Are there really some drugs being commonly sold which can be attributed as the cause of tinnitus. Read about them here to see if the ones you take are on the list.
Tinnitus is caused mostly by the use of drugs and medications. At the same time, it must be said that tinnitus is a side effect of such medications. The medicines that give relief to tinnitus symptoms are far lesser than the medicines that cause tinnitus. Accidental discovery of drug related tinnitus symptoms are too many to enumerate. In a similar case, Sir Alexander Fleming discovered antibiotics in 1928.
The treatment of tuberculosis in 1944 led to the chance discovery. Streptomycin was the medication used for treating T.B. The disease Tuberculosis or T.B. was a killer disease in those days. But Streptomycin users started hearing ringing noises in the ear and getting dizzy or facing instability of posture. Doctors and researchers probed the issue. It was found out that using streptomycin has affected the cochleo/vestibular structure adversely and permanently. This meant hearing and vertigo problems were triggered off. The drugs that causes tinnitus were thus for the first time clubbed together as ototoxic drugs.
List Of Drugs That Cause Tinnitus – There Are Other Culprits Too
It is not only Streptomycin that causes tinnitus. Ototoxicity is linked to many other drug families. Some of these are: the aminoglycoside family of antibiotics, chemotherapy drugs which are platinum-based, loop diuretics, quinine and salicylates which are day-to-day medicines for curing light fevers or headache, and some other medicines as well. The human cochleo/vestibular structure is affected adversely by the toxicity of these drugs. This causes the buzzing in the ears and the half-loss of hearing.
The list the drugs that cause tinnitus are extremely long. In order to help document them, they are arranged in groups with major subheads included within. The list is as follows:
Antibiotics include Erithromycin, Aminoglycosides and also Vancomycin. In most cases they belong to the medications in the ‘mycin’ group. Examples of these are kanamycin, streptomycin, gantamycine, neomycin as well as fresh derivatives of erythromycin. This includes EES, E-mycin, Pediazol, Eryc, Zithromax, Biazine, Ilosone and a more which are ototoxic when used intravenously in doses of 2 to 4 grams every 24 hours. But low oral doses are far less toxic in nature. Vancomycin (Vincocin), when administered in single doses or with aminoglycosides, is mostly ototoxic when administered in an intravenous way.
Salicylates that consist of aspirin or drugs related with aspirin, are generally called NSAIDs. These include Advil, Anaprox, Aleve, Clinoril, Poradol, Indocin, Lodine, Naprosyn, Nuprine and some more. Toxicity level increases with the taking of 6/8 pills daily. But it is fortunate that the symptoms can be checked the moment the medicine is stopped.
Chemotherapy agents: These comprise of Nitrogen Mustard, Cisplatin and Vincristin. These medicines are prescribed for the cancer treatment. By the continuous monitoring of the blood toxicity level and serial audiograms at regular intervals, it is possible to control the ototoxicity. But when patients are already under some ototoxic medications like aminoglycosides and perhaps Lasix or Bumex that are loop diuretics, the ototoxicity level quite often exceeds much beyond human tolerance.
Loop diuretics which are formed of Endecrin, Bumex and Lasix that are prescribed in treating serious cases of renal failure or hypertension that is clinically severe. The oral dosage of the medications is not so ototoxic and this is good news indeed. The doctors see an advantage in this and thus prescribe oral doses to all those people who are suffering because of chronic cases of kidney failure.
Anti-malarial drugs such as Quinine in various derivates and forms too. It is good that the ototoxicity level in quinine can be turned back when there is no need for the medication any more.
Muscle relaxants are drugs which keep under control the night cramps. These can also lead to ototoxicity. Some of these drugs are Q-Vel, Legatrin, Aralen, Atabrine and few more.
It is still being probed by researchers to figure out the ototoxicity levels of recently discovered drugs which are being turned out at a regular pace for the mankind’s benefit and to cure the incurable diseases.
The Best Tinnitus Treatment
The conventional medication has some negative impacts. In one hand they try to solve one problem but on the other hand some other problems come up. In most of the cases, side effects are obvious and tinnitus is one of them. It is a bitter truth that conventional form of medication cannot cure tinnitus because they only deals with the symptoms and not with the root cause of the disease. This is the reason why holistic approach is necessary. The holistic approach treats the body as a whole and finds the root cause of the tinnitus and its triggers. After identifying the root cause and its triggers, they suggest proper remedies, which work effectively to cure the disease. The symptom goes away automatically when the root causes gats taken care of. For this reason holistic remedies are so well effective to cure tinnitus.