to pull up roots and move on. I guess I’ve come full circle. I’m ready to revert back to my childhood, and a nomadic lifestyle.

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