Hi
@Claudia -
Are you saying that popping your ears and/or taking mucinex calms all of your symptoms, including Tinnitus? If so, then, yes, I think that's pretty definitive proof in your case.
Tinnitus is difficult to pin-point, because it's a neurological manifestation of some sort of physiological or chemical disturbance elsewhere in the body. Only in cases of damage to the auditory nerve itself (which is rare, even noise-induced damage to the cochlea does not directly affect the auditory nerve, so you'd be looking at something like an acoustic neuroma) is Tinnitus generally self-contained and very easy to correct through surgery. There are ordinarily neurovascular, neuromuscular, inflammatory, infectious, and/or biochemical causes that are not widely understood to be contributing to Tinnitus. At the end of the day, part of the puzzle here is that, according to the ATA, each individual has a different threshold for what ultimately "triggers" their tinnitus. In your case, your threshold may be driven largely by congestion. In my case, it's caused by inflammation to the tissues surrounding my ears (thanks to inflamed jaw).
I also thought that allergies might be playing a role in my case, but the only way to really test this is to remove yourself from your environment for several days and see if you notice a substantial improvement. If this is the case, then you may want to start narrowing down causes. Right now, seasonally, in the Northeast, mold and dust are the biggest culprits, but they generally don't cause huge systemic reactions like the ones that might inflame your sinuses to cause Tinnitus.
I'll be keeping you in my thoughts!
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