You notice a ringing in your ears when you wake up in the morning. This is strange because they weren’t doing that yesterday. So you begin thinking about likely causes: recently, you’ve been keeping your music at a moderate volume and you haven’t been working in a loud environment. But your head was aching yesterday, and you did take some aspirin last night.
Might it be the aspirin?
You’re thinking to yourself “maybe it’s the aspirin”. And you remember, somewhere in the deeper recesses of your mind, hearing that certain medicines were connected with reports of tinnitus. Is one of those medications aspirin? And does that mean you should stop taking aspirin?
What’s The Connection Between Tinnitus And Medications?
The long standing rumor has connected tinnitus symptoms with numerous medicines. But what is the truth behind these rumors?
It’s widely assumed that a large variety of medications cause tinnitus or tinnitus-like symptoms. The truth is that there are a few types of medicine that can produce tinnitus or tinnitus-like symptoms. So why do so many people believe tinnitus is such a prevalent side effect? Here are some theories:
- It can be stressful to start taking a new medicine. Or, in some cases, it’s the root cause, the thing that you’re using the medication to fix, that is stressful. And stress is commonly associated with tinnitus. So in this instance, the tinnitus symptoms aren’t being produced by the medication. It’s the stress of the entire ordeal, though the misunderstanding between the two is rather understandable.
- Many medications can affect your blood pressure, which also can affect tinnitus.
- The affliction of tinnitus is pretty prevalent. Chronic tinnitus is an issue for as many as 20 million people. Some coincidental timing is inevitable when that many individuals suffer with tinnitus symptoms. Enough individuals will start using medications around the same time that their unrelated tinnitus begins to act up. It’s understandable that people would erroneously think that their tinnitus symptoms are being caused by medication due to the coincidental timing.
What Medications Are Connected to Tinnitus
There is a scientifically proven link between tinnitus and a few medicines.
Strong Antibiotics And The Tinnitus Connection
There are ototoxic (damaging to the ears) properties in certain antibiotics. Known as aminoglycosides, these antibiotics are quite powerful and are usually saved for extreme situations. High doses have been found to cause damage to the ears (including creating tinnitus symptoms), so such dosages are normally avoided.
Blood Pressure Medicine
Diuretics are frequently prescribed for individuals who are dealing with hypertension (high blood pressure). When the dosage is substantially higher than normal, some diuretics will trigger tinnitus.
Ringing in The Ears Can be Produced by Taking Aspirin
And, yes, the aspirin might have been what brought about your tinnitus. But the thing is: Dosage is once again extremely significant. Typically, high dosages are the significant issue. The doses you take for a headache or to ward off heart disease aren’t often big enough to cause tinnitus. Here’s the good news, in most situations, when you quit using the large dosages of aspirin, the tinnitus symptoms will dissipate.
Consult Your Doctor
Tinnitus might be able to be caused by several other unusual medicines. And there are also some odd medicine combinations and interactions that might generate tinnitus-like symptoms. That’s the reason why your best course of action is going to be talking about any medication worries you may have with your doctor or pharmacist.
That being said, if you start to notice buzzing or ringing in your ears, or other tinnitus-like symptoms, get it checked out. It’s hard to say for sure if it’s the medicine or not. Tinnitus is also strongly associated with hearing loss, and some treatments for hearing loss (like hearing aids) can help.