Worrying... Is Taking Acetaminophen During Cold Making Tinnitus Worse?

[Obaid]

A few days ago I posted my introduction to these forums I'm putting below, but nobody exactly replied to it unfortunately. Anyways, now I'm starting to get really worried. I didn't exactly know about Ototoxicity of medicines until today, and I see that Acetaminophen is on the list of ototoxic drugs. The REASON I'd been looking for that in the first place was because I noticed my tinnitus go up while I'm sick. Now I don't know whether or not this change is caused by me taking the Aleve. Even worse, I'm wondering if this change (and an introduction of a new sound, at that) is PERMANENT. If anything, that's what I'm worried about. It's also loud enough that I was a little phazed by it when talking to my sister today. I seriously am worried. I also took Noproxen one night. Does anyone know the answers? Look, even if you tell me it's permanent at least that's an answer. I really don't like all this uncertainty surrounding tinnitus. I just want to know if I should prepare myself now to be used to this level of tinnitus or not.

Hello! My name is Obaid and I think I've technically had tinnitus since an awful ear infection when I was 16. I'm 21 now, for reference. Now, let me fully explain. I'm looking for two things, 1) answers as to why I might only notice the tinnitus 5 years on and 2) how I can prevent it from getting worse. I would LOVE some of you guys to respond to this and help me understand where the holes in my knowledge are, if they're explainable that is. I guess I should start from when I was 16:

I got an AWFUL ear infection when I was 16, to the point that I had spells of vertigo and dizziness. Now, I've heard about Meniere's disease but the problem is I went to the ENT in my city back then to try and solve it and after a year of treatments I stopped having the vertigo. It reappeared the next year in the winter but only very VERY occasionally. I have not had a vertigo spell since I was 18. And the weirdest thing? I never noticed my tinnitus at the time. Again, I didn't notice it until last month or so. Looking back, I remember that I would hear it before sleeping but think absolutely nothing of it. I'm so thankful I have a tinnitus that mild...really.

Fastforward to last month. I didn't go to any loud things in the last year, I swear, but one week I just sort of noticed the tinnitus more. At first, it was a lower ringing sound in my left ear and a MUCH higher one in both ears. Now, it's those same frequencies (basically) but loud enough not to get masked by my fan alone, which I'm sure masked the sound for YEARS without me knowing (it's on all the time). For context, I feel like at first it was totally negligible. I feel as if it was getting better for a while, and then it spiked again a few weeks ago. Yet again, a few days ago it went down to that "normal" level I first heard 2 months back, the one that still gets masked by my fan. But now that I have a cold, it's louder than ever, prompting me thus to come register to this forum (I've been reading threads here for about a month now, actually). I should add that I recently went to the ENT and got nasal sprays for Ipratropium Bromide and Flonase. I also got shown that I have no hearing loss (and I swear to you I have no "hidden" hearing loss either. I think my hearing is as good as ever honestly), however I interestingly can't hear above 13.5 kHz, where most my age can hear up to 16 kHz. I don't know if this really matters or not, but it seems weird. I also don't know if this is a limitation of my headphones or speakers, but regardless I'm guessing it's not.

My question to you is, what do you think is the cause of this? Eustachian tube dysfunction, etc?
Is this cold going to make it to this volume permanently? What kind of medication or techniques might help prevent permanent amplification of the tinnitus?
Aside from the cold, and after it, does Tinnitus get worse? If so, how quickly?
Most importantly, why would I have randomly noticed it recently, and is it possible that being aware of it has made it seem louder, and it was always at this level?

My most important goal is preventing the tinnitus to get louder than it is, because as it is EVEN WITH this cold I live life normally and only notice it in my room or in quiet situations. It doesn't affect talking with people alone in quiet rooms either, thank God. I just...don't want it to BECOME worse when I "could have prevented it" (in a hypothetical few years where the tinnitus gets worse). I actually got SUPER anxious about this stuff a few weeks back, where it became something I was looking up stuff about every day, but eventually I read all the posts here that insisted one should just focus on living their life, and I agree. I've been through depression and dropped out of a top 30 US University for a plethora of reasons a couple of years back. I'm better now, but point is...I think I can handle a bit of noise. It could be much worse...

 

[Rubenslash]

The only thing I can say based on my experience is: stay away from any medication that is listed as ototoxic. I got quite some hearing loss in my right ear due to ototoxic meds.

 

[GregCA]

You always have to balance taking meds vs risks of side effects. If you're going to take acetaminophen, then you may want to think about taking NAC along to give your hair cells more resistance to potential damage. They give NAC when you have acetaminophen overdose, if I recall correctly.

