Sorry to hear you're in discomfort Grandma J... Wish I could help. I have ringing in my ears too especially when I'm on meds but I just try and ignore it. Don't know what else to do.. I think mine is because of the NSAIDs.
Thanks, everybody, for your help. I do think I should see my doctor and maybe change bp meds, but the one I use (amlodipine) really keeps my bp under control, so I hate to mess with that. But, wow, it would be nice to have some peace and quiet once! Funny thing is, I just realized I haven't had a song endlessly repeating itself in my brain lately....I thought that was annoying, but I'll take it over the ringing any day. Amlodipine is a calcium channel blocker, and it works differently than a beta blocker. Now I'm wondering if the way it works could be having an effect on how the blood flows through my brain and maybe that could be causing the ringing! I hate to make an appointment just for this, maybe if something else comes up, I'll go in and kill two birds with one stone. I can't remember a time--even a long time ago--that I didn't have some tinnitus--it's just so loud lately, I can hardly ignore it!
Amlodipine looks to have this as a side effect for between 1 in 1000 to 1 in 100 - honestly i don't know how they can confidently tweak this out given how common it is. Assume it goes away when they stop the meds, perhaps?
Hereis a good list of meds with tinnitus as a side effect.
It's even greater for some common PsA meds - eg for sulfasalizine, the the risk is said to be "Common: More than 1 in 100 people who take Sulfasalazine" I have a prescription for this and it's one reason I have not yet filled it out.
Omg, Ryan, thanks for the info! I'm going to message my doc today about this! I was reluctant to stop the amlodipine just 'cuz of the mild headache it causes, but I will stop it for the ringing!!! That would be amazing if changing bp meds stops the ringing!!!!!!! I wish I could pinpoint exactly when the ringing got worse--it was probably within days after starting amlodipine (I've been on it a couple years now and that's at least how long I've had this). If so, duh, Idk why I wouldn't have figured that out right away! I'll keep you guys posted.
I have tinnitus, too. Mine began the very next day after a return trip via airplane. This was before being diagnosed with PsA. I also had extreme vertigo to go along with it. I was told that I had an inner ear infection. The vertigo comes and goes, it is not as bad as the first time. The tinnitus is at its worst when I don't have anything to occupy my mind or when the house is really, really quiet. The ENT said that I had exceptional hearing, no hearing loss. GrandmaJ I had an infected saliva gland a few years ago. It felt like I had gotten the mumps again. The methotrexate seemed to suppress the tinnitus, the ringing didn't seem as loud. But, my rheumy cut my dosage back, so the ringing seems to be louder.
I'm just about to go nuts. I can't decide which I'm hating more today--my painful feet, or my ringing ears. I guess my feet get today's award for the biggest pain in the azz. At least ringing ears don't hurt!
I didn't take my dose of Amlodipine yesterday and not sure if the ringing has changed much....it seems less, but might be my imagination. I sent an online message to my doctor about this and asked her if we should change my bp med just to see if the ringing lets up (even letting up a little would be nice!)....
Grandma J, I hope your doc can make a helpful suggestion here. If the amlodipine is effectively controlling your BP (which could be life saving) please think carefully before changing. BP management has to be more important than ringing in your ears, as maddening as it is.
Reason I urge caution is the muddle I'm in. My BP is proving very difficult to control because I've had to have three drugs withdrawn because of inefficacy, intolerable and one dangerous side-effect and I'm now running out of options because my reactions seem to go across all drugs in one class eg. calcium channel blockers! I'm already taking a beta-blocker, thiazide diuretic and an angiotensin .... I'm praying that the new diuretic is going to be ok otherwise I will have to live with the risks of hypertension. Not saying this would happen to you but it's not as simple (it seems) as any BP drug doing the job!
Yuck, Jules, I hope your doc figures it out! My daughters have trouble managing their bp--I really think their high bp is a result of pre-eclampsia during a pregnancy because their bp never went down after giving birth (both induced a few weeks early due to high bp), PLUS their dad's genes--he's also had out-of-control bp all of his adult life. It sounds like you are quite like them. Anne, our youngest, seems not to tolerate the bp meds very well and has tried several if them.
I had pre-eclampsia with our fourth child (at 38) but my bp didn't go up until my early 50s and we got it under control fairly easily. I have no idea why my internist switched me to a calcium channel blocker. ?
