Remember the old tale of Johnny Appleseed? In elementary school, you may have been taught that he migrated across the US, bringing the gift of healthy apples to every community he visited (you should eat apples because they are a healthy choice and that’s the moral of the story).
That’s only partially accurate. At the end of the 19th century, Johnny Appleseed (John Chapman was his real name) did in fact bring apples to numerous parts of the United States. But apples were very different way back then. They weren’t as sweet or tasty. In fact, they were generally only used for one thing: creating hard cider.
Yup, every neighborhood that Johnny Appleseed paid a visit to received the gift of booze.
Humans have a complex relationship with alcohol. On the one hand, it’s terrible for your health (and not just in the long run, many of these health impacts can be felt immediately when you spend the early morning hours dizzy, nauseous, or passed out). Nevertheless, humans typically like feeling inebriated.
This habit goes back into the early mists of time. Humanity has been imbibing since, well, the beginning of recorded time. But it may be possible that your hearing problems are being worsened by drinking alcohol.
Put simply, it isn’t just the loud music at the bar that’s bad for your hearing. It’s also the cocktails.
Drinking triggers tinnitus
The majority of hearing specialists will tell you that drinking alcohol can trigger tinnitus. That shouldn’t be too big of a stretch to believe. If you’ve ever imbibed a bit too much, you may have encountered something known as “the spins”. When you’re dizzy and the room feels like it’s spinning after drinking this is what’s called “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 good for? Hearing, of course! Which means that if you’ve had the spins, it isn’t a surprise that you might have also experienced a buzzing or ringing in your ears that are characteristic of tinnitus.
That’s because alcohol is an ototoxic compound
Now there’s an intimidating word: ototoxic. But it’s actually 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.
Here are a few ways this can play out:
- Alcohol can damage the stereocilia in your ears (these fragile hairs in your ears conduct vibrational information to your brain for further processing). Once those tiny hairs are damaged, there’s no coming back.
- Alcohol can impact 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 (obviously, decision-making centers are impacted; but so, too, are the parts of your brain in charge of hearing).
- Alcohol can decrease blood flow to your inner ear. The lack of blood flow can itself be an origin of damage.
Drinking-related hearing loss & tinnitus aren’t always permanent
You might begin to notice some symptoms when you’re out on the town having a few drinks with friends.
The good news is that these symptoms (when they are caused by alcohol intake) are typically short-term. Your tinnitus will usually clear up along with most of your hearing loss when your body chemistry goes back to normal.
Of course, the longer alcohol is in your system, the longer it will take your ears to return to normal. And if this type of damage is repeated routinely, it may become permanent. In other words, it’s definitely possible (if not likely) that you can generate both permanent tinnitus and hearing loss by drinking too much and too frequently.
Here are a couple of other things that are happening
It’s not just the alcohol, however. There are a couple of other elements that make the bar scene a little inhospitable for your ears.
- Noise: Bars are normally pretty noisy. Some of their appeal comes from…uh.. just this. But when you’re 40 or older it can be a little bit too much. There’s plenty of laughing, people talking, and loud music. All of that loudness can, over time, cause damage to your hearing.
- Alcohol leads to other problems: Even when you put the hearing loss element aside, drinking is rather bad for your health. Alcohol abuse can result in health problems like high blood pressure, cardiovascular disease, and diabetes. And all of these problems can inevitably be life threatening, as well as contribute to more extreme tinnitus symptoms.
In other words, the mix of the environment and the alcohol make those late night bar trips a powerful (and risky) 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 recommending. It’s the alcohol, not the social interaction, that’s the source of the issue. So you could be doing substantial damage to your health and hearing if you’re having difficulty moderating your drinking. You should talk to your physician about how you can seek treatment, and start on the path to being healthy again.
In the meantime, 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.