#142: 👂🔔 The Ringing Truth About Tinnitus
What Science Says About Causes, Treatments and Hope
Hey Friends,
What’s everyone reading this summer?
I’m powering through books on my Greek holiday and I’m looking for more.
DM me with your faves or drop them in the comments!
Xo
Nina
💬 In this note:
👂🔔 The Ringing Truth About Tinnitus
📚 Trick Mirror
⚡️ Dinosaur House
👂🔔 The Ringing Truth About Tinnitus
Tinnitus is when a person experiences ringing or other noises in one or both of their ears.
This is not an external sound. Others can’t hear it.
A Nina’s Notes reader asked me about tinnitus, so I dug into it.
Here’s what I learned.
Tinnitus affects about 15% to 20% of people worldwide.
That means if you're in a room with 10 people, at least 1-2 of them are probably dealing with some form of ringing, buzzing, or hissing in their ears right now.
More than 25 million adults in the U.S. alone have this condition, according to the American Tinnitus Association.
And it's not just a minor annoyance - for many people, it's life-altering.
So what causes it?
And do we have any cures?
The Surprising Causes Nobody Talks About
Sure, everyone knows loud music can damage your hearing.
But the causes of tinnitus go way beyond just sound exposure:
Sound Damage (The Obvious One)
Prolonged exposure to loud sounds damages the delicate hair cells in your inner ear. These cells can't regenerate, so the damage is permanent.
Concerts, power tools, firearms, basically anything that makes you want to cover your ears, can cause tinnitus.
The Neck Connection (Plot Twist!)
Recent research shows there's actually a strong connection between cervical spine problems and tinnitus, this is called cervicogenic tinnitus.
Basically, your neck issues could be causing the ringing in your ears.
Studies have found that spinal misalignments, particularly in the upper cervical spine, can result in nerve compression that affects the auditory system.
One case study reported that a person with chronic "untreatable" tinnitus for 20 years experienced complete remission within 4 weeks of wearing a cervical collar.
The cervical vertebrae contain nerves connected to the auditory system, and when these get compressed or irritated, it can disrupt the neural pathways responsible for hearing.
Scoliosis and Pinched Nerves
While scoliosis doesn't directly cause tinnitus, the spinal curvature can lead to pinched nerves and altered posture that affects blood flow and nerve function.
A pilot study showed that patients who engaged in physical therapy experienced decreased tinnitus symptoms over three months.
When your spine is misaligned, it can compress nerves and reduce blood circulation to the inner ear.
Poor circulation can definitely impact inner ear functionality, potentially triggering tinnitus symptoms.
Drug Side Effects (The Fine Print)
Many medications list tinnitus as a potential side effect.
This includes certain antibiotics, cancer medications, diuretics, and even high doses of aspirin.
Luckily there is good news, drug-induced tinnitus is often reversible once you stop taking the offending medication.
Current Treatment Options: What Actually Works?
Unfortunately, we don’t have a magic cure for tinnitus yet.
But there are some genuinely effective treatments that can dramatically improve quality of life:
Sound Therapy
This remains one of the most effective approaches.
The idea is to use external sounds to help your brain refocus away from the phantom noises.
White noise machines, nature sounds, even just a fan running in the background can provide relief.
Hearing Aids
For people with hearing loss and tinnitus (which is about 90% of tinnitus patients), hearing aids can be game-changing.
They amplify environmental sounds, therefore masking the perception of tinnitus, and make it less noticeable.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT has shown remarkable results in reducing the distress caused by tinnitus.
It doesn't eliminate the sound, but it changes how your brain responds to it.
CBT trains your brain to treat tinnitus like background noise instead of a threat.
FDA-Approved Breakthrough: Lenire
In 2023, the FDA approved Lenire, the first-of-its-kind device that uses bimodal neuromodulation to treat tinnitus.
It combines sound therapy with mild electrical stimulation of the tongue.
In their 3rd clinical trial, Lenire was shown to be more effective than sound alone for those with moderate or worse tinnitus.
The device works by helping the brain pay more attention to the therapeutic tones while paying less attention to the tinnitus sound.
Are Stem Cells a Viable Option?
