Remember the old story of Johnny Appleseed? In elementary school, you may have been taught that he traveled across the US, bringing the gift of nourishing apples to every community he paid a visit to (you should eat apples because they are a healthy choice and that’s the moral of the story).
That’s only somewhat true. At the end of the 19th century, Johnny Appleseed (John Chapman was his real name) did in fact present apples to many parts of the United States. But apples were really different way back then. They weren’t as sweet or tasty. Actually, they were mostly only utilized for one thing: producing hard cider.
That’s right. Johnny Appleseed was delivering booze to every community he visited.
Alcohol and humans can have a complicated relationship. It isn’t good for your health to start with (you will often notice some of these health problems right away when you feel hungover). Conversely, humans typically enjoy feeling intoxicated.
This is not new. Since we’ve been recording history, people have been enjoying alcohol. But it could be possible that your hearing issues are being worsened by drinking alcohol.
Put simply, it isn’t only the loud music at the bar that can cause hearing troubles. It’s also the drinks.
Drinking alcohol triggers tinnitus
The majority of hearing specialists will tell you that drinking can trigger tinnitus. That shouldn’t be too much of a stretch to accept. If you’ve ever partaken of a little too much, you might have experienced something known as “the spins”. When you’re dizzy and the room feels like it’s spinning after drinking this is what’s known as “the spins”.
The spins will occur 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! So if alcohol can cause the spins, it’s not difficult to believe that it can also produce ringing or buzzing in your ears.
That’s because alcohol is an ototoxic compound
Now there’s a scary word: ototoxic. But it’s really just a fancy term for something that impairs the auditory system. 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 damage the stereocilia in your ears (these delicate hairs in your ears transmit vibrational information to your brain for additional processing). Once those delicate hairs are damaged, there’s no coming back.
- There are neurotransmitters in your brain that deal with hearing which can be harmed by alcohol. This means that, while the alcohol is in your system, your brain isn’t functioning efficiently (clearly, 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 decreased by alcohol. The deficiency of blood flow can itself be an origin of damage.
Tinnitus and hearing loss caused by drinking are usually temporary
So if you’re out for a night on the town or getting some drinks with some friends, you may notice yourself developing some symptoms.
These symptoms, fortunately, are normally not permanent when caused by alcohol. As your body chemistry goes back to normal, you’ll most 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 last. And it may become irreversible if this type of damage keeps occurring continually. In other words, it’s definitely possible (if not likely) that you can cause both permanent tinnitus and hearing loss by drinking too much and too often.
Some other things are occurring too
Of course, it’s more than just the liquor. The bar scene isn’t favorable for your ears for other reasons as well.
- Noise: The first is that bars tend to be, well, loud. That’s part of their… uh… charm? Look, if you’re 20 it’s great; if you’re 40 it’s a bit too much. There’s much fun and merriment, people talking, and loud music. All of that noisiness can, over time, cause damage to your hearing.
- Alcohol leads to other issues: Drinking is also detrimental to other facets of your health. Alcohol abuse can lead to health issues like high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. And more severe tinnitus symptoms as well as life threatening health problems could be the outcome.
The point is, there are significant risks to your health and your hearing in these late night bar trips.
So should you quit drinking?
Naturally, sitting in a quiet room and drinking alone is not at all what we’re recommending. It’s the alcohol, not the social interaction, that’s the root of the issue. So you may be doing substantial damage to your health and hearing if you’re having a hard time moderating your alcohol intake. Your provider can help you move towards living a healthier life with the right treatment.
In the meantime, if you drink heavily and you’ve noticed a ringing in your ears, it might be time to schedule an appointment with us to check for tinnitus.