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Do hearing aids help with tinnitus?
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If you’ve ever heard a frustrating sound like a ringing in the ears, you might have experienced tinnitus, a condition that can cause distracting noises in one or both ears. Tinnitus is often associated with hearing loss, so you may be wondering if hearing aids can help. Short answer: Yes, and when you buy hearing aids over the counter — say, via one of the companies below — you can also save quite a bit.
While not a guaranteed solution (symptoms and severity of tinnitus can vary from person to person) for everyone with tinnitus, quality hearing aids — including prescription-grade devices and over-the-counter, or OTC hearing aids — can offer relief thanks to sound amplification, customizable programs, and other sound therapy features.
Do hearing aids help with tinnitus?
While they don’t cure or reduce the severity of tinnitus, hearing aids are considered by experts like those at the National Council on Aging (NCOA) to be a leading treatment option for relief from the condition.
The best hearing aids for tinnitus can help with managing symptoms, thanks to features like customizable hearing programs and advanced sound-processing capabilities. Some quality hearing aids can effectively mask the persistent sounds that come with tinnitus, distracting users from the most persistent symptoms of tinnitus.
Some prescription-grade hearing aids let users fine-tune sound settings on the fly, which is ideal for dealing with tinnitus symptoms that come and go or change in severity over time. Some of the latest hearing aid models from Eargo, like the discreet Eargo 7, let users make easy adjustments in-app using the Sound Adjust plus control.
What does tinnitus sound like?
Tinnitus is an auditory issue where one hears “phantom sounds” that don’t have a real outside source. These sounds can come and go and can be tricky to pinpoint, since symptoms can vary significantly from one person to the next. These are most often described as a ringing sound, but could also present as a roaring, buzzing, whistling, clicking, or low hum sound. They can be temporary — and may even go away over time — but in some cases the issue lingers and worsens over time.
Symptoms of tinnitus may be present in one or both ears. Common causes that have been linked to tinnitus include:
- Exposure to loud noises, such as a concert
- A head or neck injury that damages the ear
- Ear infections
- Earwax buildup
- Age-related hearing loss
If you have experienced one or more of these symptoms or suspect you have tinnitus, schedule a visit with your doctor to discuss possible evaluation from a hearing specialist.
How can hearing aids help tinnitus?
While there is no known cure for tinnitus, hearing aids can be a powerful tool for finding relief from the worst of the condition’s symptoms. Constant distraction from an annoying sound can be stressful, and unfortunately elevated stress levels have been linked to worsened tinnitus symptoms. Hearing aids can remove a good chunk of this stress from everyday life.
One reason for this is sound amplification: The addition of new and more audible sounds from a hearing aid can provide much-needed distraction from the sounds that come with tinnitus. Other OTC hearing aids offer intuitive sound processing features that can make it easy to mask specific tinnitus symptoms. Several Philips hearing aid devices, such as the robust miniBTE T model, incorporate AI technology to make manual adjustments on the fly by tracking use adjustments and gauging incoming sounds in real time.
Many hearing aids also offer specific features and sound programs to help alleviate the effects of tinnitus. Hearing aid brands like MDHearing offer sound therapy solutions like a noise generator to help mask or manage the symptoms of tinnitus.
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Bela Karolyi, the charismatic if polarizing gymnastics coach who turned young women into champions and the United States into an international power, has died. He was 82.
A spokesperson for USA Gymnastics confirmed to CBS News by email that Karolyi died Friday. No cause of death was given.
Karolyi and wife Martha trained multiple Olympic gold medalists and world champions in the U.S. and Romania, including Nadia Comaneci and Mary Lou Retton.
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“A big impact and influence on my life,” Comaneci, who was just 14 when Karolyi coached her to gold for Romania at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, posted on Instagram.
The Karolyis defected to the United States in 1981 and over the next 30-plus years became a guiding force in American gymnastics, though not without controversy. Bela helped guide Retton — all of 16 — to the Olympic all-around title at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles and memorably helped an injured Kerri Strug off the floor at the 1996 Games in Atlanta after Strug’s vault secured the team gold for the Americans.
Karolyi briefly became the national team coordinator for USA Gymnastics women’s elite program in 1999 and incorporated a semi-centralized system that eventually turned the Americans into the sport’s gold standard. It did not come without a cost. He was pushed out after the 2000 Olympics after several athletes spoke out about his tactics.
It would not be the last time Karolyi was accused of grandstanding and pushing his athletes too far physically and mentally.
During the height of the Larry Nassar scandal in the late 2010s — when the disgraced former USA Gymnastics team doctor was effectively given a life sentence after pleading guilty to sexually assaulting gymnasts and other athletes with his hands under the guise of medical treatment — over a dozen former gymnasts came forward saying the Karolyis were part of a system that created an oppressive culture that allowed Nassar’s behavior to run unchecked for years.
Still, some of Karolyi’s most famous students were always among his staunchest defenders. When Strug got married, she and Karolyi took a photo recreating their famous scene from the 1996 Olympics, when he carried her onto the medals podium after she vaulted on a badly sprained ankle.
Despite losing his boxing match to Jake Paul, Mike Tyson in a social media post Saturday said he had “no regrets” to getting “in ring one last time.”
The boxing legend was defeated by social media star Jake Paul in a highly anticipated fight on Friday night with an age difference of over three decades between the two contenders.
Netflix said Saturday that 60 million households worldwide tuned in to watch the match. The two fighters went eight full rounds, with each round two minutes long. Paul defeated Tyson by unanimous decision and the 27-year-old upset boxer and 58-year-old former heavyweight champion hugged afterward.
Paul was expected to earn about $40 million from the fight, and Tyson was expected to take around $20 million for the fight, according to DraftKings and other online reports.
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Tyson said on his social media that “this is one of those situations when you lost but still won. I’m grateful for last night.”
The fight almost didn’t happen after Tyson experienced an ulcer flare-up while on a plane in March. He addressed his illness Saturday, writing that he “almost died in June.” He said he had eight blood transfusions and “lost half my blood and 25lbs in hospital and had to fight to get healthy to fight so I won.”
Tyson retired from boxing in 2005 after a 20-year career. He last fought in a 2020 exhibition match against former four-division world champ Roy Jones Jr.
“To have my children see me stand toe to toe and finish 8 rounds with a talented fighter half my age in front of a packed Dallas Cowboy stadium is an experience that no man has the right to ask for. Thank you,” he said.
Alex Sundby and
contributed to this report.
