“Fluctuating” Tinnitus and Migraine

The World Journal of Otorhinolaryngology ? Head and Neck Surgery recently published a review of the link between migraine and tinnitus. It’s an extensive review, but here are a few things that stand out.

The link between migraine and tinnitus has been explored before. A large percentage of patients with tinnitus also experience migraine attacks. If you include hearing loss and all auditory symptoms, it may be that most migraine patients experience some kind of auditory symptom.

The authors of this review (from the University of California) were particularly interested in tinnitus that “fluctuated”.

As you probably know, tinnitus refers to hearing ringing or other noises in the ears. Sometimes this is “objective” – there is actually something making noise in you body, that your doctor can detect. But most often it’s “subjective” – only you can hear it. That doesn’t mean there’s no physical cause or trigger, simply that it can’t be detected by anyone else.

Tinnitus may be fairly steady, but often times it is temporary, or it fluctuates. This may be because of something you ate, the weather – or even a migraine attack. Tinnitus that fluctuates with headache of course suggests a connection, but sometimes the tinnitus and headache or migraine may have a common trigger – such as weather changes.

The authors suggest that both migraine and tinnitus may have some common treatment paths. Some of the most interesting ones:

• Dehydration: Staying properly hydrated (and this means a proper balance of hydration and salt in the body) may decrease both migraine attacks and tinnitus.
• General Health: Improving exercise and diet may help decrease both conditions.
• Sleep Health: Sleep problems can be huge in both migraine and tinnitus. A sleep test and follow-up treatment is something to look into.
• Supplements: The review briefly mentioned 400mg magnesium and 200mg vitamin B2 (riboflavin) twice daily. Both of these are well-known migraine fighters.
• Medications: There are certain medications that may help with both conditions, such as nortriptyline and topiramate.

Once again, it’s important for your doctor to know if you’re suffering from migraine and tinnitus, because there may be treatments that will be a higher priority for you. Start by making sure you’re hydrated each day (check out the app for iOS – Waterlogged. There are many similar options.). Check your sleep satisfaction to see if treatment in that area would help. And consider supplements such as B2 and magnesium.

Also, talk to your doctor about medications. Some may help, but there are others which may make the problem worse.

If you’re ready to get a lot deeper into the topic, you can read the review for yourself here: A proposed association between subjective nonpulsatile tinnitus and migraine