Heartbeat In Left Ear--please Read

Hi
i have been on antidepressants for a while. My doctor changes them to zispin recently, which I feel they are helping. I had a high pitch whisle in my ear slightl, and could also hear my heartbeat in my left ear, I also get headaches on the same side. Since being on the new tablets it has made it louder and my blood pressure is up slightly, my face goes red and my head feels hot. I have been back to the doctor and he said he thinks it is tinnitus. He could only recomened that I make my ears pop a few times a day. I don't think I can live with this. But don't know what else to do. Any ideas would be appreciated.

Spoon

Hello, I was recently having the heartbeat in my ear, well I still do. I went to the er with symptoms of a stroke. After having every test known to man done, a mri showed herniated disk in my neck. Now I didnt have pain in my neck, just my arm, and the noise in my ear. Having alot of pain in my neck now, of course!!!!! Apparently the herniated disk is pinching off nerves causing my problem. If I touch a certain part of my neck it goes away, but comes back.If I move my head a certain way, its there, this is very disturbing to me. Thought for sure it would go away now that I am in therapy for my neck, taking anti-inflamatories, and neck traction. Well I was wrong. I never heard of tinnitus. Maybe this is something I should have checked out. Its been 4 weeks, neck is doing better, noise is not!!!!!!!!!!!!! I thought I was going mad!!! :x

tigerlady372

Hi
im 26 years old and I have been hearing my heart beat and wooshing sound in my left ear for eight years now. I had my ent check it and had an mri and mra and cat scan to check. They thought there was a possible anyeurism but it ended up being a bend in a vein. Everything else came back fine. They cannot find a cause. I can stop the wooshing sound by pressing on the left side of my neck but it always comes back worse when I release it. It seems to be worse at night and it is getting worse over time, especially at night. It worsens with exercise, and when I bend down real quick. Its getting very annoying and if anyone has anything that has helped please let me know. This is such an annoying problem!!!! Thannks, stefanie

I've had tinnitis for quite a few years and it was extremely annoying and when I was falling to sleep it would make so much noise its like a pulse but like the wind is blowing through your ears
i had it for 5 years constantly but then it stopped suddenly one day
i was amazed of all the quiet at night I could actually ear the tv when turned down
one day about a year ago after having a baby (my 4th)
it returned but not as severe so I know stress brought it on or the pressure of giving birth
the one thing that helped me is not to get water in your ears and certainly no cotton buds (as I learned after almost bursting my eardrum one day)
and if you have to blow your nose to use babywipes so you don't force any pressure on the brain
and most of all when you sleep make sure you sleep on the noisy ear
so the noise if drowned out
like I mentioned it may just suddenly disappear one day and you wont even notice its gone

good luck with it and be careful if you decide to let doctors look at it
as they may make it worse syringing the ear
as the cause is not know as its not an illness its more like a condition
but your normal believe me
i felt the same at one time

xx shell xx

I am so glad I found this site. It's reassuring to know I am not the only one suffering from pulsatile tinnitus. Nobody I know has heard of this. I've suffered from heart beat in left ear for 3 years now. My Dr. Referred me to a cardiologist for a stress echo/24 hr. Holter monitor/treadmill test...All fine. Then to an ear Dr. Who looked in my ears for 5 minutes and said it's probably an artery running too close to the ear and to live with it. My primary Dr. Then ordered an mri with and without contrast of the head...Results normal, and a carotid artery ultrasound which did not reveal anything either, as he intermittantly could hear a bruit in my neck by the left ear and wanted to rule out the bad stuff. I just recently changed Dr.'s this week and the new Dr. Is sending me for and mra of head and neck with contrast and I am so nervous, as I thought the mri I had ruled out the life-threatening things. I don't think i'll be able to accept this irritating pulse beat in my ear until I rule the worst out. I sometimes have neck pain on that side from being in an accident 18 years ago, and I often hold the phone at work on that side, which makes me wonder if, perhaps, there could be a relationship to an inflamed muscle or tissue pressing on an artery? Please keep this site going!!! Maybe we can all help each other in getting to the bottom of this rare and scary tinnitus. To the person that posted that they found a bend in a vein, are they doing anything for you to correct it?

Oh my god -

i am so excited to find other people who have this problem. My problem started about 1 1/2 years ago. The funny thing is, I noticed quite a few people wrote about stress and that anti-anxiety medicine could help. My ear problem started when I quit taking paxil for anxiety! It is in my left ear and it is mostly noticeable when I am sleeping on my right side or when I get nervous - although tonight, for the first time, I heard it in my right ear and now I can't sleep (which is why I got up at 5:30am to look it up). I've been to two doctors who both said it happens. That's about it- bummer...It happens. I don't know what to do - it is awful. I'm so glad to know other's are going through this as well. I'll keep reading your posts to see what you have all learned (i did try pushing on my neck and it stopped - but I can't do that forever).

