Can High Blood Pressure Cause Tinnitus

Both tinnitus and hypertension, or elevated blood pressure, are quite prevalent diseases or symptoms. High blood pressure may worsen the intensity or severity of the sounds you can hear, or it may cause tinnitus.

One aspect of the relationship is that elevated blood pressure affects blood flow to your arteries and blood vessels, especially those inside the sensitive inner ear regions.

What is Tinnitus?

One sign of tinnitus is a buzzing or ringing sensation in the ears. Hypertension, or elevated blood pressure, can cause it or make it worse.

People with hypertension have greater rates of hearing loss, according to clinical specialists, since changes in blood pressure alter the amount of blood flowing through the blood vessels in your sensitive inner ear.

Although tinnitus may not always indicate high blood pressure, it is crucial to have any health or hearing issues examined by a trained specialist in order to determine the best course of action.

Relationship Between High Blood Pressure and Tinnitus?

A buzzing or ringing feeling in the ears is one symptom of tinnitus. It can be brought on by or exacerbated by hypertension, or increased blood pressure.

According to clinical experts, people with hypertension are more likely to experience hearing loss because variations in blood pressure affect how much blood flows through the blood vessels in your delicate inner ear.

It is important to get any health or hearing problems evaluated by a qualified specialist in order to decide the best course of action, even though tinnitus may not necessarily be a sign of high blood pressure.

High blood pressure frequently causes tinnitus as a side effect because it damages the network of capillaries in your auditory system.

Tinnitus is more likely to be linked to high blood pressure if you hear sounds that resemble a pulse or beat—in rhythm with your heart rate. This could be a sign of pulsatile tinnitus, which needs to be looked into right away.

Tinnitus is one of many possible issues or symptoms that can worsen if treatment is not received. High blood pressure is caused by an excessive force of blood within your vessels.

Is Tinnitus a Reaction to Medications for High Blood Pressure?

One complicating factor is that after seeking therapy for high blood pressure, some patients experience tinnitus or discover that their symptoms get louder or more visible. Some people have negative reactions to NSAIDs and other over-the-counter medications, in addition to a variety of prescription drugs.

Among the drugs that might cause tinnitus include blood thinners like aspirin and diuretics, which are frequently used to help control high blood pressure.

Usually, this won’t occur since, if you take the prescription as prescribed, the concentration of the drug won’t be high enough to produce tinnitus on its own. However, your tinnitus may worsen if you have a reaction to a medicine used to treat hypertension.

You should inform your doctor if you notice a change in your tinnitus that occurs when you start taking a new prescription or if the drug or dosage you are taking changes. A simple switch could resolve the issue.

Issues in Blood Vessels and Viscosity That Can Trigger Tinnitus

Blood viscosity, or thickness, is increased in many people with high blood pressure. For this reason, doctors typically recommend diuretics to lessen the issue and guarantee that blood can pass through arteries and vessels at a safe and healthy pace.

The heart has a harder time pumping blood throughout the body when the blood is thicker, and if the tiny capillaries in the ears aren’t receiving enough oxygen, they may get damaged. Tinnitus hence frequently precedes hearing loss associated with high blood pressure and blood viscosity.

The case of pulsatile tinnitus, which we discussed earlier, is comparable. Although it is less prevalent, pulsatile tinnitus is defined as a sensation in which you hear a sound that sounds like your heartbeat or feel your pulse in your ears.

What Are My Treatment Options?

An audiologist may be able to offer or suitably refer for the following treatment options if your tinnitus is not caused by an underlying medical condition or if your doctor has treated other medical conditions:

• Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT): The neurophysiological idea behind Tinnitus Retraining Therapy (TRT) is that in order for patients to stop being bothered by their tinnitus, the brain must become accustomed to hearing it.
• Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT): The goal of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is to lessen or manage a person’s negative reaction to tinnitus.
• Hearing Aids: We could advise experimenting with a tinnitus masker in conjunction with a hearing aid. By using pleasant noises to divert the user’s attention from whistling or buzzing, this kind of hearing aid will let the person with hearing loss notice outside sounds more clearly.

In summary, this symptom is down to damage to the blood vessels and isn’t anything sinister but requires an assessment to ensure any problems caused by hypertension are being managed.

Otherwise, excessive blood pressure may cause damage to your blood vessels. If the high blood pressure that is causing the issue is not identified and treated, the pressure may worsen the natural function of those fragile blood vessels.

It is worthwhile to schedule an appointment with both your general practitioner and an audiologist if you experience persistent pulsing in your ears that lasts more than a few minutes in order to determine the reason and rule out any possible problems.