 

[Jacob83]

There's no definite answer to the questions you're asking, so in that regard, accept it as permanent and move on. You're better off doing your best to adjust to this new level of tinnitus than driving yourself insane monitoring your tinnitus if it's getting quieter or not. Remember from here on out that no pain reliever is 100% safe.

Hope you feel better

 

[Elinor]

If you are having a cold then that is probably the reason your T is worse. I know acetaminophen is listet as ototoxic but I assume that you didn't take a huge dose for several weeks. I've had colds where my T spiked without taking anything, and I've had colds where I've taken acetaminophen without worsening. I think a lot of people blame medication that they take during colds and forget that colds can affect the eustachian tube and ears as well.

 

[Obaid]

The only thing I can say based on my experience is: stay away from any medication that is listed as ototoxic. I got quite some hearing loss in my right ear due to ototoxic meds.

Or so I've seen recently.

If you are having a cold then that is probably the reason your T is worse. I know acetaminophen is listet as ototoxic but I assume that you didn't take a huge dose for several weeks. I've had colds where my T spiked without taking anything, and I've had colds where I've taken acetaminophen without worsening. I think a lot of people blame medication that they take during colds and forget that colds can affect the eustachian tube and ears as well.

Yes, I heard ototoxicity becomes a problem in larger doses over longer periods of time too. I stopped taking it after last night's dose, and I know I shouldn't expect the T to settle down for another 2 or 3 days. I'll hope for the best and come back to this thread in a few days I think.

 

[MrLowBot]

Permenent or not. You can still make sure of that your brain filters your noises.
I'm not to keen on my T myself, but letting stress go is a big deal.
A cold is a cold with the same effects on everything, meaning the T will only get
worse during the times you have the cold. Otherwise it won't.

You are stress, and worried, let that go. It won't help, do something fun, and then
go back from time to time and see how it is doing.

Hope i helped.

 

[Obaid]

Well, since this post has gone up I stopped taking the Acetominophen. It did go down, but has also gone up elsewhere and down again. My guess is that this is my current range of volume spikes and drops, and that's fine. Most importantly is that I'm doing fine.

 

[yonkapin]

Most people with tinnitus experience significant spikes when they have a cold because of changes in the eustachian tubes. It's completely normal and can linger for a couple weeks ever after you recover from most of your cold symptoms. That's been my experience anyway. I get sick, my ears get muffled up and my tinnitus spikes like crazy and then it eases up over a couple of weeks. Been through it a dozen times now.

Don't worry about acetaminophen (paracetamol for my fellow aussies) ototoxicity. I know there was one study done on it, but I don't know how much further investigation was done into it. The topic of ototoxic medications is tricky because you can almost look up ANY medication and ototoxicity on google and something will pop up linking the two. It's very easy to get scared and avoid almost everything, I did for about 2 years. Use the acetaminophen responsibly (no more than 2000mg per day) and you should be fine. I've used it A LOT over the last 3 years and have never had any problems, no spikes or hearing loss to be reported.

On the other hand, the Noproxen you took could cause temporary spikes seeing as it's a NSAID. NSAIDs like Ibuprophen, Asprin, etc have a lot more evidence behind them as being ototoxic, the good news is that it's almost always temporary. So you'll probably be fine using that also, just try to limit your use and if you do experience a spike it'll be temporary. This has also been my personal experience.

TL;DR: you'll be fine. spikes are common when you're sick. acetaminophen/paracetamol is fine if you use it as prescribed. NSAIDS like Noproxen might cause temporary spikes but don't worry too much about it.

Good luck!

 

[Fungus]

I doubt that paracetamol is truly ototoxic. Like many common things, somebody takes a tablet, their tinnitus coincidentally worsens and the two are then eternally linked, but are casual and not causal. Much more likely in this case is that the cold which has worsened the tinnitus.

If you look at the list of side effects of most medications, then just about anything will have been reported as a side effect at some time. Those which are said to occur commonly almost always ARE side effects of the drug, those said to be rare/very rare may well not be.

I can and do take ibuprofen regularly without any effect at all on my tinnitus, but some folk, undoubtedly, do have spikes with it. We are very much individuals in our response to environmental factors, but avoiding all substances which have ever had ototoxicity reported as a side effect means that a lot of very useful and potentially curative drugs etc will be shunned.

Personally I try to adopt the position that I don't anticipate worsening of tinnitus from prescribed or over-the-counter medicines, and, mercifully, that generally is the case.

P.S. When anyone hears of something which cures tinnitus...please let me know (fully habituated, but would rather have silence for a constant companion)

Fungus