Good post. There may be reason to believe that underlying conditions, such as high blood pressure, may contribute to tinnitus to some degree. I'm not a doctor, but my own tinnitus that I've dealt with in my left ear for several years has improved somewhat since taking BP medication. So perhaps lower sodium intake in some way helps alleviate some of the other 'lesser' symptoms of HB pressure? Who knows.
A few weeks ago while I was down visiting and helping take care of my mother for several days, I asked her to turn up the volume on the television. She said to me, "You should probably get your hearing checked." Granted, that's not bad advice... but it just so happens that she has an air machine that she has running in the living room 24/7 because of chronic COPD that requires her to use supplemental oxygen/air. That machine is about the size of a guitar amplifier, and the sound decibel level is slightly less than that of a modern upright vacuum cleaner. "Mom, you do realize that the television volume is 10 times lower than the noise being constantly emitted from your air machine, right?"
No doubt I am dealing with some gradual hearing loss. It's not severe, but at some point down the road I might eventually get to the point where I'll need a hearing aid. It's not unusual... tends to happen as we get older. But we do become desensitized to the noise level in those environs that we're exposed to on a regular basis. Not to mention all of the stupid stuff some of us do when we're younger, like blaring music in our cars, turning up the volume full blast in our ear buds when listening to music, not to mention things like not always wearing hearing protection when I go to the local gun club to do some target practice, etc.
Considering all that I've ignored over the years with regard to protecting my hearing, I'm honestly surprised that it's not worse than it is. Of course, it's like anything else. The longer we deal with certain maladies, the more accustomed we become to accepting them as opposed to treating/resolving them.
Also, quite truthfully, my knack for selective hearing on occasion cannot be completely dismissed as well! lol