Young women seem more likely to get tinnitus than young men. The National Study of Hearing reports that young women get tinnitus eight per cent more frequently than men.

Tinnitus used to be called boilermaker’s ear, because shop floor workers in heavy industry often complained about it.

Reports suggest that blue-eyed people are statistically more likely to suffer from tinnitus.  Blue-eyed people have less of the pigment melanin than brown-eyed people and melanin is thought to offer some protection. 

Studies show that tinnitus affects the left hear more commonly than the right.

In 1801 Dr Grapengiesser, a physician from Berlin, reported treating tinnitus with Volta’s column of silver and zinc plates.  Developed on year earlier, this was actually the first battery!  For people without tinnitus, the electric current would actually bring tinnitus on; but for people with tinnitus, the device woud help suppress it.

Believing that tinnitus might be relieved by inhaling the vapours of chloroform and prussic acid, ear specialist Joseph Toynbee (1815-1866) subjected himself to the ‘cure’ - with fatal consequences.

There is a theory that Vincent Van Gogh cut off his own ear because he had Meniere’s Disease (which includes tinnitus). But please, don’t try this at home!

The English word “tinnitus” comes from the latin word “tinnire”, which means to ring or tinkle.

Noise pollution isn’t a new problem. As early as 720BC, authorities in the Italian City of Sybaris introduced ‘noise zoning’ into local planning laws.

The Annamite tribe in eastern India believed that the ear is inhabited by a small animal whose function is to protect the ear.  If it starts fighting with similar animals, or is disturbed by a foreign body, tinnitus results.

Reprinted from RNID’s One in Seven magazine supplement.