Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Tinnitus With Temporal Headache: Why Does It Happen?

By Thomas Colman

Need the answers to the various questions connected with your temporal headache and tinnitus? Read on to discover them now!

Tinnitus which is frequently associated with loss of hearing and simple headache is considered to be caused due to stressful living. But when it is also accompanied by temporal headache which comes from temporal bone structure within the skull which houses the hearing mechanism in human beings, the matter needs thorough investigation as to the cause and effect parameters of the complete syndrome. To begin with, studies may be conducted on the causes that lead to tinnitus that is coupled with temporal headache.

Here are some of the factors that are known to cause the condition that are often referred to as temporal headache.

Why temporal headache and tinnitus occurs?

(A) Stress is no doubt responsible for creating tinnitus as well as headache, especially which is born from temporal bone structure at the skull of homo sapiens that frequently fall victim to this common human trait which is emotionally disruptive and occurs as a result of adverse external stimuli or influences. It not only affects people at the helm of affairs but also the young and aspiring CEO who aims at the chairman's chair. The recently banished CEO of the bankrupting General Motors of USA is a burning example of stress and its fearful after effects. (B) Continued sleeplessness can give rise to tinnitus and temporal headache too. Top level company executives who are always traveling to keep their multi-national empires running at top speed all the while are those who normally fall pray to this distressing disease condition. Though jet lag seemingly explains away their disturbing sleep pattern, it is eventually the stress that takes the hot seat. Round-the-clock call center operatives who have to tally with the international dateline and time zone and are used to keep sleeping at bay also fall victim to temporal headache tinnitus. (C) Subarachnoid hemorrhage which involves subarachnoid space bleeding inside the brain and is considered life threatening starts with tinnitus plus temporal headache. This may occur spontaneously or can be caused from cerebral aneurysm that becomes ruptured or serious head injury. In either case, the fatality is almost hundred percent. Thank God, this is quite rare, the reported cases being 1 out of 15,000 in the United States as of now. (D) Lumber puncture that involves collection of cerebrospinal fluid from the sac of the lumber also gives rise to tinnitus with temporal headache. However, it occurs after the lapse of several hours (12 hours to be precise) since the process has been completed.

Nevertheless, studies have revealed many who not only suffer from tinnitus with temporal headache but also fall victim to chronic neck and shoulder pain that often become unbearably hurting. And many people also experience pain in the neck, crackling, buzzing and ringing sounds and they hear it in both the ears. These are all tinnitus related problems.

Why Temporal Headache Occurs With Tinnitus

Stress is not the only culprit so far as tinnitus is concerned! Further studies on tinnitus have revealed that TMD or Temporomandibular Disorder is also responsible for tinnitus with temporal headache in many cases. In depth analysis have also made it quite clear that this headache associated with tinnitus is not a disease condition but one of its major symptoms and that once TMD is treated, the symptom will disappear. TMD, however, is caused by yet another factor called Temporomandibular Joint Disorder or TMJ.

The TMJ (relating to the jaw joint), by the way is located just a couple of inches lower than the ear and the muscles, ligaments, tendrils and nerve endings that interconnect both the organs can supply and receive impulses without any interference from other organs. As a result, any wrong or inappropriate signal from the TMJ can transmit a corresponding wrong or inappropriate message to the ear drum, thus causing abnormal noise and giving rise to tinnitus. On top of that, the ligament (Pinto's ligament, to be precise) that connects TMJ with the middle ear bone structures can transfer any stress related event from the TMJ to the middle ear resulting in distortions in the form of unusual sound effects. Termed as 'Otomandibular Syndrome' this is being observed by Harold Arlan, MD, who is the Assistant Clinical Professor in Otolaryngology Surgery at the Rudkers Medical School and at Medicine College and Dentistry of New Jersey.

Tinnitus with temporal headache can also be caused by ototoxic medications like antibiotics that include erythromycin, aminoglycosides, vancomycin as well as chemotherapy agents, loop diuretics and quinine derivatives. The toxicity inherent in these drugs probably cause irritation within the temporal bone structure in skull, creating ache and related discomfort.

However, the whole thing boils down to the simple fact that the temporal headache is a symptom of tinnitus while tinnitus itself is a symptom of a disease condition with several underlying causative factors. When these are systematically unearthed and eliminated, all the symptoms will automatically go away. And for achieving this there is no other way left to us than opting for holistic mode of treatment which may mean total change of lifestyle. - 14130

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