What is Tinnitus and Why is There Ringing in My Ears?

By Charles J McDonald

On kind of tinnitus is called objective tinnitus. This merely means that the noises in your head can be verified by an outside observer. Though you may be surprised to discover where these sounds are coming from!
Many individuals who suffer with objective tinnitus are told that the many of the processes occurring in their body are not silent ones. Not only are they not quiet, but that's exactly what these people are hearing. The sounds of the body.
Initially, it seems like this description should be a low-grade science fiction movie. But let's just look at one sound we know emanates from our physical bodies: our hart beat.
Every time you visit your doctor he listens for your heart beat. Yes, he listens with his trusty stethoscope. Your heart beats... your blood "whooshes" through your arteries... joints creak.. stomachs growl.
Well, you get the idea no doubt. If you really gave it some thought, the body is probably far from silent.
But let's face it, most of us unless we have an instrument which amplifies sounds, just don't hear any of this. Why? For one thing, many of these sounds are in areas where it's really difficult to hear them. You might say these noises are in parts of the body that are "well insulated." These activities, many times, are surrounded by muscles or other tissues. These tissues and muscles effectively capture and contain the vibrations which, in turn, create the sounds.
But there are several other reasons why you don't hear these noises. Your brain has the marvelous ability o simply tune them out.
That's right! Your brain makes a judgment, so to speak: relevant or irrelevant sound. (Sounds like a new game show!) It then makes the decision to filter out all the irrelevant sounds. To you, it's as the noises never existed at all.
The brain actually makes another decision too. The brain ignores sounds produced with incessant regularity -- like the beating of your heart. Otherwise you would be listening to that sound day in and day out. Imagine not being able to sleep because your heart was beating too loud.