Stem cell therapy is an emerging area of research exploring whether stem cells can regenerate damaged hair cells in the inner ear and repair damage to the auditory nerve.
Right now, this type of stem cell research is focused primarily on hearing loss, because hearing loss affects 430 million people worldwide, with those numbers expected to grow as populations age.
Research into stem cells for tinnitus is new and on-going.
Preclinical research has shown stem cells can reduce neuroinflammation, regenerate sensory hair cells, repair auditory nerve connections and improve overall auditory function in animal models.
In those animal studies, human stem cells have successfully restored hearing by regenerating the hair cells and auditory nerve connections.
The challenge is translating these promising lab results into safe, effective human treatments.
Scientists are working on improving stem cell survival rates, ensuring proper integration with existing auditory structures, and developing targeted delivery methods.
Despite still being in development, some international clinics offer experimental treatments, but results vary widely.
Lifestyle Changes to Prevent Tinnitus
Tinnitus is incredibly common, surprisingly complex, often untreatable.
While we don't have a cure yet, the combination of established therapies like sound therapy with emerging treatments like bimodal neuromodulation is giving real hope to millions of sufferers.
However, most doctor’s recommendations are to prevent tinnitus and hearing loss through lifestyle changes.
👇Here are some tips:
Use hearing protection.
Over time, exposure to loud sounds can damage the nerves in the ears, causing hearing loss and tinnitus. If you use loud machinery, are a musician, or attend a lot of concerts, always wear over-the-ear hearing protection.
Turn down the volume.
Listening to music at very high volume through headphones can contribute to hearing loss and tinnitus.
Limit alcohol, caffeine and nicotine.
These substances, especially when used in excess, can affect blood flow and contribute to tinnitus.
While tinnitus affects millions of people worldwide, it gives me hope that we're uncovering connections that nobody saw coming.
The neck-tinnitus link alone could be game-changing for people who've been told their condition is "untreatable," and treatments like Lenire are showing that 91% sustained relief is possible.
And stem cell research looks genuinely promising, even if it's not ready for primetime yet.
If you're dealing with tinnitus, please don't suffer in silence.
Effective treatments exist, prevention works, and for the first time in decades, there's real scientific momentum behind finding better solutions.
The ringing might persist for now, but the future is looking a lot quieter.
📚 Book of the Week
Trick Mirror by Jia Tolentino
Rating: ★★★★☆
A collection of essays from a brilliant writer.
Jia Tolentino writes with wit and humor which is addictive and hard to put down.
I especially enjoyed her essays on the workout class, Barre. I was laughing out loud.
She also has great stories about her short stint as a teenager on a reality TV show called “Boys vs. Girls.”
You can pick it up, read an essay or two and put it down for later.
Although you won’t want to because she has a great voice and is fun to read.
It will have you questioning the reality we live in, why we do the things we do, and why the mirror we look into everyday might be playing tricks on us.
⚡️ Check This Out
There is a house in Henderson, Nevada (a Las Vegas suburb) with 62 statues of dinosaurs and prehistoric creatures in the front yard.
These are BIG dinos.
They have a T. Rex that is 14 feet tall, 27 feet long, and weighs 500 pounds.
The owner of the house, Steve, has been collecting dinosaurs from movie studios, museums and lawn sculpture shops from all over the world.
Anyone can visit the house, it’s free and open to the public.
I wish I had known about this when I lived in Vegas.
I guess the next time I visit my family, I’ll have to drop by.
🗣️ Looking for the Nina’s Notes Podcast?
It’s available on: 🟢 Spotify, 🟣 Apple Podcasts, 🟠 Substack Podcasts
On the Nina’s Notes Podcast I interview entrepreneurs who are building products based on the science that I write about in the Nina’s Notes Newsletter.
You’ll also find voice overs of all the weekly Nina’s Notes.
Edited by Wright Time Publishing
Hey Friends,
One Nina's Notes reader just told me they quit headphones for 2 months and their Tinnitus went away.
Anecdotal evidence but interesting to experiment with!
We probably all listen to music and calls far too loudly in our headphones.
Might be worth giving this a try!