Back to the ringing....it didn't bother me all day, but then it started up just as bad as ever at about 8:00 p.m. (an hour ago). I suppose I should take the amlodipine--I didn't check to see if my doctor responded to my message. You're right, it is important to take the bp med--I prefer not to have a stroke. But, if the ringing would get any worse than it is, I'm pretty sure it'll drive me maddddd!!!
I went back to taking the Amlodipine--my doctor messaged me today and told me she researched and found no connection between Amlodipine and ears ringing. She also reminded me that I told her about my ear ringing problem in December, 2013 and again in 2014 and she had ordered an ENT referral and was wondering why I didn't follow through with that. The reason I didn't was because my brother had gone to ENT for his ear ringing and they apparently couldn't help him.....so, I thought what's the point?
Anyway, she also suggested trying Lipo-Flavinoid....I think it's some kind of vitamin concoction and she said ENTs often recommend it--it supposedly works for some people. So, I'm going to look into that. I just hope it's not ungodly expensive--I really can't afford paying ridiculous amounts of money for remedies that probably don't work anyway. I told her I'll try it and get back to her. We'll see what happens!!! :-)
Hi,
I have read a number of scholarly medical articles on the frequency of ear problems in patients with psoriatic arthritis, and it is so common, that it can be used as a diagnostic tool to distinguish psoriatic arthritis from RA. Dizziness, vertigo/balance, tinnititis, and hearing loss are all symptoms of PsA. People with PsA can also develop autoimmune Inner Ear Disease, which can cause many of the same symptoms.
Hope this helps.
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Yes, Corrie, that's right. Here's one of them.
Corrie said:
Hi,
I have read a number of scholarly medical articles on the frequency of ear problems in patients with psoriatic arthritis, and it is so common, that it can be used as a diagnostic tool to distinguish psoriatic arthritis from RA. Dizziness, vertigo/balance, tinnititis, and hearing loss are all symptoms of PsA. People with PsA can also develop autoimmune Inner Ear Disease, which can cause many of the same symptoms.
Hope this helps.
Thank you Corrie and Seenie. It's interesting. I've had a few bouts of dizziness, vertigo/balance over the years. But, I still don't think there's any help for this. I started this discussion 2 years ago, and I mentioned then I hoped starting Enbrel would stop the tinnitus. But it hasn't helped. The ringing has gotten worse, sometimes it almost feels like my head's going to explode. It's always there, but a lot of the time I don't let it bother me.
I've decided it's just something I have to accept.
I have had trouble with my ears for years. Now I have tinnitus and have had two bouts of vertigo. The vertigo was so bad that multiple Epley maneuvers didn't work and he had to send me for vestibular therapy. My ENT called me "recalcitrant" and said I was one of only three patients in his practice he ever had to send.
ENT says it's not auto-immune inner ear disease but PsA. Other than the tinnitus and vertigo, which both started AFTER I b began injecting Humira, the ear troubles have settled down--since I was diagnosed and began MTX, then Humira.
An ad about tinnitus popped up on my computer screen, so I decided to watch it. The person was explaining how tinnitus isnāt really noise in the ear, and a brain scan uncovered the real root cause of tinnitus. It was one of those verbal presentations, stating it was only 5 minutes. After 25 minutes I finally stopped listening to it. But, a lot of it made sense, because Iāve always felt that the ringing is in my head, not my ears!
It said that scientists had mapped tinnitus in a human brain and they found that it traveled through all brain areas and it went far beyond the ear and the hearing-specialized area of the brain. They said itās a disease of the networks that connect the brain, which causes brain ācommunication linesā to be altered so information canāt pass properly from one brain cell to another.
What was upsetting to me was this could lead to hearing loss (even complete hearing loss), Alzheimerās, Parkinsonās, and dementiaā¦this is because the communication lines in the brain ā āsynapsesā in medical terms ā arenāt functioning properly and over time the failure of synapses causes the above-mentioned diseases.
You know me, my anxiety is through the roof anyway, and the fact that my daughters recently told me theyāre taking note of my memory problems because they think I have a start of dementiaāif this information is correct, which I believe it is, I think itās important that those of us who have tinnitus need to get serious about fixing it!!!
But, where do we start? When I searched tinnitus in our discussions, I couldnāt believe that itās been almost 5 years since mine started bothering me so much. I havenāt seen an ENT for it because Iāve heard from so many people thereās nothing they can do to stop it. I never took the Lipo-flavinoids my doctor suggested because I had heard they donāt work either, so why waste my money? But, I feel there has to be something a person can do to fix this!
