How Can Upper Respiratory Infections Affect Tinnitus?
Cold weather can bring out all kinds of stressful illnesses. Sometimes simple maladies amount to strange symptoms that can't be explained right away. The most basic form of cold weather illness is the run-of-the-mill cold. This can have many effects on hearing, smell, and taste and can disrupt your daily life. An upper respiratory infection can also lead to a condition called Tinnitus. Since this condition is sometimes an after effect of the common cold, treating it may be hard to do since it is not often identified.
What is the Cause of Tinnitus?
Tinnitus is a condition that may cause some ringing in your ears when it is especially cold. It may sound like a dull roaring, hissing, or even clicking in your ears. Typically when people are young, it may not affect them as much. However, older sufferers may have their already decreasing faculties worsened to a larger degree by this simple condition.
Tinnitus can also adversely affect people with pre-existing conditions such as physical ear injuries or early-onset hearing loss. Everyone may not be as affected even when they are older by Tinnitus to the same degree. However, at whichever level, it is frustrating and can sometimes be painful.
How Can I Get Tinnitus from Upper Respiratory Infections?
If you have a severe enough cold, upper respiratory infection can be damaging enough to cause Tinnitus as it usually affects the ears, nose, and throat. Blockage or infection caused by the common cold can increase pressure in these cavities, which then will cause a ringing in your ears defined as Tinnitus.
Ways to Prevent Tinnitus
Below are a few ways that can not only protect you from a bad cold but also increase the chances of avoiding Tinnitus.
Wear Warm Clothes
This may seem basic, but the best way to protect yourself from the winter cold is by bundling up when you go outside. A severe cold may only need a small amount of time to infect you, and at times you may not even know you have a cold until you are bedridden.
Clean Your Ears from Blockage
The cold may increase the blockage in your ears. This blockage can come in the form of earwax, and this can significantly increase the pressure in your ears, which can turn into Tinnitus. You may want to do a thorough cleaning every day so that your wax build-up will not contribute to the frustrating effects of the cold that may bring on Tinnitus.
Contact a specialist at Beltone Skoric Hearing Aid Center to check if your tinnitus condition can be alleviated after experiencing upper respiratory infections.
