Okay, so this probably isn’t a very interesting question but you know how sometime you get that high pitch sound in your ears? Well I was wondering why we get it.
I was once watching a show on people who have a constant ringing and said it was because submarines or some other governmental activity but they have it constantly so I don’t think that’s it.
I used to occasionally get it. Now it is there all the time.
If you are getting it after a concert or tractor pull, that is damage. The occasional ringing that is not caused by excessive noise? I too, am curious.
i had the problem in the early 90’s for some years. the doctors said that my case was tinnitus and that there was no real good explanation for it…no good cure, either. they said it was nothing to panic over since my blood pressure was good, but they gave me a brain scan (for my benefit…they said that they had no concern but if it would make me quit whining they could do it) and of course, there was no anomaly. (you thought that i was going to say that they didn’t find anything, didn’t you?) sometimes, it could be hardening of the arteries, or damage to the ear somehow. i think that william shatner also has it.
I once attended a pretty good lecture on tinnitus. There can be all sorts of causes including nerve damage, etc. One of the more interesting ones (and the main topic of the lecture) was that the membrane in the cochlea goes haywire. This membrame is an active feedback mechanism. That is, as sound waves move thru the cochlea it vibrates to enhance the signal. If this feedback mechanism gets fouled up (due to recurring exposure to loud sounds, illness, etc.), it vibrates all the time. Since this membrane stirs up the fluid in the cochlea, it virbrates the small ear bones, the eardrum, and a doctor can actually hear the ringing thru a stethescope to the ear.
At the time of the lecture, there was no cure on the horizon. But maybe something has developed since.
Someone is talking about you.
I have also heard that a small segment of the population is actually able to hear the sound of the friction caused by cells rubbing together. All that activity actually produces a very high pitched whine, inaudible to most. I also hear the sound at times, its unsettling.
From what I understand William Shatner does indeed have a bad case of tinnitus. Its got to be a hell of a thing to live with.