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If you suffer from chronic tinnitus or tinnitus, it is best to plan ahead before starting a big trip, because many changes brought about by the trip can cause a surge in tinnitus symptoms.

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Contributed by Glenn Schweitzer December 14, 2021 2021-12-14T00:00:00-06:00

When you endure annoying tinnitus, everyday travel experiences that were once easy, such as road trips and long-distance flights, can quickly become a huge challenge.

Many aspects of travel, whether by land, air or sea, can exacerbate a person’s tinnitus and cause unnecessary difficulties on the way. From jet lag, noisy sounds and cabin pressurization to junk food options offered on airports and major interstate highways, tinnitus travel can be fraught with obstacles.

The good news is that with some planning and the right tools and strategies, you can avoid many common problems faced by tinnitus patients when traveling.

Despite your best efforts, not every trip will be perfect. Things can go wrong, and your best plan can collapse for reasons beyond your control. For tinnitus patients, sudden stress events can cause unexpected peaks in tinnitus, which can disrupt the vacation.

Fortunately, a little planning can go a long way. Tinnitus spikes, including increases in volume, sound, intensity, or emotional response, can occur for a variety of reasons. Sometimes you can determine what causes your tinnitus spikes, sometimes you can't. In any case, tinnitus spikes are the most difficult challenge that almost all tinnitus patients often face.

The emotional response triggered by severe tinnitus spikes can be overwhelming. The level of fear and anxiety tends to rise rapidly, and often well-functioning coping tools may lose some effectiveness.

The best strategy here is to let yourself understand the psychology of tinnitus spikes, and then develop a coping plan, if there is a spike during the journey, you can immediately implement it. Write down a list of coping tools and instructions you can follow—your family and friends can help you follow—as soon as the peak begins. Most importantly, please always carry these tools and instructions with you, as peaks can occur at any time of the day or night.

When your tinnitus spikes, you can't lower the volume, but you can always make yourself more relaxed, calmer, and more comfortable. You can turn on more (or different) background noise for masking and take steps to distract yourself. Peaks will eventually pass-they will always pass. The best thing you can do is to calm yourself down as much as possible to help it pass faster.

Jet lag is a temporary but potentially stressful problem that can occur for a few days when you first arrive in a different time zone. Your body maintains an internal circadian rhythm called the circadian rhythm. When you suddenly enter a new time zone, your circadian rhythm is still synchronized with the old time zone. As a result, many people experience various temporary symptoms, such as insomnia, fatigue, inattention, mood changes, stomach problems, and general malaise. Jet lag and all its symptoms can cause a person's tinnitus to increase or make it more difficult to cope.

Fortunately, there is a simple strategy to minimize the effects of jet lag when traveling to a new time zone: take melatonin to reset your circadian rhythm. (Be sure to consult your doctor before trying any new supplements or medications.)

Melatonin is a hormone secreted in the brain. It tells your body that it is time to sleep at night. But in most countries/regions, melatonin can also be used as an over-the-counter (or prescription) sleep aid. If you take melatonin at the normal bedtime adjusted to the new time zone, it will not only help you fall asleep more easily , And can also help ease jet lag by synchronizing your circadian rhythm with the new time zone faster.

If you have been flying or driving in the mountains before, you know that rapid changes in altitude can affect your ears. Flying and earache are common.

The cabin is usually pressurized to 6,000-8,000 feet above sea level, and mountain roads can take you to higher places. Depending on your starting altitude, it may produce significant and rapid changes.

When atmospheric pressure changes rapidly, ear fullness, pain, and popping sounds usually occur, because the pressure in the middle and inner ears does not change as fast as the ambient air pressure, causing the tympanic membrane to expand inward or outward.

This is not a trigger for everyone, but if your ears are sensitive to changes in altitude or air pressure, it can have a major impact on your tinnitus. (Even if the weather changes, such as spring thunderstorms, this is true!)

Fortunately, you can get a set of cheap pressure-balancing earplugs, which solves this problem to a large extent by using a special filter to gradually balance the pressure.

Everyone should always protect their ears from noise, but this is the most important thing when you suffer from tinnitus. If the sound is loud enough, it can damage your hearing and permanently worsen your tinnitus. But even if permanent damage does not occur, loud exposure is one of the few common causes of tinnitus spikes in almost all patients. If you know you will be in a noisy environment, you can plan ahead and bring earplugs with you. But it's also easy to suddenly find yourself in a noisy environment that you didn't expect to encounter during the journey.

The best strategy is to carry two pairs of earplugs with you when you travel: a pair of ordinary foam or silicone earplugs (suitable for very noisy environments) and a pair of high-fidelity musician earplugs (lower the volume but still allow you to hear the music and the conversation clearly ). In this way, you will not be caught off guard.

In addition, hearing care providers also provide custom earplugs. These earplugs fit your ears just right.

