Pulsatile Tinnitus Caused by Bad Posture (My Experience)

Hi All,

I am new to this forum but have been actively reading lots of great informative posts.

Context: I am a 32-year-old male who lives in the UK. Always been healthy but have a highly stressful office job.

In July 2020 I suddenly developed a whooshing sound in time with my pulse in my right ear. It got worse with high blood pressure and was not constantly heard, depended on position of head. GP felt it was pulsatile tinnitus and did a referral.

I had developed a habit of being on my phone in bed sitting up, which meant my head was looking down for hours at a screen (compressing my neck) and caused a bit of forward head posture. The whooshing was definitely noticeable in this position. I also had additional symptoms linked to my posture: headaches, dizzy spells and jaw pain. I could make the pulsatile sound reduce by pushing jaw forward.

I saw an ENT specialist who said it was probably stress and was nothing to worry about, he found a a bit of hearing loss.I thought about going for MRA / CT to explore further.

However, over the last few weeks I have done extensive work on my posture: new standing desk, not lying in bed on phone, sleeping on back with single pillow, posture corrector, reducing stress through various actions and not looking down at phone during day. In addition taken action to lower blood pressure - walking 10,000 steps and eating potassium rich foods etc.

The result: The whooshing in right ear has diminished dramatically and has basically disappeared. I can only reproduce if lying awkwardly where neck is compressed or looking down hunched over. I expect it may disappear further with more work on posture.

We all live in a world with more mobile devices and it is so easy to be constantly looking down or having poor posture. I wonder if some cases of pulsatile tinnitus, especially in young people, are simple caused by bad posture. Hence compressing artery / veins or disturbing blood flow.

Thought this may be helpful to someone as somatic pulsatile tinnitus can be mysterious.

Found this article which reflects my experience:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4803736/

 

Very interesting. I developed pulsatile tinnitus a few months ago. My posture isnt the best. I could stop or manipulate the sound by pressing certain areas on my neck and head position definitely had an effect. Were you the same?

Glad to hear things are getting better. I'm going a bit crazy with it at the moment. Not so much the sound, but self diagnosing myself with all sorts. Ive a CT scan on Friday. ENT said it sounded vascular.

 

My experience parallels yours somewhat. I first got pulsatile tinnitus for 2 weeks in 2019 May, after a night on an exceptionally bad mattress that caused serious neck pain. That cleared up in 2 weeks (that was a friend's bed and I never had to sleep in it again).

I got it again in 2020 September, again after a night on a very bad mattress, again cleared up in 2 weeks (this time, it was my own bed, but I got a proper mattress after that). Had an MRA, it is clear.

It's not 100% gone so I suspect daytime posture is also playing a role here. Like you, I huddle a lot in front of various screens, and I'm also 32 - maybe the constant strain on our necks during our 20s has finally caught up with us.

What's your experience with the posture corrector? Looks like a medieval torture device to me, TBH.

 

Hello! I understand you perfectly. I have had pulsating sinusitis since I was 25. And even now, while I'm writing this message, I hear a heartbeat in my left ear. Sometimes it just drives me crazy

 

@RugbyAdam thanks for sharing your story!

I often wonder if mine isn’t posture related. I’ve had tinnitus for years but after a particularly stupid night of loud music in August it got worse. After that I spent the following month staring at my phone reading this very forum, and by October I had developed pulsatile tinnitus.

It has improved somewhat since but I blame this very forum for causing the bad posture that introduced me to this new type of tinnitus