Acupressure trigger points for tinnitus: get rid of the beeping in the ear

Standing too close to the speakers at a concert, too much stress at work, or taking (high-dose) medication like aspirin, and there it is: Suddenly, strange sounds shrill through our ears - we experience tinnitus. In the most common cases, it only lasts for a short time. But what actually is this noise in the ear, how exactly is it triggered and what can we do if the ringing doesn't stop? This and how acupressure can help you, you will learn in this article.

What actually is tinnitus?

Buzzing, hissing, humming, thumping, ringing. Whether in one ear, in both ears or coming from outside - the sounds can feel very different. After a few seconds or minutes, the spook is usually over again.
This phenomenon - short-term tinnitus - is completely normal and is considered harmless. However, it becomes critical when people can no longer get rid of their ringing in the ears. In this case, it is essential to seek medical help.

As already mentioned, patients experience ringing in the ear on an individual basis. But not only the type of noise differs. It also varies in intensity and intensity.
If the intensity is rather low, you can often live without restrictions in everyday life. The tinnitus becomes background music, so to speak, and is usually hardly noticed.

When do we speak of a chronic disease or a tormenting tinnitus?

On the other hand, according to the non-profit self-help organization "Deutsche Tinnitus-Liga e.V.", around 1.5 million people experience their ringing in the ears as so loud or intense that this severely limits their quality of life.
These are common consequences:

• Sufferers have problems falling asleep, 
  
• can concentrate poorly 
  
• or more difficult to deal with psychological stress. 

In some cases, these psychological stresses cause patients to develop so-called "comorbidities" or, to put it more simply, concomitant symptoms.
In other words, a further clinical picture in addition to the actual underlying disease.
In particular, anxiety disorders, depression and sleep disorders are increasingly found in patients with tinnitus. Depression and other psychological disorders are a risk factor for the development of tinnitus and can intensify it (Zenner et al. 2005 [252], Hébert et al. 2012 [69]).

By the way, if the subjectively perceived disturbance in hearing lasts longer than three months, it is called a chronic disease.
If you would like to learn even more about the topic, you can read the guideline "Chronic Tinnitus" of the German Society for Otorhinolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Hals-Nasen-Ohren-Heilkunde, Kopf- und Hals-Chirurgie e.V.) with extensive information about the disease.

If you find yourself in a situation with similar symptoms or complaints that are mentally stressing you, we advise you to seek professional help. There are many different treatment methods and it is important to find the one that fits you. The sooner you seek treatment, the better your chances of recovery. So talk to (ENT) specialists early on. But more about that later.  

We can distinguish between four degrees of severity

The so-called classification according to Biesinger et al. 1998 takes into account the impact of tinnitus in the professional and private sphere. He sees four different gradations in patients:

• Grade 1: The tinnitus is well compensated, no suffering pressure.
  
• Grade 2: The tinnitus mainly appears in silence and is disturbing during stress and strain
  
• Grade 3: The tinnitus leads to permanent impairment in the private and professional sphere. Disturbances in the emotional, cognitive and physical areas occur.
• Grade 4: The tinnitus leads to complete decompensation in the private sphere, occupational disability

What is subjective tinnitus?

In medicine, we speak of the disease when the sound that you perceive does not come from the environment, but comes from within. This means that your brain creates the sound or makes you believe that you perceive a certain sound, although it does not exist.
This is related to a disorder in the auditory system. You can compare this symptom with a disorder in the optical system: Here, for example, affected persons feel subjectively perceived flashes of light or they are very sensitive to light. Have you ever experienced such a phenomenon?
By the way, hearing loss or hypersensitivity to noise are also symptoms of a disturbed hearing system.  

What is objective tinnitus?

In very rare cases, even others can actually perceive your ear noise. Then the trigger is no longer in the hearing system. Instead, the sounds can come from flow noises of blood vessels or movements of the muscles. Write us in the comments or in our ShaktiMat Facebook group if you ever had or have objective tinnitus. We are curious about your experience!

Who can get ringing in the ears?

