Doctors overprescribe medications, especially ototoxic ones. That is no secret. A doctor’s real job is to root out the source of your health problems and fix them. His job is not supposed to be that of a “band aid applier”—one who covers up the real problem with a band aid solution like treating the symptoms with drugs. Yet this is what the majority of doctors seem to be doing.

However, there is another side to the story, and this applies to you if you are already wolfing down a handful of drugs every day. One medical doctor explained, “I am a physician. Often, we are afraid to stop medications because if something bad happens, we could be sued for causing Mom’s stroke, heart attack or death.

I love it when my patients stop their medications themselves or refuse to take more, because then I am safe from our culture of blame. Many of my geriatric patients are on far too many medications and would be better off without them. It takes enormous moral courage to do the right thing in our current litigious environment.” (1)

If you are taking drugs, especially if you are taking several drugs for many months or years, you can make it easy for your doctor to really help you get off the myriad pills you take if you insist that he help you safely get off any unnecessary drugs. (As in the case of the above doctor, he may be secretly relieved you are taking this positive step to help yourself.)

I have said, and will continue to say, that drugs should be your last line of defense, not your first line of attack. There are many other safer and effective treatments you should try first. Not only will you help improve your health, you will not be putting your ears at risk from all the ototoxic medications out there.

Far too many older people gulp down a handful of pills every day. Often the original medication was to treat some condition. Many of the subsequent pills were prescribed to treat various unwanted side effects from that original medication. Then more drugs are added to treat the side effects of those pills, and on and on it goes.

As a result, you end up being grossly overmedicated. Taking all those extra (and largely unnecessary) drugs leads to all sorts of physical, mental and emotional problems such as depression, anxiety, confusion and a false diagnosis of dementia, especially if you also have an untreated hearing loss.

Don’t let ototoxic drugs inadvertently damage your ears and leave you with hearing loss, tinnitus or balance problems. To learn which drugs are ototoxic, get the 3rd edition of Ototoxic Drugs Exposed. This book contains information on the ototoxicity of 877 drugs, 35 herbals and 148 chemicals.

______________

(1) Physician Warns about Drug Dangers. The People’s Pharmacy. October 24, 2011.

A lady asked,

What options do those of us have when we have pain but have a significant history of problems with ototoxic drugs?

This is a common question people ask me. For minor aches and pains, we just need to tough it out. That is what I do. For more intense pain, there are a number of alternative treatments including chiropractic, physiotherapy, acupuncture, etc.

Here are a few other solutions that some people use. For example, “Sally” wrote, “When I get a headache, I just use a cold pack, and it actually works pretty well. No Ibuprofen, no Tylenol, no this and that. I’m getting by just fine using no medication for various aches and pains, but it’s not a good feeling to have such limited options.”

“Helen” explained, “There are some great natural anti-inflammatories out there. I’m allergic to pretty much all the over-the-counter pain-killers. I’ve found that Zymactive by Natural Factors has been a life-saver for me. Zymactive are enzymes that digest the proteins causing inflammation. They work very well. They are not quite strong enough for surgery pain, but are great for sprains, and aches and pains. Of course, I’m also a great fan of ice packs and heating pads ”

“Phoebe” found another solution. She wrote, “I have found homeopathic Mag Phos 30c a great pain reliever. When I was first told about it, I was very skeptical to say the least. However, having tried it 10 yrs ago, it has been my first line of defense for pain relief ever since. I give it to my daughter for her monthly pains and it works great. She says the pain just melts away.”

So there are some more things you might want to investigate. See what works for you. Don’t be afraid to look for other natural solutions before turning to drugs (with their harmful side effects). You may be surprised how well other pain “treatments” work.

A lady asked,

What is a good website to get a list of ototoxic drugs?

There are a number of websites that list a few of the many ototoxic drugs that are out there. One that I like is otologist Dr. Timothy Hain’s website, but this website is very conservative and just lists the more ototoxic drugs. In order to be even reasonably complete, such a list would have to contain information on more than 1,000 ototoxic substances.

