Is Anybody Else's Tinnitus *Helped* by Aspirin?

[Nick NY]

I have posted here a few times since my tinnitus really went crazy around 2 years ago. I have had a constant tone tinnitus for a really long time (around 10 years, since my teens) but about 2 years ago started to have this much more annoying oscillating very high-pitched metallic hiss/whine that pops in and out about once or twice a second in my left ear. I noticed around the beginning of this year that if I take a 325mg Aspirin, in about a half hour this most annoying tone melts away and I don't hear it for a couple hours.

I know Aspirin is clinically recognized as a cause of tinnitus so I am not encouraging people to go and try this out. I am wondering, though, if anybody has found the same thing as I have and knows if it means anything?

I don't know the cause of my tinnitus and there's a lot of things in my case that could be factors like weight loss/patulous eustachian tube (I'd lost around 35 lbs in 3 months on a ultra low carb diet around the time this got worse), TMJ (I have chronic dull ear pain in the left ear) and also of course noise exposure (was reckless about this in my teens, but very careful as an adult).

Anyway I am wondering if anybody has found the same as me as regards Aspirin and whether you have inferred or learned what it means.

 

[Nick NY]

Also should note that it doesn't do anything for the constant tones for me, only the really annoying high pitched pulsing/oscillating whine I have in my left ear.

 

[JaneFromBoston]

I take 325 mg aspirin (after a TIA) mine started a few weeks after i started taking the aspirin, right after I was "piped" for a brain aneurism. And it's on the side where my aneurism was. Hmmm. Interesting. Lots of people take 325mg of aspirin. You're making me wonder if I should discontinue the aspirin as an experiment. Why are you on the 325mg?

 

[bur547]

I'm game. I haven't taken aspirin since I was a kid but I have a similar oscillating high frequency that doesn't go away, it just kind of shifts volume and pitch sort of randomly. I will report back with my results.

 

[bur547]

I take 325 mg aspirin (after a TIA) mine started a few weeks after i started taking the aspirin, right after I was "piped" for a brain aneurism. And it's on the side where my aneurism was. Hmmm. Interesting. Lots of people take 325mg of aspirin. You're making me wonder if I should discontinue the aspirin as an experiment. Why are you on the 325mg?

Be wary about discontinuing aspirin if you are on it, it can cause a rubber band effect with regard to heart attack and stroke.

https://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/news/20110720/stopping-aspirin-risky-for-some

https://www.medpagetoday.com/meetingcoverage/isc/452

 

[EarHair]

Aspirin is an anti-inflammatory. It could be reducing inflammation in your jaw joint which is causing some or all of the tinnitus you experience. Try and work on your TMJD and see if you can get it better, it might make you tinnitus fade.

 

[Nick NY]

I ended up taking the Aspirin first in January when I had a stabbing back pain from sleeping in a weird position one night (went away after a couple days). I'd avoided it before because I knew it to be ototoxic and sometimes associated with tinnitus. What @EarHair says makes sense about it being a general anti-inflammatory and maybe helping TMJD. I should note that Ibuprofen did *not* have the same effect for me (made things worse in fact). I am looking into addressing TMJD. Seems like a bit of a minefield with a lot of questionable docs happy to take your money for dubious service. I'm going to try and be pragmatic about it and do what I can. I am traveling for the next 4 months which limits my options a bit.