Are You Suffering From Any of These Symptoms as a Result of Tinnitus? Call Today for a Consultation.
■ Mild to severe anxiety
■ Depression
■ Insomnia
■ Negative thinking
■ Triggered fight or flight
■ Crying spells
■ Hopelessness
■ Ringing in the ears
■ Suicidal thoughts
Are you growing more isolated? Do you feel like life will never be the same? Are you refraining from activities that you enjoy? Are you fearful of losing your job? Do you find that your thoughts tend to be negative?
If you answered yes to 3 or more of these questions or symptoms, then we can help. You may be a candidate for Tinnitus Cognitive Retraining Therapy, or TCRT.
With over 20 years of clinical experience, Stephen Geller Katz, LCSW-R developed Tinnitus Cognitive Retraining Therapy and founded the Tinnitus Cognitive Center™ in response to the growing number of Tinnitus sufferers coming to his private practice.
He discovered that by helping people to retrain and reinterpret the thoughts around their Tinnitus, anxiety and depression symptoms began to improve. But even more important so did the Tinnitus.
Pulsatile Tinnitus is not a disease, but a symptom that affects almost five million Americans. In Pulsatile Tinnitus or PT for short, you will feel as if you’re constantly hearing a noise similar to whooshing, swooshing, or a heartbeat. This sound has no external source and can be very unsettling and debilitating. It gets to the point that you will start feeling annoyed with it. Around 60 percent of people suffering from PT also face anxiety or depression. The rate of depression is much higher than other chronic conditions because, in pulsatile tinnitus, it is difficult to diagnose the main issue and reason behind the symptoms.
You will find many causes leading to the development of pulsatile tinnitus, depending on your body. Nonetheless, the root problem is similar. Here are some of the most common causes of PT:
When the blood pressure is high, the blood inside of the arteries has a higher pressure as well. When the arteries surrounding the ears have high pressure, you may feel and detect a ringing or ticking sound.
When the buildup of fats, waste materials, and cholesterol blocks your arteries, blood flow can be unstable. In this condition, you will hear some rhythmic sounds in one of your ears.
3. Turbulent Blood Flow
Narrowed neck veins such as jugular veins or arteries such as carotid arteries may be the reason for changes in the flow of blood to or from your head. Your ears will then pick up irregular or turbulent circulation, leading to pulsatile tinnitus.
4. Neck or Head Tumors
A tumor pressing the vein near your ear can also lead to pulsatile tinnitus.
5. Abnormal Capillaries
Pulsatile tinnitus can also occur due to a problem with the tiny vessels supplying blood and connecting your capillaries and veins with arteries.
Most people facing the symptom treat it by defining and treating various causes. If the high blood pressure in the veins or arteries is causing tinnitus, then you can alleviate the symptom by treating these health issues and changing your lifestyle. Here are some basic treatments:
Stress reduction
Quit smoking
Regular exercise
A low-sodium diet
If these causes are specific to certain problems in your veins or arteries, catheter pressure, or surgery, you first need to treat these conditions. Sometimes, doctors insert a stent in your blocked artery and open it up to improve the blood flow. A stent is a flexible and mesh tube.
1. Sound Therapy
Before treating a blood vessel, your specialist may also suggest sound therapy. This method involves playing background noise like white noise or soft music to distract your mind from tinnitus. This will change your brain’s sensitivity towards the pitch of the tinnitus. You can also find a similar treatment, cognitive behavioral therapy, to be very effective. This therapy helps you think about problems in a different way and change your emotional reaction towards it.
2. Relaxation
Relaxing can have a significant positive impact on your body. It improves blood pressure, normalizes the heart rate, and stimulates various brain activities. Relaxation techniques such as mindfulness, breathing exercises, and meditation reduce the impact of pulsatile tinnitus, and you can have a better daily routine.
3. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
In this therapy, a specialist aims to change the way you react to Tinnitus instead of removing the irritating sound. The concept of this therapy is to develop different techniques of thinking about and acting towards tinnitus.
4. Tinnitus Retraining Therapy
In TRT, the specialist helps people suffering from Tinnitus to manage the impact of this condition on their daily life. In tinnitus retraining Therapy, a PT specialist will use sound therapy and directive counseling.