It is difficult to say that any particular population is more likely to suffer from this disorder of the auditory system than another. Theoretically, it can affect all of us and especially at any age. The older we get, the more frequent the new cases.
However, we are particularly at risk if we have certain pre-existing conditions (more on this in a moment in the next point), have been exposed to a great deal of stress over too long a period of time, or have suffered a trauma. In Germany, about three million people feel the "inner noise".

How one affected person feels, what triggered her illness and how she alleviated her ringing in the ears through self-healing can be seen in this SWR report:
A tinnitus patient talks about her experiences with ringing in the ears.

What are the causes of tinnitus?

"The cause is usually not a disease of the ear, but a psychoacoustic phenomenon, in short: a malprocessing of acoustic signals in the brain," writes the Tinnitus & Hearing Foundation of the Charité in Berlin.
Where the noises can come from can have many different causes. Here, research is also not yet at the end and there are always new ones.
According to the foundation, some causes can lie in the most diverse areas:

Physical causes

• Meniere's disease (a disorder of the inner ear), 
  
• a narrowing of the large vessels of the neck, 
  
• a wear and tear of the cervical spine, 
  
• Temporomandibular joint disorders 
  
• Internal diseases such as diabetes, lipometabolic disorders and high blood pressure. 
• Severe noise pollution, causing damage to the inner ear
  
• Hearing loss and associated hearing loss
  

Psychological causes

• Psychological stress such as stress (at school or at work) and/or emotional experiences - by the way, in the ShaktiMat blog you can learn more about symptoms, causes and healing of stress and how to support psychosomatic suffering with acupressure.
• Depression
  
• Anxiety disorders

 How can tinnitus be treated or alleviated?

You have the best chance of recovery when the cause is identified. That's why it's not only worth talking to ENT specialists. Neurologists, internists and/or orthopedists may also be able to help you determine an accurate diagnosis. Depending on the cause of your ringing in the ears, one or more of these treatments may help. Or, in the case of a chronic condition, at least provide some relief. The Tinnitus Center at the University of Regensburg has compiled a list of effective treatment options:

Transcranial magnetic stimulation

This is a new method that uses magnetic pulses to stimulate specific areas of the brain. And since certain areas of the brain are irritated or overactive in tinnitus patients, these can be influenced by the method. 

Drug therapy

As yet, there are no drugs that help against tinnitus. Here, research is still in the development phase. Some forms of ringing in the ears and their accompanying symptoms, as we have explained above, can help patients. 

Audiological therapies

Hearing aids

For those who have a hearing loss in addition to a ringing in the ears, a hearing aid can be helpful. For one thing, it is less strenuous to understand the other person. For another, a hearing aid amplifies ambient noise in general. Many sufferers report that it is precisely such background noises that help them forget the ringing in their own ears.

Sound therapy

And this is exactly where sound therapy comes in: According to the motto "Avoid the silence", the tinnitus can be masked or at least perceived more quietly by very specific sounds or music. The patients are distracted from the noises from their own head by this. The distracting noises are broadband noises. But also classical music or relaxation music, as well as ocean noise and the like. Here are on YouTube or Spotify countless soundtracks to relax us - with or without noise in the ear ;-).
How you can easily integrate more relaxation into your everyday life, especially in the long term? From micro-breaks to short trips, yoga and meditation: on the ShaktiMat blog, we've put together four ideas for more calm.

Example of music to alleviate tinnitus:

Psychological therapies 

Tinnitus retraining / refocusing of concentration

Particularly for the chronically ill, attempts are made to change the perception of their sounds in the ear. Because it is precisely sounds that we perceive as negative that we hear particularly loudly. But if our brain notices that a sound is heard neutrally by us - in other words, we don't really care - the brain blocks out this sound.
In everyday life, this happens, for example, with the sounds of a refrigerator when you spend a lot of time in the kitchen. This form of therapy works exactly like that.

Relaxation therapies

The Shakti acupressure pillow provides relaxation in the neck area.

