Do you recollect the old tale about Johnny Appleseed? When you were younger you likely heard the story of how Johnny Appleseed traveled around bringing fresh apples to communities (the moral of the story is that apples are good for you, and you should eat them).
Actually, that isn’t the entire truth. The real Johnny Appleseed (whose real name was John Chapman) did in fact introduce apples to lots of states across the country at about the end of the 19th century. But apples were very different way back then. They weren’t as sweet or tasty. Brewing hard cider, in fact, was the chief use of apples.
Yup, every community that Johnny Appleseed paid a visit to received the gift of booze.
Alcohol and humans can have a complicated relationship. On the one hand, it’s terrible for your health (you will often notice some of these health problems immediately when you feel hungover). But many individuals enjoy getting buzzed.
This habit goes back into the early mists of time. Since humans have been recording history, people have been enjoying alcohol. But if you’re dealing with hearing issues, including tinnitus, it’s likely that your alcohol use could be creating or exacerbating your symptoms.
In other words, it isn’t just the loud music at the bar that’s bad for your hearing. It’s the beer, also.
Drinking alcohol triggers tinnitus
The fact that alcohol causes tinnitus is something that hearing specialists will generally validate. That shouldn’t be too big of a stretch to accept. You’ve most likely experienced “the spins” if you’ve ever drank too much. When you’re dizzy and the room feels like it’s spinning after drinking this is what’s called “the spins”.
When alcohol interferes with your inner ear, which is the part of your body in control of balance, you may experience the”spins”.
And what other role does your inner ear play a part in? Obviously, your ability to hear. Which means that if you’ve experienced the spins, it’s not a surprise that you may have also experienced a ringing or buzzing in your ears that are characteristic of tinnitus.
That’s because alcohol is an ototoxic substance
Now there’s an intimidating word: ototoxic. But it’s really just a fancy term for something that harms the auditory system. The whole auditory system from your ears to your brain is involved in this.
There are a few ways that this occurs in practice:
- There are neurotransmitters in your brain that handle hearing which can be harmed by alcohol. This means that, while the alcohol is in your system, your brain isn’t working efficiently (obviously, decision-making centers are impacted; but so, too, are the parts of your brain responsible for hearing).
- The blood flow in your ear can also be reduced by alcohol. This alone can become a source of damage (most regions of your body don’t really enjoy being starved of blood).
- The stereocilia in your ears can be compromised by alcohol (these are fragile hairs that allow you to sense vibrations in the air, vibrations that your brain later converts into sound). These little hairs will never recover or grow back once they have been compromised.
Drinking-related hearing loss & tinnitus aren’t necessarily permanent
You might start to notice some symptoms when you’re out on the town having a few drinks with friends.
These symptoms, thankfully, are normally not permanent when caused by alcohol. As your body chemistry goes back to normal, you’ll most likely begin to recover some of your hearing and your tinnitus will wane.
But the longer you have alcohol in your system, the longer your symptoms will last. And it could become permanent if this kind of damage keeps occurring continually. 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 often.
A couple of other things are happening too
Clearly, it’s more than simply the booze. The bar scene is not hospitable for your ears for other reasons also.
- Noise: Bars are typically rather loud. That’s part of their… uh… appeal? Look, if you’re 20 it’s fine; if you’re 40 it’s a little too much. There’s loud music, loud people, and lots of yelling and mary-making. Your hearing can be damaged over time by this.
- Alcohol causes other problems: Drinking is also bad for other aspects of your health. Diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and high blood pressure can be the result of alcohol abuse. And more profound tinnitus symptoms as well as life threatening health issues could be the result.
The point is, there are significant risks to your health and your hearing in these late night bar trips.
So should you 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 social interaction, that’s the source of the problem. So if you’re having trouble moderating your drinking, you could be causing major issues for yourself, and for your hearing. Your doctor can help you move towards living a healthier life with the right treatment.
If you’ve detected a loud ringing in your ears after heavy drinking, make an appointment with us for a consultation.
