Do you recollect the old tale of Johnny Appleseed? In elementary school, you may have been taught that he traveled across the United States, bringing the gift of healthy apples to every community he paid a visit to (you should eat apples because they’re a healthy choice and that’s the moral of the story).
Actually, that’s not the entire reality. Around the end of the 19th century, Johnny Appleseed (John Chapman was his real name) did in fact bring apples to many parts of the United States. But apples were really different hundreds of years ago. They weren’t as sweet or tasty. Producing hard cider, in fact, was the primary use of apples.
That’s right. Johnny Appleseed was delivering booze to every community he visited.
Alcohol and humans can have a complicated relationship. On the one hand, it’s bad for your health (and not just in the long term, many of these health impacts can be felt right away when you spend the early morning hours dizzy, throwing up, or passed out). But many people enjoy getting buzzed.
This behavior goes back into the early mists of time. Since humans have been recording history, people have been enjoying alcohol. But it could be possible that your hearing issues are being increased by drinking alcohol.
Simply put, it isn’t just the loud music at the bar that’s bad for your hearing. It’s also the drinks.
Drinking triggers tinnitus
The fact that alcohol causes tinnitus is something that hearing specialists will typically validate. That shouldn’t be too big of a stretch to accept. If you’ve ever imbibed a little too much, you may 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 happen because the alcohol is interfering with the part of your body responsible for balance: your inner ear.
And what else is your inner ear good for? Hearing, of course! So if alcohol can cause the spins, it isn’t hard to believe that it can also create ringing or buzzing in your ears.
Ototoxic substances, including alcohol, will cause tinnitus
Now there’s an intimidating word: ototoxic. But it’s actually just a fancy term for something that harms the auditory system. This includes both the auditory nerves and the inner ear, basically everything that connects your whole auditory system, from your ears to your brain.
Here are a number of ways this can play out:
- Alcohol can impact the neurotransmitters in your brain that are responsible for hearing. So your brain isn’t working efficiently when alcohol is in your system (both decision making centers, and hearing centers are affected).
- Alcohol can decrease flow of blood to your inner ear. The deficiency of blood flow can itself be an origin of damage.
- Alcohol can degrade the stereocilia in your ears (these are tiny hairs that let you sense vibrations in the air, vibrations that your brain later converts into sound). Once those delicate hairs are damaged, there’s no coming back.
Tinnitus and hearing loss caused by drinking are usually temporary
You might begin to notice some symptoms when you’re out on the town having a few drinks with friends.
These symptoms, fortunately, are usually not lasting when caused by alcohol. As your body chemistry returns to normal, you’ll 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 persist. And it may 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 frequently.
Some other things are happening too
It’s not just the alcohol, however. There are a couple of other factors that make the bar scene somewhat more inhospitable for your ears.
- Noise: The first is that bars are usually, well, noisy. Some of their appeal comes from…uh.. just this. But when you’re 40 or older it can be a bit much. There’s loud music, loud people, and lots of yelling and mary-making. Your hearing can be compromised over time by this.
- Alcohol leads to other problems: Drinking is also detrimental to other aspects of your health. Alcohol abuse can lead to health issues such as high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. And all of these problems can inevitably 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 hazardous) mix for your ears.
So should you quit drinking?
Naturally, sitting in a quiet room and drinking alone is not at all what we’re advocating. It’s the alcohol, not the social interaction, that’s the root of the problem. So if you’re having difficulty moderating your alcohol intake, you could be creating significant problems for yourself, and for your hearing. You should speak with your physician about how you can get treatment, and start on the road to being healthy again.
For now, if you’re a heavy drinker and you’ve detected a ringing in your ears, it may be time to make an appointment with us to check for tinnitus.