Acupressure trigger points for tinnitus

The constant use of acupressure can be another element to "let calm return". In our Facebook group, some of our community have already reported how they were able to relax and fall asleep better with self-therapy through the acupressure mat - despite ringing.
In addition, there are still different pressure points that you can target.

Here are a few ideas to promote blood flow to your ears and relieve tension in the jaw and ear area:

1. You will find the first point in front of your auricle at the end of the jaw joint. When you open your jaw, you will feel a kind of hole or cavity.

Then massage another point above your ear on both sides.

3. if you close your ears with your hands from the front, you will find the next trigger point with your third finger. Here it may be a little painful or you may not feel it at all.

The last point is just below the earlobe. You should massage this point again with your second and / or third finger.

Press and circle or massage the points up to five times a day for one to two minutes.
Also, look for points that are (especially) tense and massage them regularly. You can look at your whole body while doing this. Tension does not necessarily have to be located directly in the affected ear or jaw/neck area to relieve your symptoms.
For example, start at the shoulder and work your way up to the forearm. If you find painful spots, stay and circle more here. Of course, you're not supposed to hurt yourself. But most of the time, the very points that we feel intensely and instinctively and are somewhat painful are the ones we should pay special attention to in order to get better. You can do it! ☺
Or lie down regularly with your back or with one side of your face on the acupressure mat: This can give you relief and relax you, especially against strong tensions. You can find exercises on our YouTube channel and testimonials from our community in our Facebook group. Here you can talk to others about specific complaints and how acupressure has helped them.

Other exercise methods to relieve stress-induced ringing in the ears

It can never hurt to do something against too much stress. Not even if tinnitus is triggered by stress. Here, relaxation techniques such as autogenic training, meditation, progressive muscle relaxation or yoga could help you cope with stress and thus achieve success in reducing ear sounds. (Source: Alternative Healing, Chrisoph Jänicke, Jörg Grünwald, p. 388)

How can I protect myself?

We can consider two points to protect ourselves and our hearing from the nerve-killing ear noises:
First, prevent ongoing stress and psychological strain, or give yourself time off soon enough before it's too late! According to the German Medical Association for Acupuncture: "Stress and psychological strain are the triggers for half of all sufferers. That's why many doctors don't see tinnitus as a disease in its own right, but as a signal of physical and/or psychological overload."
Second, protect your ears from loud noise, for example at concerts or when listening to music through headphones. This is easily done with earplugs or some absorbent cotton in your ears.

Rest and relaxation help against stress. Lying on the ShaktiMat and the ShaktiMat acupressure cushion promote this.

You have probably already noticed: The topic of tinnitus is very diverse - both in terms of its causes and its treatment options. But don't be discouraged! You are not alone if you suffer from this disease. Talk to experts and try other methods that support your self-healing powers. We hope that we could give you some inspiration.
Let us know if this article helped you and leave us a comment if you have any questions. Otherwise, all that remains is to say: stay healthy!

Love,
your ShaktiMat Team

About the author

I am Jasmin. Content creator by passion - with a business mind. As a German-American I grew up in Franconia, experienced bed bugs in the Big Apple, survived paraglide flights in Argentina and lost my heart to creative Berlin.

I am fascinated by cultures and their peculiarities and interested in sustainability, futurology, digitalization and the phenomenon of how trends emerge.

Since 2015, I've been writing mainly on the following topics: Yoga and Healthy Living, Culture and Travel, Employer Branding and Talent Relationship Management, Banking and Insurance, Automotive and Digitalization...

I always look forward to the challenge of fitting animating content into 240 characters of a social media post, turning videos into "Thumbstoppers" and formulating blogposts in such a way that users find them when and where they are looking for information. 

Sources:
https://www.hno-aerzte-im-netz.de/krankheiten/tinnitus/was-ist-ein-tinnitus.html
https://www.awmf.org/uploads/tx_szleitlinien/017-064l_S3_Chronischer_Tinnitus_2015-02.pdf
https://www.hno-aerzte-im-netz.de/krankheiten/tinnitus/ursachen-risikofaktoren.html
https://www.stiftung-tinnitus-und-hoeren-charite.org/tinnitus/information/