[Kim Jae-ho's Life Story]<199> A Desperate Appeal of Tinnitus

Tinnitus is the phenomenon of perceiving unpleasant sounds in the ears without any external sound stimulus, and it is said that 10-15% of people experience tinnitus. Although tinnitus is not a fatal disease, it makes people tired, causes stress, and prevents deep sleep. It makes it difficult to concentrate on tasks, interferes with memory, and seriously lowers quality of life by leading to depression or anxiety.

When sound waves or vibrations enter the ear canal, the sound waves are amplified as they pass through the eardrum and the three small bones (ossicles) in the inner ear, then converted into electrical signals sent to the brain, allowing us to perceive sound. When the auditory system functions normally, no sound is perceived without sound stimuli, so what causes tinnitus?

According to Seoul Asan Medical Center, tinnitus itself is not a disease but a symptom accompanying ear-related conditions such as age-related hearing loss, ear damage, or circulatory system disorders. Most tinnitus (85%) is auditory tinnitus caused by damage to the auditory system, but it can also be perceived through the auditory system when it originates from surrounding tissues or organs such as muscles or blood vessels.

Since tinnitus is not a disease but a symptom caused by damage to the auditory system or some illness, curing tinnitus requires resolving the underlying cause. Treatment for tinnitus begins with diagnostic tests to identify the cause. If a causative disease is found through diagnostic tests, the next step is to prescribe medication to treat it, but can tinnitus be easily treated this way?

When the cause of tinnitus is identified and treated, tinnitus naturally disappears, but tinnitus is not easily cured. Common causes of tinnitus include hearing damage, continuous exposure to loud noise, diabetes, thyroid disorders, multiple sclerosis, M?ni?re's disease, depression, side effects of various medications, and dysfunction of the Eustachian tube, among many others, and often the exact cause of tinnitus is unknown.

Fortunately, even when the cause of tinnitus is identified, it is often difficult to cure, as with hypertension, arteriosclerosis, or heart disease. In such cases, psychological stability is sometimes achieved by using assistive devices such as sound generators or hearing aids to habituate the tinnitus and gradually make it unnoticeable through "tinnitus retraining therapy," and patients are advised to accept that tinnitus is merely uncomfortable and to ignore it.

Is this approach to tinnitus wise? The author believes that finding answers in natural healing is best. We have countless experiences of natural healing without anyone's help. Wounds that occur frequently on the body, harmful substances and bacteria entering the body through food or breathing, thousands of cancer cells generated daily ? all these problems are naturally healed without our awareness. Tinnitus is no different.

The cells in our body get damaged or die due to various reasons such as injury, exposure to toxins, lack of nutrition or oxygen, and stress during daily life. Among the 6 billion DNA molecules in a single cell, hundreds of thousands are damaged daily, and these damaged cells are perfectly restored without our knowledge by the "doctor prepared inside my body" in the form of genes, which is natural healing.

Cells with damaged DNA that fail to recover normally cannot function properly, and when such cells increase, various uncomfortable symptoms appear. Uncomfortable symptoms like tinnitus signal that damaged genes are not being restored to their original state. Without this signal, we would not know that damaged genes are not being repaired, potentially missing the opportunity to restore them.

This is why we must listen to the various uncomfortable symptoms our body sends. When genes are damaged during our daily life, it is the genes themselves that repair them, but as Hippocrates said, we must not interfere with the "doctor prepared inside my body" who can properly repair damaged genes, and it is our responsibility to create a good environment and cooperate.

To this end, we should maintain overall health by practicing Newstart, a life-friendly lifestyle that switches on the life switch (see Life Story Part 6). Especially for mental health, avoid prolonged exposure to loud noise, get sufficient rest and sleep (Parts 47 and 48), manage stress well (Part 52), supply appropriate nutrients through a healthy diet (Part 33), and also prioritize quitting smoking and proper exercise (Part 39).

Kim Jae-ho, Independent Researcher

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.