Controversial - really? Why would the cause of tinnitus be a controversial subject? On one level, tinnitus can be a very personal condition - some people are absolutely devastated by all the whooshing and whistling noises. Others, are merely annoyed by the cacophony of sounds going off in their heads.
When people's lives (and sleep) are interrupted by this illness, then things get serious. Of course, tinnitus won't kill you - although there have been reports of people committing suicide because of the levels of noise in their heads. I would assume that this level of tinnitus involves a very few tinnitus sufferers - most would fall into the highly-annoyed-but-livable camp. This would include me, although I feel that my tinnitus has caused a certain amount of hearing loss in my case, and can cause a bit of an annoyance lying in bed trying to fall asleep while the symphony of uninvited noises play out in my head.
Can emotional issues, like stress and anxiety be a cause of tinnitus? Certainly, when the human body is under constant stress, many different chemical responses are in high gear, such as:
The cortisol level is high. Cortisol, a corticosteroid, also known as the "stress hormone," is produced by the adrenal glands in greater quantities when a body is under stress. Blood pressure is up and blood sugar is raised also. High blood pressure. As mentioned above, when the body's cortisol level is up, so is blood pressure. Part of the mechanism of raising blood pressure is a constriction of the arteries. And when the arteries are constricted, blood flow through those arteries is louder (think of the sound a kinked hose makes). It is natural to assume that the louder blood flow in the ears compounds the existing tinnitus. And, when the body is constantly under stress (chronic), the blood pressure is constantly elevated - contributing to a sensation of a worsening of tinnitus, if not a cause of tinnitus. Increased level of sugar (glucose) in the bloodstream. Glucose, the body's main source of energy, is regulated by insulin which is produced in the pancreas. When a body is constantly stressed, the rise in glucose can lead to a form of diabetes, where the overworked insulin becomes less effective at controlling glucose. In at least one major study, it was learned that 84% to 92% of tinnitus sufferers were revealed to have a metabolic disorder called hyperinsulinemia, where the pancreas was attempting to regulate the glucose in the bloodstream by over-producing a less effective version of insulin. In short, the vast majority of tinnitus sufferers were shown to have a diabetes-like condition, possibly due to consistently elevated stress levels. Are most tinnitus sufferers diabetics? I don't know, but I believe that consistently elevated stress hormones have been proven to cause a body much damage.I'll leave the judgmental part of this article up to each reader - all I can do is report he facts. I don't believe that enough studies of this nature have been done to prove or disprove any of this. However, this may be good fodder for future thinking points when it comes to treating the cause of tinnitus.
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