I noticed I wrote something above in July, 2014, hoping if my ear ringing was PsA related, Enbrel would help. Well, Enbrel has helped me a lot since July of 2014, but not my ear ringing!
I noticed Meniereās disease was mentionedā¦IDK if I have that, no doctor ever told me I did. Anyway, Iām wondering, since this discussion ended 1-1/2 years ago, has anybody come across any helpful informationāremedies for ear ringing, or has anybody figured out how to minimize the noise?
I havenāt. I have, however, had two more bouts of vertigo since 2016, both of which put me back into vestibular rehab. Well, I would be in VR right now but for the stupid flu last month.
Geez, 6CL,what a bad month you had! I looked up VR and vertigo and I read that viruses such as colds and flu can actually bring on bouts of vertigo! I hope you didnāt or wonāt experience any of it because of your fluābut I imagine you probably did have it while you had the flu?
Iāve had vertigo twice. The first time my daughter took me to the clinic. It was so awful I got nauseated and started vomitingāluckily I hadnāt eaten anything, but still, for me to get nauseous is very rare. The second time I had it I laid still and closed my eyes. It was over in about an hour, but it is awful!
I hope the VR helps you avoid getting it or helps you get over it quickly if it comes on!
I wish I knew when I had the first vertigo and if it could be linked with the ringing in my headā¦I think if a person can find a cause they can more easily find a solution.
Iām at the point of trying lipoflavinoids. I always need to know if anything conflicts with my heart/heart medsā¦but so far it seems like itās a safe OTC med. itās worth a tryāI wonāt be too optimistic about it, though.
Actually, no. The ENT diagnosed me with vertigo in December; I got put on the waiting list for vestibular rehab with the intake appointment the middle of January. Had to put off VR because of flu hell.
The therapist told me I respond fairly quicklyālast yearās was four sessions; I think the one before that was also four.
When I had the bout in 2017, he tried multiple Epley maneuvers and another I canāt remember and finally told me I had the worst case of vertigo in his practice (yay me). The ENT really doesnāt have an answer for why me other than some folks just continue to have bouts of vertigo. Reading on vestibular.org tells me that if youāre going to have another bout after your first, it will likely be within five years. I had my first round in 2013. My five-year āanniversaryā is in December. Iām not counting any chickens, though.
Iām going to look into lipoflavinoids. I need to remember to ask the cardiologist about ubiquinol.
My brother has tinnitus like mine. I asked him today about the lipoflavinoids. He took them and told me they didnāt do any good. But, I still want to try for myself. I havenāt found anything about them that conflicts with heart meds or a bad heart.
I need to be cautious about thatā¦I had intended to take nortriptyline again, and I did take it for a few weeks in the Fall, but then I read something about it not being safe for people with heart problems. My cardiologist told me it was safe, but Iām still leery of it. I donāt want to risk having another blockageā¦EVER!
About the lipoflavinoidsā¦what Iāve read is that it takes a while for them to workā¦like months! I doubt my brother used it for months. He probably gave up after a couple weeks.
Hi Grandma_Jā¦Iāve tinnitus since I was in my teens (now 62). It did get a lot worse since the last major flare I had which started 2 years ago and lasted 1 1/2 years (it was a fun time). During that time, I had seen an ENT specialist and audiologist. The ENT didnāt have much to say about the tinnitus but the audiologist was able to determine the frequency to which my ringing is at and had me try a pair of hearing aids. These hearing aids were able to counteract the ringing and nullify it. It was the first time in decades that I did not hear the ringing. Unfortunately, at the price of the hearing aids that she wanted me to get, it is out of my price range for now. And as soon as I took them off, the ringing was there again, of course. So they do have the technology to get you ring free but no one has ever mentioned a cure or connection to another disease.
PSA related, I believe it is. For the last six months, I get an area around my right ear that feels like someone swatted you on the side of the head. Iām assuming itās inflammation and that the inflammation around the ear causes the ringing to increase while happening. This also causes my hearing in that ear to get worse while happenning. It can last just a few minutes all the way up to a few hours. This also affects the jaw joint near it (canāt eat when itās like this).
Wish I had better news for you but will keep the group posted as this is a major concern for me because of my career (music related).