Complications Of Pulsatile Tinnitus
This condition can be the reason for your sleeping problems. If you get poor sleep, you may lead to:
Weight gain or any other metabolic issues
Cardiovascular problems
Low in energy
Difficulty in concentration
Conclusion
Many underlying causes can lead to pulsatile tinnitus, and a specialist with experience in treating tinnitus can help you. You need to visit a specialist so they can properly diagnose your condition. If you are looking for a professional and experienced pulsatile tinnitus specialist to help with your condition, you can set up an appointment at our clinic. They will understand the real cause of the condition and will treat you accordingly. To set up an appointment, you can contact us at 646-598-2251. We can also consult you on call. For further details, visit our website.
If you fail to get adequate treatment for your pulsatile tinnitus in time, it can have a negative effect on your quality of life. However, by visiting our clinic, you can learn various self-management approaches to help with this condition.
Tinnitus is when a person can hear sounds that are not actually present.
A lot of people call tinnitus “ringing in ears”. There are so many ways that tinnitus can take place from ringing to clicking. Tinnitus can be ongoing or just temporary. For more information on this ailment check out our article explaining the symptoms of tinnitus. There is currently no scientifically-validated cure for most types of tinnitus. Treatment for tinnitus is mostly based on changing your mindset about the illness rather than focusing a lot on changing it. We have articles focusing on how you can change the way you view your tinnitus and how practicing CBT can give you a more fulfilling life.
Millions of Americans experience tinnitus, making it one of the most common health conditions in the country. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control estimates that nearly 23% of the general public — over 50 million Americans — experience some form of tinnitus. Roughly 20 million people struggle with burdensome chronic tinnitus, while 2 million have extreme and debilitating cases.
Damage to the inner ear typically is the cause of the ringing and discomfort. Most studies show that tinnitus forms from inner ear damage. Such as ear infections, hearing loss, and There is currently no scientifically proven a cure for most cases of chronic tinnitus. The search for a definitive cure is still going on and some progress is being made but we have yet to discover a cure. However, excellent tools such as CBT and meditation can lessen the burden of this ailment. These currently available treatments are not cures per se, they do not heal the patient but they lessen the discomfort of the patient to some degree.
External Ear
The external ear is rarely affected but when it is, patients report that the back of the ear down to their jaw feels numb. There are a few theories as to why that it is, and it is attributed to a problem in the middle ear. One of the main theories is the eustachian tube is not getting much blood flow. Since it has very low blood flow it gives the sensation of being numb. If you are experiencing this, it would benefit you to talk to a professional as soon as possible because this could be a sign of an underlying issue.
Middle ear
The middle ear contains your eardrum, oval window, the round window, and the Eustachian tube.
The eardrum is very thin, measures approximately 8-10 mm in diameter and is stretched by means of small muscles. The pressure from sound waves makes the eardrum vibrate.
The vibrations are transmitted further into the ear via three bones in the middle ear: the hammer, the anvil, and the stirrup. I’m terms such as hammer, anvil, and stirrup to give you a better picture of what the function of these bones are. These three bones form a kind of bridge, and the stirrup, which is the last bone that sounds reach, is connected to the oval window.
The oval window
The oval window is a membrane covering the entrance to the cochlea in the inner ear. When the eardrum vibrates, the sound waves travel via the hammer and anvil to the stirrup and then on to the oval window.
The round window
The round window in the middle ear vibrates in opposite phase to vibrations entering the inner ear through the oval window. In doing so, it allows fluid in the cochlea to move.
The Eustachian tube
The Eustachian tube is also found in the middle ear and is situated at the back of the ear. The Eustachian tube’s function is to equalize the air pressure on both sides of the eardrum, ensuring that pressure does not build up in the ear. The tube opens when you swallow, thus equalizing the air pressure inside and outside the ear, but as many tinnitus sufferers know, the opening and closing of the eustachian tube can be distressing. The clicking in tinnitus is due to us being able to hear the tubes open and close with every swallow.
All in all, it is best to talk to a professional that can assist you with these problems. We offer help to those suffering from tinnitus, you don’t have to suffer in silence.
Contact us today to schedule an appointment to treat your tinnitus. We can help you on your way to improving your life and mindset.
Tinnitus Cognitive Center™
Stephen Geller Katz, LCSW-R 19 West 34th Street Penthouse Floor New York, NY 10001
