00:00We live in a world where loud is equated with fun, but for hundreds of millions of people,
00:03they're paying a high price for that. They have tinnitus. Bloomberg Pursuit staff writer Hannah
00:07Elliott warns that someone you know has it and that it's a ticking time bomb. That's right,
00:11not just fire alarms here in the studio. In the United States, the American Tinnitus Foundation
00:15says over 50 million people are suffering. That's 15% of the population. And it's so bad for about
00:21two million Americans, they're actually debilitated by it. Veterans, musicians, people who love
00:25concerts and motor sports are all at an increased risk. And for Hannah, writing the story was deeply
00:31personal. My husband has it. And the funny thing is my husband's a car guy. And as you know,
00:38my day job is mostly writing about cars in the car world. And I started to realize that when you're
00:46in
00:46a group of car people, if you, the minute you mentioned tinnitus, everyone starts to come out
00:52of the woodwork and says, I have it, or my buddy has it, or my brother has it, or my
00:57dad has it.
00:59And I just started to realize, oh, in this tiny segment of car people, it's very prevalent. And
01:06then it started to spill out into, oh, my motorcycle friends talk about it. Oh, my musician friends talk
01:12about it. And it became this thing where it's like, wow, this seems to be very common, but no one's
01:18really talking about it. Because some people can kind of live with it. And others don't want to
01:23talk about it, because it's so frustrating that there's no cure. So they don't talk about it at
01:29all. And it just got me very, very curious about what's really going on, who's affected and why
01:35that that's kind of how I came into it. So you talked to folks who are suffering from this,
01:39you talked to doctors, other experts, you had a suspicion that it was was widespread. Just how
01:45widespread is it? How big a problem is this when you look at the world? Yeah, so tinnitus,
01:50and I think we should say it's correct to say tinnitus or tinnitus, both are correct,
01:55is basically the perception of a sound in your head or your ears that is not coming from an external
02:02source. So that could mean ringing, buzzing, whooshing, a scratching or static sound, it can be very
02:09isolating, because it's difficult to be in environments that you can't control sound wise,
02:16if your ears are really sensitive to sound triggers. And also just having this noise in
02:23your head that no one else can hear. It's really, really, it can be really debilitating.
02:29I remember when I was a kid, my dad asked me about camping, and it was really, really quiet. And
02:33I
02:33remember him asking me if I could hear silence. And I said, Yeah, can't we all? And he said no,
02:38because he'd been a tank commander in the military. And he always had a constant ringing in his ears.
02:43He never hears silence anymore, because there's always something there. But it's not. I always
02:47thought it was hearing loss. You said it's not a disease. And it's not hearing loss. Do they know
02:51what causes it? That's exactly right. And that has been a really big sort of misconception about
02:59tinnitus. It can be related to hearing loss, because noise exposure is the biggest known cause of
03:06tinnitus, which is just being exposed to loud, too loud noises. But tinnitus and hearing loss are two
03:13separate things. And a lot of the people that I spoke with, including my husband, who is how I
03:19first became aware of it, have excellent hearing. Tinnitus is a separate thing. And that has really
03:25gotten in the way of some of the research. Every audiologist and clinical technician and medical
03:32professional who I spoke with said, tinnitus is so under-researched and underfunded exactly because
03:38of what you're describing, which is that it's usually lumped in with hearing loss and hearing
03:43damage. Somebody you spoke with was John Ginty, Grammy-nominated organist, drag racer in Sarasota.
03:48He compared it to phantom limb syndrome. I'll just quote a bit from your piece. You take somebody whose
03:52arm has been amputated, and they wake up with pain in their hand. Well, the hand's not there, but the
03:56pain
03:57is real. That's how it is with tinnitus. It's something that your brain is making up, but it
04:01was almost giving me panic attacks. It's crazy. Talk a bit about the effects this has. You alluded
04:07to this just a moment ago, the difficulty of suffering with this. What does that mean in
04:12terms of mental health? Again, not acknowledging the fact not everybody would have the same kind
04:15of effects broadly, but what's it mean for folks who do have this? Of course, there is a really big
04:22connection between poor mental health and tinnitus, and there's a lot of research and there are a lot
04:30of studies that link anxiety with tinnitus, both as a trigger and as a result. It's sort of this
04:38very sad cycle of tinnitus can cause depression, anxiety, isolation, but also those things can lead
04:49to increase tinnitus triggers. So it is all linked. Just the fact that when people are told by their
04:59medical providers that there's no cure and there's really nothing we can do about tinnitus, about this
05:04thing that is really affecting your daily life, that would be depressing for anybody. So there tends to be
05:12a sense almost of despair for a lot of people that there's no cure, there's nothing we can do. You
05:17have to live
05:18with this, you know, as some people describe it to me as a jet engine roaring in their head. Of
05:24course,
05:24that causes extreme mental anguish, and that in turn can just lead to really a poor quality of life
05:31and even worse. Of course, there have been even cases of suicide related to tinnitus. Multiple people I
05:40spoke with for this piece told me that they had felt, I can't live like this anymore. They really got
05:45to
05:45a very dark place about their tinnitus. So now that people are becoming more aware, I mean,
05:51I just keep going back to 50 million people, 15% of the papillation. That's a lot of people. I'm
05:56wondering if doctors and audiologists are starting to take it more seriously, and if you think in the
06:01next couple years they're making any progress or they're working towards possible solutions.
06:06Yeah, that's a great question. And I really think the time is right to be talking about tinnitus because
06:11as we all know, everybody is obsessed with youth and longevity and trying to, you know, basically
06:18health max ourselves into somehow living forever as, you know, very hot, sexy people.
06:24The thing is, tinnitus is connected to brain health, which is connected to even cognitive decline and
06:33even dementia. So there are strong links that indicate we need to be paying attention to this. And I think
06:39as a
06:39broader culture as millennials, I'm an older millennial, as boomers sort of realize we need to be taking
06:46care of our bodies and our minds so we can have the best life as we get older. This issue
06:53of protecting
06:54your hearing, taking care of your hearing, which is linked to your brain health, which is linked to your
06:58cognitive health, that is only going to increase. The other great thing to know is that in 2023,
07:04the FDA did finally approve one treatment for tinnitus called Lanier, which is a device that
07:11combines sounds and tiny electrical pulses that you put on your tongue as a way to sort of retrain
07:17your brain. That was approved in 2023. And I spoke with many people who have used the device and say
07:24that it helps. And I've talked with technicians who think that it's very promising and hopefully will
07:31help lead the surge into more research, more funding, more treatment. Hannah Elliott,
07:38our colleague and fellow elder millennial. Hannah, thank you very much. Appreciate it.
07:41Thanks, Hannah.
Comments