I have noticed I have less balance standing on one leg than I used to. I have developed slight tinnitus and hearing problems in recent years. Is this likely to be a factor?

correct me if i'm wrong but.. i believe there is something in your left ear that has something to do with balance, so this is possible.

Ah, that's interesting. My left is my worst ear.

Thanks.

I have tinnitus, too. My ears have been ringing since as long as I can remember. I actually never thought that was abnoral untill I learned there was a disorder in which your ears rang all the time, lol. I've never associated it with a loss of balance though, but I guess I don't have anything to compare it to. You've got me wondering about it now, though. You probably know that it is caused by damaged cillia in the cochlea that continuosly send impulses to your brain. Our sence of balance also comes from the cochlea. Our brain somehow interprets the fluid level inside into balance. If we use the same cillia to hear as we do to develope balance, than it would be related.

No, I'm mistaken. Balance is not determined in the cochlea, it is determined in the semicircular canals, which share the same fluid. The semicircular canals have their own cillia for sending signals to the brain. These two parts of the inner ear both send their signals though the acoustic nerve, though. If your tinnitus is hearing damage caused by loud sounds then I wouldn't think the semicircular canal cillia would also be damaged, although I stand to be corrected. If they are related to each other my guess is that the contant signalling from the cochlear cillia my be interfering with the signals from the semicircular canals cillia because they are sent throught the same nerve. Or, if your tinnitus wasn't caused by loud sounds, but due to some kind of natural disorder, like mine but yours would be a late onset kind, then maybe it affects both kinds of inner ear cillia. I'm not a doctor, just a science nerd, but these are pretty good guesses.

I think the initial damage was done during my weapons training in the army. later I worked in a rather loud bar. I have had it suggested it might also be connected with excess wax, but I really don't know.

It's not a major loss of balance, it is just noticeable compared with a few years ago.

http://www.hearinglosshelp.com/BalanceSystem.htm?zoom_highlight=balance

i hope this sheds some light..or sound..or whatever

Hmm, then I guess the question to ask your doctor is if loud noises can damage the semicircular canal the same as the cochlea.

lol, I wish tinnitus was as simple as excess ear wax.

To be fair, I think that bit about the ear wax might have been more related to my hearing loss (maybe I didn't hear him properly!).

Thanks for the info, btw.

I found out I had tinnitus after i managed to convince myself that ringing noise when i was lying down in my bed wasn't my monitor idling, but my ears ringing :P

So after i found that out, i started my research on the topic (i can't be bothered finding the link now) but i read up somewhere that rare cases of tinnitus can make your hearing slightly 'better' than normal. It's hard to explain but the frequency at which the ringing occurs can silence out other ambient sounds and allow you to hear minor changes in sound in the environment around you, i like to think i belong to one of those rare cases :P.