Imagine having the whoosh of a vacuum cleaner, the roar of the breaking surf, or even the innocent chirping of a cricket inside your head. You can’t turn it off, walk away, or stomp on it. Earplugs won’t help. It’s there when you wake up, when you’re trying to fall asleep, and when you’re talking or trying to watch TV. That’s tinnitus in a nutshell: It’s ringing in the ears. While this condition can be caused by a buildup of ear wax or by allergies, it is often due to damage to the nerve cells in the ears.
Exposure to loud noises can cause ear damage. Some medicines can contribute to it. Alcohol abuse can also lead to tinnitus, as can an overdose of caffeine. Or it could be the result of direct damage to some portion of the ear, such as blockage in the tiny arteries that feed blood to the ears, hardening of the tiny bones in the inner ear, or viral infections that damage the inner ear. Even high blood pressure can be a contributing factor.
With so many possible causes, you and your doctor should try to figure out what’s causing your tinnitus, says William H. Slattery III, M.D., director of clinical studies at the House Ear Institute in Los Angeles. Once that’s established, some natural remedies may be helpful for improving blood circulation to the ear, if that’s your problem, or protecting ear nerves from further damage. Here’s what some experts recommend.
Magnesium Shields against Noise Damage
An essential mineral, magnesium, can help protect your ears from noise-induced damage, Dr. Slattery says. "I would recommend that everyone, especially those who already have some hearing loss, make sure they are getting adequate amounts of magnesium."
When magnesium-deficient laboratory animals were exposed to noise, their inner ears were damaged far more than the ears of animals that had adequate magnesium. When magnesium is in short supply and there’s a lot of exposure to noise, the inner-ear cells can become exhausted. That in turn can lead to cell damage or destruction.
Low magnesium levels can also cause blood vessels to constrict, affecting the tiny arteries leading to your inner ear. When the arteries constrict even farther in reaction to loud noises, the result is tinnitus.
Israeli researchers found that soldiers who got an additional 167 milligrams of supplemental magnesium daily during two months of basic training had less inner ear damage than those getting inactive substances (placebos). Extra magnesium from supplements can also protect against long-term noise exposure.
If you’re often in a noisy environment, make sure you’re getting the Daily Value of magnesium, which is 400 milligrams from food and supplements, Dr. Slattery says. Most people get less than this amount from food, with men averaging about 329 milligrams and women 207 milligrams a day. Make sure that your multivitamin/mineral supplement has enough magnesium to make up the difference, he advises.
Go after Ginkgo
If there’s a blockage in the tiny arteries that go to your ears, the herb ginkgo may help your tinnitus symptoms, says Jennifer Brett, N.D., a natu ropathic doctor at the Wilton Naturopathic Center in Stratford, Connecticut.
"Ginkgo works a number of ways to improve blood flow, especially in tiny blood vessels," says Dr. Brett. It also acts as an antioxidant, which means that it helps to protect your cells from all kinds of damage, including damage from drugs like quinine (Quinamm), furosemide (Lasix), and some antibiotics, such as streptomycin and gentamicin (Garamycin). Ginkgo also stabilizes cell membranes. With more stable membranes, your nerve cells conduct signals more efficiently, so it’s quite possible that the nerves in your ears will work better even if they’re damaged.
Ginkgo also enhances the use of oxygen by cells. Even if blood flow is restricted so that a cell isn’t getting all the oxygen it needs, the cell may function better if you’re taking ginkgo. "In my experience, ginkgo improves symptoms in about half the people who try it," says Dr. Brett. Even if you’ve had tinnitus for more than three years, ginkgo can be effective, although it seems to be more helpful in people who haven’t had tinnitus that long.
Take 40 to 80 milligrams of ginkgo extract three times a day. Dr. Brett recommends a concentration of 24 percent ginkgoflavoglycosides, a product that is available in many health food stores.
"Try it for about six weeks and see if you notice an improvement in your symptoms," she says. If you do, continue taking it.
Bet on the Bs
Your body needs vitamin B12 to manufacture myelin, the fatty sheath that wraps around nerve fibers, insulating them and allowing them to conduct their electrical impulses normally. That’s apparently important for ears as well as the rest of your body.
The same Israeli researchers who found that magnesium helped protect ears also found that 47 percent of a group of 113 army personnel with tinnitus had a B12 deficiency. All of the people low in B12 received injections of 1,000 micrograms weekly for about four months. At the end of that time, all of them reported some improvement in their tinnitus, including a decrease in loudness.
If your tinnitus is accompanied by memory problems, depression, or difficulty walking, talk to your doctor about having your blood levels of B12 checked. It’s possible that you may not be absorbing the vitamin properly, and you may need injections.
