overactive nerves...

[jeannie]

I was wondering if Dr. Nagler or any of the doctors know if overactive nerves can cause tinnitus? I just started Cymbalta, but I read that its toxic to ears.. is there any herbs we can take for it? thank you.

 

[Dr. Nagler]

I was wondering if Dr. Nagler or any of the doctors know if overactive nerves can cause tinnitus? I just started Cymbalta, but I read that its toxic to ears.. is there any herbs we can take for it? thank you.

Cymbalta is not toxic to ears. What you read is incorrect. The drug can potentially [rarely] aggravate tinnitus, but that has nothing to do with ototoxicity and is reversible upon cessation of the drug.

In terms of why "nerves" can cause tinnitus, anxiety has sometimes been referred to as a "tinnitus emerger." In other words, for reasons not well-understood but probably related to the "fight or flight" function of the autonomic nervous system, anxiety can make you aware of and even enhance tinnitus to which you were largely or completely previously oblivious. The problem is that one your tinnitus is staring you in the face, pharmacologically addressing your "nerves" tends not to adequately reverse that process, if at all.

Dr. Stephen Nagler