The question about ringing in your ears is a MUCH bigger one than you probably think, so bear with me as I try to explain some important things about this very troubling symptom.

Tinnitus isn’t caused by any one thing. 

It’s causes vary from person to person, BUT there are some common findings in this neurological condition.

Find Out More Below…  

Interestingly, many Chiropractors see improvement in tinnitus from treating a person’s spine physically and others see changes by applying an understanding of functional neurology.

The BIG question is why and how can a Chiropractor help tinnitus because on the surface it doesn’t seem likely yet there are many people that report it has helped them. We’ll talk about the why and generally about the how below.

Ultimately, the cause of your tinnitus should be identified.

Let’s assume very serious health problems like a tumor have been ruled out. Here are some very important key concepts that help explain how a physical treatment might change any neurological problem, like tinnitus.

First… to answer your question, yes tinnitus can be related to a spinal problem.

Trauma to the head and neck can cause tinnitus, but it’s more complex than it seems. People that suffer from whiplash from a car accident may experience tinnitus for example.

Tinnitus can be caused by many different things from trauma, to neurological disease, to nutritional deficiency, to so many other things.

The only thing the symptom tells us is the area of your brain that perceives that sound is firing.

The big question is why?

Our brain works in such a way that it relies on both fuel and activation.

Research has demonstrated somatosensory (somato = from the body) tinnitus.

How can an injury or a problem in the body cause tinnitus?

An injury to the neck (for example) has the potential and likelihood to change the autonomic nervous system that is involved in organ function and blood (fuel) delivery. Pain is related to these changes in autonomic function in some cases, not in others.

This is one way that we might see changes in brain activation that can lead to many different types of problems and symptoms, from changes in fuel delivery.

The brain needs 2 things to work. 

The other major requirement for neurological function is activation that drives activity.

What activates the brain?

Activation is driven by various sensory inputs. We have a sensory driven nervous system.

The senses include the 5 well known senses.

There is another somewhat unknown sense. It’s less known because it’s an unconscious sense.

This very important 6th sense is called proprioception.

Proprioception is a big word that sort of describes how our brain knows where we are in space. It knows this from muscles, joints, tendons, the inner ear, and more.

A massive amount of this info comes from the muscles/joints/tendons of the spine, in fact this is the largest contributor to driving brain activity.

The brain is activated by the sum of all the senses.

Little receptors throughout the body are fired from environmental changes. This is the beginning of what may be perceived as a sensation.

This activity is what drives brain activity and ultimately all output.

It’s primarily the integration of this sensory activity and fuel delivery in your unique situation that causes a symptom.

Symptoms are all felt in the brain.

Going back to tinnitus and how these 2 requirements relate to the ringing in your ears…

Let’s say you had some hearing loss from being around loud noises in the past, like an explosion for example.

You will lose some drive (activation) to the part of your brain that perceives sound.

This loss of activation can, over time, cause some degenerative changes where the area begins to fire on it’s own.

This occurs in a similar manner to how a true pinched nerve can cause a loss of muscle activation resulting in it firing on it’s own with local muscle twitching from the muscle beginning to fire on it’s own as it’s ability to maintain energy systems fail.

So, let’s say you now get ringing in your ears. The person with some hearing loss has a much greater potential to develop tinnitus because of the loss of hearing.

The truth is that it is not strictly from the loss of hearing…

The tricky part of understanding tinnitus and really all symptoms is that it’s the integration of the sensory input is multi-modal.

It’s how everything, all sensory drive, integrates that results in some output, in this case tinnitus.

The cause of tinnitus can be many different things.

If we’re looking at a functional problem that is resulting in an inappropriate sound, a ringing in your ears…

The loss of any input or several inputs could cause a particular symptom in you. It’s the integration of the inputs.

Even more interesting though is that it can be changed, the symptom, by changing the activation which occurs by and large through the sensory input from all parts of your body.

If you can change the activation, you can change the symptom.

Using this understanding can help dictate treatment that has the possibility or even probability of success in you. It also helps to understand why so many different types of physical treatment help people with tinnitus. If the right treatment is done in the right person, tinnitus improves.

If that physical treatment is then done repetitively, over time, in the right way for that person we can drive neurological changes known as plasticity. This plasticity is a strengthening of a particular area in a similar manner to strengthening a muscle in the gym.

The right workout done often enough over a long enough period results in bigger, stronger muscles. The nervous system works like this also (neuro-plasticity).

We’ll have to save that discussion for another day.

Going back to your original question, does neck or back problems cause tinnitus?

Virtually anything is possible. It’s a very complex system.

Here’s maybe an even more important question about tinnitus.

Could the neck or back movement, like say from a chiropractic adjustment, or some other physical type of therapy be used to drive activation of the nervous system in such a way that it changes tinnitus?

Maybe. It depends on what is going on in that individual. It very likely can change a person’s problem depending on how the treatment is done in that particular person.

Could some other physical stimuli change tinnitus?

Yes, maybe but only if it’s appropriately applied in you.

It helps if the practitioner that is treating the person understands what we just covered in brief above and how to identify dysfunctional areas with an exam… so you might see a Chiropractor, a Physical Therapist, an audiologist, a neurologist, a physiatrist (a physical medicine MD), a general practitioner, or even a massage therapist.

If that practitioner can evaluate and treat a functional neurological disorder using physical treatments appropriate to you, then you very well may find that your tinnitus is significantly improved or disappears with the treatment.

*Again causes vary, we’re talking about changing the perception of sound… the ringing in the ears.

If the practitioner can not identify your neurological problem and localize it, then they are guessing and trying some cookbook method of treating everyone with tinnitus that may work for you or may not or may even make you worse.

Many practitioners doing physical treatments are guessing and are doing generic treatments that might not be appropriate for you.

The challenge for you is finding a practitioner that can do this for you.

There are other non-physical stimuli treatments that include medications. This is not my area of expertise.

Medications may help symptoms in some people. Medications do not drive positive neuro-plastic changes in the brain like we have been discussing in this article. Medications work through different, chemical routes.

Interestingly, some medications cause tinnitus. Notably, the common drug aspirin has been shown to cause ringing in the ears in some people.

Looping back around to a very important question…

Can treating the neck change tinnitus?

The answer is it’s definitely possible, maybe even likely in you. This has been shown in some research and can be seen clinically in practice often with those professions using physical treatments.

*This complex answer is an attempt to explain a complex problem as simply as possible.

If you live in the Texarkana area and would like to have Dr. Hagebusch evaluate you to find out if he can help you, contact our office and set up an appointment.