Jennifer

I am relieved that my mra of head and neck came back normal. It's just an ongoing series of numerous tests (from my prior posting) over the past three years. I wondered if anyone had difficult tooth extractions on the side of their pulsatile tinnitus. I am grabbing at different theorys. Being that deep roots with wisdom teeth and molars are being dug out (and all the bleeding involved, not to mention the pain radiating to the ear) it might make sense that a small artery rerouted, but then why would it take a decade for the pulsing to start? Just a theory. Please keep this post going and hopefully we can all share info and support on this rare form of tinnitus that only us sufferers understand. Most people I talk to don't get it. They think it's the fuzzy, muffled tinnitus you get after hearing loud music, and don't comprehend the frustration of hearing your own heart 24/7.

Wow! I can't believe I stumbled across this forum! I have had this heartbeat sound in my right ear for probably a year or more. Nobody I talked to about it, including my gp, has ever heard of it. It's starting to get louder recently, and I am having a heck of a time concentrating on work and schoolwork. It's driving me crazy! I've cleaned out my ears, taken sinus meds.....Nothing works. It stopped for a few minutes yesterday after I cleaned out my ear and it was like heaven! I will google this "pulsatile tinnitus", gather as much info as I can and go back to the doctor! Thanks for all your help and, as much as I don't wish this on anyone, i'm so glad it's not just me!

I feel sorry for everyone that is going through this. I started having a swooshing sound in my right ear about a year and half ago. It would come and go, usually when I woke up. Now three different times I have had a thumping noise but no swooshing and its not my heart beat, totally strange. The swooshing would be real bad sometimes when my kids would make noise like (hitting blocks together) and every "click" my ear would "swoosh". I have been to a doctor but not an ent. No insurance. All I can think is tumor but now that I have read this forum I feel just a "little" better. I will pray for everyone.

Hi. I have had the beating heartbeat in left ear for over a year now and have been told it is a result of anxiety and stress. I can also feel my heart thumping in my throat. I also having missing beats and sometimes a few very fast ones. I have started having hypnotherapy and using relaxation tapes. Its early days but if it works will let you know. Incidentally, if I blow very hard down my nose it seems to block my ears and cannot hear the beat ......Bliss. I am from the uk and have a very understanding doctor, but there doesnt seem to be an instant cure.

I don't think that this is an ear, nose and throat disorder, but 8 years ago I had pounding behind my right ear with chronic headaches and fatigue. I suffered many many days and nights and could not sleep. I could not concentrate and I subsequently fell into a deep depression. I noticed the soft tissues in my hands start to thin and within a year it was gone (skin on bone now) I gained a lot of weight in the midsection but noticed wasting tissues in other areas. Brain scan was negative but my liver enzyme test was high. Also had abnormal kidney function. I saw many different physicians but there was never a diagnosis. One doctor told me not to drink alcohol, which was ironic in the sense my condition started the same night I had two mixxed drinks. It is eight years later and instead of being an athlete that can run 3 miles a day like I used to, I have gained 75 pounds and fatigue really easy.

I have permenant artial fibrillation, and living with it on meds. In the last two weeks I have developed a hard swooshing sound in my right ear exactly with each heartbeat. Naturally it's much louder at night when quiet to the point of interrupting my sleep. I can take 3 deep long breaths and it stops, for about 3 normal breaths and it's back. B/p runs high and have had sinus problems. Now and then a sharp pain will strike between right ear and eye not associated with heart beat and a dull pain at other times. I have been treated in the past for throat/sinus infection and this time may be in right ear also but no swooshing until now. There may be 3 different maladies getting confused here, tinnnitis, heartbeat and the swooshing with each heartbeat. Most people can hear their heartbeat while lying on their side in bed, if they listen carefully. Tinnitis is mostly a constant ringing in the ear(s) and the hardest to diagnose and/or cure according to what I read and can be intermittent. The swooshing sound cause has yet to be defined and like some said, it comes on during stress, sudden excercise or body movement but then goes away.
Vinc

I have permenant artial fibrillation, and living with it on meds. In the last two weeks I have developed a hard swooshing sound in my right ear exactly with each heartbeat. Naturally it's much louder at night when quiet to the point of interrupting my sleep. I can take 3 deep long breaths and it stops, for about 3 normal breaths and it's back. B/p runs high and have had sinus problems. Now and then a sharp pain will strike between right ear and eye not associated with heart beat and a dull pain at other times. I have been treated in the past for throat/sinus infection and this time may be in right ear also but no swooshing until now. There may be 3 different maladies getting confused here, tinnnitis, heartbeat and the swooshing with each heartbeat. Most people can hear their heartbeat while lying on their side in bed, if they listen carefully. Tinnitis is mostly a constant ringing in the ear(s) and the hardest to diagnose and/or cure according to what I read and can be intermittent. The swooshing sound cause has yet to be defined and like some said, it comes on during stress, sudden excercise or body movement but then goes away.
Vinc

Hi all
i too have heart beat in right ear.. I feel the problem commenced after an incident where a small insect crawled in to my ear whilst I was sleeping, and bit me! The pain was excrutiating and I then suffered ongoing blocked/sore ear.

