As the Christmas and new year party season looms upon us. Lots of young people will be going out to nightclubs and concerts to listen to music and dance the night away.
They’ll enjoy the night; have a good time and head home. Unfortunately for some of those revellers, their lives will be changed by a condition that will leave them filled with regret. Many of you may not have heard of tinnitus or know about its repercussions. We’ve all come out of nightclubs with high pitched ringing in our ears and consider it the sign of great night out. After all, spending the night assaulting our eardrums to very loud music is what young people are just supposed to do. However, for some, that persistent high pitched noise does not disappear after a day or so, but stays with them as a permanent reminder. The sound can range from intermittent to incessant.
Tinnitus is not a disease or something that can be caught from others. It currently affects one in ten people in the UK. Those numbers will likely increase as more people are diagnosed. It’s no surprise that many are oblivious to the damage they’re causing to themselves. There are no warnings in clubs or concert venues. The British Tinnitus Association (BTA) is one of the few organisations trying to spread awareness on this issue, not just to the public, but also to GP’s. A recent survey carried out by the charity found that some doctor’s were handing out inadequate and inconsistent advice to patients across the country.
Eddy Temple-Morris is a DJ at London radio station XFM. He has lived with tinnitus for 12 years and is the Ambassador for the BTA. He speaks on behalf of the charity about tinnitus. He is very passionate about it and is eager to equip young people with the knowledge to avoid becoming a statistic. He told me:
“It’s on the increase because of MP3 players and earplugs, really loud music in their ears. Nobody’s telling them. The manufacturers aren’t telling them, the government’s not telling them, nobody’s telling them that they could permanently damage their brain. It’s a fallacy to think that their damaging their ears because tinnitus is not an ear problem, it’s a brain problem.
“I’m not aware of one single public information film, radio or print ad, ever, that’s been funded or commissioned by the government. I would guess most people are blissfully unaware that just by going into a really loud room, pub or gig, can (give you) brain damage.”
The lack of information on tinnitus is leading to the growing number of people putting themselves at risk. The condition doesn’t lend itself to attracting the attention of celebrities, like other campaigns such as AIDS. You won’t see William and Kate speaking up about it. Eddy lays the blame squarely at the politicians in Westminster.
“The government just don’t spend a single penny on letting any of us know or protect any of us. We all know that when we light a cigarette, we could be starting a chain reaction that could end our lives. We’re really well informed that we’re hurting ourselves when we do that.
“I find it staggering that the government spends that much money letting us make an informed decision on smoking, but the same doesn’t apply to tinnitus. I just think that it’s really about time that the government took this one in ten statistic seriously and ready to deal with the fact it’s going to be one in nine soon. Every day I go on the tube and hear people with music in their ears that’s so loud that I can hear every note of the music and I’m only ten feet away from them. And I’m thinking, you’re going to have tinnitus in a week or a month or a year.”
There are several ways to minimise the impact loud music can have on your hearing. You can simply avoid being in a noisy environment that causes distress to your hearing. If that’s not an option, then cutting down on the time of exposure may be an alternative solution. Taking breaks every half an hour for a ten minute period, can give your ears respite. You should also drink plenty of fluids as this helps to keep the inner ear fluids and blood circulation topped up. Ear plugs can also be of great use and some club goers and musicians wear these to protect their hearing. Eddy always carries a pair of with him at all times.
“You don’t have to spend huge money on a set of ear plugs. There’s this company called Splugs and they make properly filtered ear plugs for £9.99. What they do is block off certain frequencies more than others. So you need not affect the fidelity of the music. So you can hear the sizzle of a high hat, you can still hear the boom of a click drum. And all of the frequencies in between, but just at a lower volume.”
I asked him if some people are conscious of their image when wearing ear plugs. “It’s possible. In the late 70s and 80s, I remember rockers saying putting anything in your ears is just really gay. But they’re just totally wrong.”
Getting tinnitus doesn’t mean your life is ruined. You will have to take precautions as mentioned earlier, but you can still have a vibrant, good quality of life. Eddy has managed to adapt his life to tinnitus without it having a major impact. He does, however, lament the day he got it. He said: “It has an impact on me. I think about it every day. Never a day goes by when I don’t regret the fact that I got tinnitus. The fact that nobody told me I could get brain damage just through loud music. I thought the ringing in your ears was part and parcel of a gig. We all did. It went away after a few days and then one day, it just never went away.
“There is a lot of real terrible misinformation out there. I saw an article in the Sunday Telegraph newspaper and these so called health correspondents of a national newspaper said tinnitus is a disease that affects old people! And I’ve got suicidal 20 and 21 year olds put through to me by an ear, nose and throat specialist who I’m friends with and I let them know that there is hope. Things do get better and easier to manage and easier to live with. “
Although there is currently no cure for tinnitus, work is already underway to undercut the veracity of the high pitched sound. Eddy is confident that in the future, those with the symptoms will not have to endure the constant ringing in their ears.
“Yes. I think so. I really do. There are already some very interesting sounding cures. I really feel as if we’re getting close. There are a handful of very interesting procedures and treatments that are going on out there claiming to have a 70% success rate. These are not officially researched figures, but I know a couple of the characters involved and they’re really confident that they’ve got that high a hit rate. Not to eradicate it completely, but to decrease the severity of it, almost entirely, so you have just a low hum.
“We really need to get the awareness out there. I know some depressed people that asked their doctor to sever their auditory nerve and there are some doctors stupid enough to do that. And in every case, the person who had the auditory nerve severed became deaf with tinnitus. The auditory nerve is the link between the ear and the brain. This isolates the ear and teaches us that tinnitus is a brain issue and not an ear issue.”
The BTA will be holding their annual Tinnitus Awareness Week in 2012 from February 6 -12. Eddy’s show airs on XFM every Friday from 10pm to 2am.
Story and main image by Mark Williams
Screenshot taken of BTA emblem
