Are you going mad with that tinnitus in your ears? Discover whether your tinnitus is inherited or what the cause may be.
Tinnitus, what exactly is it?
Tinnitus is the name referring to a person’s perception of a ringing, droning, or buzzing in the ear with no external stimulus present to explain this sensation. The term tinnitus translates to “ringing like a bell.”
How will my daily living be affected by tinnitus?
Tinnitus can disrupt personal connections in several annoying ways. It isn’t a disease in and of itself, but it’s a symptom of other ailments or circumstances in your life such as hearing loss or injury. Your concentration can be seriously interrupted when you begin to hear tinnitus in one or both ears.
Regardless of the way in which you’re experiencing tinnitus, it’s always disruptive. influence your sleep and even cause anxiety and depression.
What causes tinnitus?
Tinnitus can be enduring or it can come and go. Short term types of tinnitus are normally triggered by extended exposure to loud noises, such as a rock concert. There are a number of medical conditions that tend to go hand-in-hand with tinnitus.
Here are a few situations that generally accompany tinnitus:
- Inner ear cell damage and irritation of the sensitive hairs used to conduct sound, causing arbitrary transmissions of sound to your brain
- Bruxism, more commonly referred to as teeth grinding stemming from temporomandibular joint issues, or TMJ disorder
- Exposure to loud noise for extended time periods
- Several medications
- Injuries that impact nerves of the ear
- Age-related hearing impairment
- Trauma to the neck or head
- Changes in the composition of the ear bone
- Buildup of excessive earwax
- Depression or anxiety
- A benign tumor, called acoustic neuroma, forms on cranial nerve
- Inner ear infections
- Meniere’s Disease
Could I have inherited this ringing in my ears from my parents?
Tinnitus isn’t directly hereditary. But the symptoms can be affected by your genetics. For example, ear bone changes that can result in tinnitus can be inherited. Irregular bone growth can trigger these changes and can be passed down through genes. A few of the other conditions that can produce ringing in the ear may be inherited from your parents, including:
- Certain diseases
- Being predisposed to depression or anxiety
- Being prone to inner ear infections or wax build-up
You can’t directly inherit tinnitus, but there are disorders 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 evaluation.