Do you recall the old tale about Johnny Appleseed? When you were younger you probably heard the tale of how Johnny Appleseed traveled around bringing fresh apples to communities (you should eat apples because they’re good for you and that’s the moral of the story).
Actually, that isn’t the whole reality. The authentic Johnny Appleseed (whose real name was John Chapman) did indeed bring apples to many states across the country at about the turn of the 19th century. But apples were very different hundreds of years ago. They weren’t as sweet or delicious. Making hard cider, in fact, was the chief use of apples.
Yup, every community that Johnny Appleseed visited was gifted with booze.
Humans have a complicated relationship with alcohol. On the one hand, it’s horrible for your health (and not only in the long term, many of these health effects can be felt immediately when you spend the early morning hours dizzy, throwing up, or passed out). Conversely, humans generally like feeling inebriated.
This behavior goes back into the early mists of time. People have been drinking since, well, the beginning of recorded time. But if you have hearing problems, including tinnitus, it’s possible that your alcohol use could be creating or exacerbating your symptoms.
So when you’re at the bar, loud music isn’t the only risk to the health of your hearing. It’s the beer, also.
Tinnitus can be triggered by alcohol
The fact that alcohol triggers tinnitus is something that hearing specialists will typically confirm. That’s not really that hard to believe. If you’ve ever imbibed a bit too much, you might have encountered something called “the spins”. When you’re dizzy and the room seems like it’s spinning after drinking this is what’s known as “the spins”.
The spins will happen because the alcohol is interfering with the part of your body in control of balance: your inner ear.
And what else is your inner ear used for? Hearing, of course! Which means that if you’ve experienced the spins, it’s not a surprise that you may have also experienced a buzzing or ringing in your ears that are characteristic of tinnitus.
That’s because alcohol is an ototoxic compound
The word ototoxic might sound scary, but it just indicates something that can be damaging to your hearing. This includes both the auditory nerves and the inner ear, basically everything that links your whole auditory system, from your ears to your brain.
There are a few ways that this occurs in practice:
- Alcohol can degrade the stereocilia in your ears (these are tiny hairs that allow you to sense vibrations in the air, vibrations that your brain later converts into sound). These delicate hairs will never recover or grow back once they have been damaged.
- Alcohol can reduce blood flow to your inner ear. This by itself can become a source of damage (most regions of your body don’t particularly enjoy being deprived of blood).
- Alcohol can affect the neurotransmitters in your brain that are in charge of hearing. This means that, while the alcohol is in your system, your brain isn’t working effectively (both decision making regions, and hearing centers are affected).
Drinking-related hearing loss & tinnitus aren’t always permanent
You may start to detect some symptoms when you’re out on the town having some drinks with friends.
The good news is that these symptoms (when they are related to alcohol intake) are usually short-term. As your body chemistry goes back to normal, you’ll likely start to recover some of your hearing and your tinnitus will decline.
But the longer you have alcohol in your system, the longer your symptoms will persist. And if this kind of damage is repeated regularly, it could become permanent. In other words, it’s completely possible (if not likely) that you can cause both permanent tinnitus and hearing loss by drinking too much and too frequently.
Here are some other things that are taking place
It’s not just the alcohol, however. The bar scene is not favorable for your ears for other reasons as well.
- Noise: The first is that bars are usually, well, loud. Some of their appeal comes from…uh.. just this. But when you’re 40 or older it can be a little bit much. There’s noisy music, loud people, and lots of yelling and mary-making. All of that noisiness can, over time, cause damage to your hearing.
- Alcohol causes other problems: Even when you put the hearing loss element aside, drinking is pretty bad for your health. Alcohol abuse can result in health problems such as high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. And all of these issues can ultimately be life threatening, as well as worsen more severe tinnitus symptoms.
Simply put, the combination of the environment and the alcohol make those late night bar trips a potent (and risky) mix for your ears.
Does that mean it’s time to stop drinking?
Naturally, sitting in a quiet room and drinking by yourself is not at all what we’re recommending. It’s the alcohol, not the socializing, that’s the root of the issue. So you could be doing considerable damage to your health and hearing if you’re having difficulty moderating your drinking. Your provider can help you move towards living a healthier life with the proper treatment.
In the meantime, if you drink heavily and you’ve detected a ringing in your ears, it may be time to schedule an appointment with us to check for tinnitus.