For some reason, most food choices along airports and major interstate highways tend to be more junk food or fast food varieties. Therefore, it can be difficult to rely on the food available around you to maintain your dietary needs. Not everyone’s tinnitus is caused by dietary factors, but there are many common foods and/or macronutrients that can trigger peak tinnitus in some people. But even if dietary incentives are not a problem, if you are accustomed to a healthy diet, eating fast food or junk food can cause harm to your body and add physical stress to an already stressful travel experience.

There is a simple solution: bring your own food and snacks! On road trips, this may be obvious, but not everyone knows that you can bring food through airport security checkpoints. There are restrictions on this when traveling internationally-customs laws vary from country to country, and you may not be able to bring certain fruits, plants, or vegetables. But as a general rule, you can pick up food through airport security at any time.

After arriving at the destination, another useful diet-related strategy is to stop at the local grocery store and purchase additional healthy foods and snacks during the trip. The last thing you want when traveling is that unhealthy food or snack options will trigger a spike, but the hotel’s minibar usually only contains sweets, and the small convenience store you find in the hotel lobby is not much better. This can be easily avoided by buying healthy snacks/foods at the local grocery store.

Bonus tip: If you follow specific eating habits to avoid dietary tinnitus, such as a low-sodium diet or a low-carbohydrate diet, you may find more snacks and food options suitable for your diet at quality grocery stores such as Whole Foods, Wegmans , Trader Joe's, etc.

Depending on your destination, it can sometimes be difficult to maintain a certain type of diet while traveling, especially when you eat a lot of meals in a restaurant. In the early days of my diagnosis of Meniere's disease—my tinnitus was the loudest at the time—it was a huge challenge for me every time I traveled. At that time, I always adhered to a strict low-sodium diet, so many types of restaurants were not an option for me at all. Finding a place to eat, especially when traveling with family or friends, is a huge pressure for me.

Fortunately, I came up with a simple solution that completely solved this problem. Before each trip, I will spend time researching the menu online to find the best restaurant for me and my low-sodium diet, and then I will make a reservation in advance. During the trip, I still allow myself to find interesting and new restaurants, and I often make changes at the last minute. However, by booking a room in a place I know I like, traveling will always become more enjoyable.

Extra tip: If you rent a house or apartment with a kitchen, you can choose to cook your own meals instead of just staying in a hotel!

When traveling, you are likely to completely break away from your normal daily life and health habits, which can help you cope with tinnitus and control stress levels. Stress is another common trigger for tinnitus, usually leading to spikes. Although many travel experiences are fun and relaxing, small stressors can still accumulate quickly. Therefore, regardless of the nature of your trip, or with whom you are traveling, be sure to always prioritize self-care and arrange time to rest or relax as much as possible. This is very important, especially if you have been struggling with tinnitus before traveling. The extra stress of travel can increase your tinnitus and ruin part of your vacation. But you can help prevent this from happening by arranging time to rest and relax.

When traveling, many things can go wrong. At the airport, the frequency of baggage loss is much higher than people realize, plans change, and unexpected problems may arise. As a general rule, you should not put any important medicines, supplements, or supplies or tools related to tinnitus in your checked luggage or inaccessible suitcases. The last thing you want to do is stay at your destination without medicines or supplies. When you travel to your destination, I always recommend that you take all your important medicines and supplies with you and have them available at all times.

Sleep deprivation is another common cause of tinnitus spikes. This is also a tricky problem, because tinnitus makes it more difficult for you to fall asleep, which creates a vicious circle.

To make matters worse, certain aspects of travel can make it difficult to fall asleep. For example, when sleeping in an unfamiliar place, studies have shown that the left side of the brain still maintains a certain level of alertness and alertness during the first one or two nights. This is an evolutionary adaptation that helped our prehistoric ancestors survive, but in modern times, it means that the quality of your sleep will be disturbed for the first one or two nights in any new environment.

The best thing you can do is to prioritize and protect your sleep habits as much as possible while traveling. This means going to bed and waking up at normal times and taking everything you need with you to get a good night’s sleep. Things like sleep masks, sound generators or Bluetooth speakers for masking, books and other regular items for relaxing before going to bed, and earplugs can all help here. If it is not too inconvenient, even bringing your own pillow will help a lot. See more information in our article, which includes 11 strategies for improving tinnitus and sleep.

The above 10 tips are tailor-made for any tinnitus sufferer. However, if you are one of many people with both tinnitus and hearing loss, be sure to check our hearing loss travel tips and our advice on how to deal with hearing loss and tinnitus.

Glenn Schweitzer is an entrepreneur, blogger, and author of Rewiring Tinnitus and Mind over Meniere. He is passionate about helping others who suffer from tinnitus and vestibular disease, and has become a volunteer as an ambassador board member of the Vestibular Disease Association (VEDA). Through his blog, he continues to raise people's awareness of tinnitus, Meniere's disease and other vestibular diseases, and spread his message of hope to those in need. Read more about Glenn.

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