Almost two years have passed, I now have the heart beat sound in my right ear, i've had it I think ever since the above incident.. It is eased if I lie on my right side (with right ear toward gravity... Toward pillow) and also if I 'pop/pump' my ears.. However lately i've noticed that relief is very hard-found... Hence my surfing the net for information... Finding this website. The noise is not so much painful as it is just plain annoying, it keeps me away. Really irritating ongoing feeling that my ear is blocked (this I have all the time)

anyone out there similar? Found relief?

Phew, some people with the same problems as me. I've had the heartbeat in my ear for about a year now - sometimes I forget I have it until I bend down or become anxious. Seems to especially come at night. I'll have to try and see what happens when I press on my kneck. I also get a clicking sound from somewhere around my kneck when my heart is racing. I wish it would all just go away although through time you do learn to just cope with it or sometimes forget about it. I also do scuba diving here in scotland and it doesn't seem to effect that at all.

I have the same problem in my left ear. It started probably about 3 months ago and I went to my family dr about it. They sent me to a ent specialist and they said that I was hearing my menstrual flow, craziest thing i've ever heard. I hear it all the time, sometimes it's worst than others though. When I press on the vein on the side of me neck it stops. Just wondering if anybody knows of anything to take or do to make it stop. It's driving me crazy.

I have ear noise in my left ear that I can stop by pressing on that side of the neck as well. I know there are many causes for this but I am surprised that no one in this discussion has mentioned intracranial hypertension, which was one option that came up when I was trying to figure out what is causing my ear noise.

Intracranial hypertension means that the pressure of the cerebrospinal fluid (csf) that surrounds the brain is too high. Some symptoms are horrible headaches, swollen optic nerves(papilledema), and transient altered vision particularly on movement followed by intracranial noise (pulse synchronous tinnitus). In one source I found it says that "intracranial hypertension can cause pulsatile tinnitus. If you can stop your tinnitus by slight pressure to the neck on the affected side, that is an indication."

if you want more information on this there is a intracranial hypertension research foundation at http://www.Ihrfoundation.Org/

I've had this sympton for over a month now. I went to my ent and since I have had no "other" issues, he put a small camera up my nose to view the inside of my ears.

My right ear was normal. But my left ear (where I hear my heartbeat 24/7) showed that my inner tube was stuck in the open position. This is the tube that allows fluid to drain when necessary. Because it is stuck open, I hear everything "inside" my head louder than anything "outside" my ear.

I was told that I can have the tube surgically closed, but this is a last resort, because then it cannot drain when needed, and i'll probably then have to live with ear infections, etc. I was also told, that it may just decide to correct it's self one day, but probably not.

I also went to the chiropractor. To my surprise, the very moment my neck was adjusted, my ear opened up and it was wonderful! Unfortunatly, that only lasted about 1 day and the sympton returned.

I've decided to live with it for now. But if it doesn't go away, I will consider the surgery to close the tube off and risk getting ear infections. Hopefully I can "control" staying healthy and not getting an infection since I have an excellent health record.

Good luck, and if there is anyway possible for you to go back to an ent, ask them to "look" at the inside of your ears to view your tubes. You may have the same problem I have.

Hi, sure am glad to know there are others out there with this problem. It started a week ago out of the blue. It is worse at night and if I look up for any extended period. I also have have a mild pain in my neck under that ear.
I also do not have medical insurance as of late, and have been hesitant to spend the little money I have left but its driving me crazy and makes it hard to go to sleep some nights. I have had no trauma, but I do have high blood pressure.
After this started I started checking my blood pressure more often thinking that it would be elevated but it was the opposite, my pressure is normally around 130/83 the previous night it was 105/60. I do not know if there is a connection as I have had a lot of adjustments in my life lately and since I am not working for the first time in 25 years I thought maybe the unwanted vacation and the extra rest might be bringing it down?
I have noticed that when it acts up there is usually something stressful happening. When it gets going I sometimes will feel off balance, sort of dizzy.
I have experienced the heartbeat sound once in awhile off and on over many years but never for this long of a period.

If there is anyone who could tell me if this might be related to my blood pressure please respond as I am a little frightened. Both my parents died at an early age. My mother just 2 years ago. My dad at 59 from a heart attack. My mom had clogged catorid art. A few years before she passed.

Thanks.