A good article to read about ototoxicity (which also lists a fair number of ototoxic drugs) is my article “Ototoxicity—the Hidden Menace“.

You will also find a wealth of information on specific ototoxic drugs scattered throughout the 122 articles I have written concerning ototoxic drugs.

However, just having a list of ototoxic drugs isn’t really all that helpful. You see, 83% of the top 200 prescription drugs can be ototoxic. Thus, in order to avoid all ototoxic drugs, you’d have to avoid taking drugs in the first place!

What you really need is an annotated list detailing the kinds of ototoxic side effects a given drug can cause. For example, is the drug known to cause tinnitus or hearing loss or hyperacusis or vertigo or ear pain. You want to know how likely any given side effect will occur—is the risk of occurrence 15% or just 1 in
10,000? You also want to know how severe a side effect is likely to be if it does occur—will it just be mild dizziness or severe intractable vertigo. In addition, you want to know whether the resulting side effects are likely to be temporary or permanent.

As far as I know, the only reasonably complete source of such information that is readily available in one place and is in an easy-to-read format is contained in my book “Ototoxic Drugs Exposed“.

A man wrote,

I am familiar with your work on ototoxic substances, which I think does a great service by bringing people’s attention to this menace. However, I have found a couple of inconsistencies in things you have written, and I am requesting clarification.

First, I believe that you recommend 50% diluted vinegar as an ear wash. However, I was quite surprised to find on the Internet that acetic acid (which is found in vinegar) is ototoxic. Are you aware of this?

Second, I have seen recommendations where you promote the use of garlic. However, I believe that your book identifies garlic as an ototoxic herb. It is hard to believe that garlic is ototoxic in any meaningful way. What evidence are you aware of that garlic is ototoxic?

Third, it would be nice if substances that produce permanent ototoxic effects were highlighted. I think the number of ‘truly ototoxic’ substances is much smaller than your book would suggest.

Thanks for your email. I’m always glad to help people understand more about ototoxicity and how it may affect them. And I’m always willing to fix things if I’ve written something wrong, so let’s look at your three points.

1. Acetic acid is ototoxic. I’m glad you brought this to my attention. I wasn’t aware of this. Somehow in all my voluminous research into ototoxic drugs over the years, acetic acid never appeared on my ototoxic “radar”. However, since you wrote me, I’ve done a fair bit of research on acetic acid to find out more about its ototoxicity. Here’s what I found.

It appears that acetic acid is only ototoxic when it gets into the middle ear (through a hole in the eardrum). I could not find any evidence that it is ototoxic when taken internally (or else people who eat pickles, salsa, relish and such-like would be hard of hearing from all the acetic acid in the vinegar in these foods), or when it is used is the external ear canal (like I recommend) when the eardrum is intact.

In the laboratory, researchers found that acetic acid kills the outer hair cells when it comes in contact with them—at least in Petri dishes—so there is no doubt that it is ototoxic to some degree. However, I still believe vinegar is perfectly safe to use in your ear canals as long as your eardrums are intact. Otherwise, don’t use it.

Incidentally, I’ve already added acetic acid into the prototype of the next edition of my drug book.

2. Garlic is ototoxic. Garlic is an excellent herb to help keep us in good health, and I use it myself with no ototoxic side effects. At the same time, I do indeed list garlic as an ototoxic herb in my book, “Ototoxic Drugs Exposed“.

I agree with you that in general garlic is not ototoxic to the average person, so where does this information come from?

The PDR for Herbal Medicines lists garlic as causing vertigo in some people, thus I have listed it. For further clarification, the PDR for Herbal Medicines mentions that it can cause vertigo in “therapeutic doses”. Obviously, high doses of concentrated garlic extract taken daily can and do cause vertigo in some people. That is why I have listed it. However, in normal doses, I don’t think garlic is ototoxic, and I have no hesitation at all in using garlic as often as I want.

The key thing to notice here is that you have to look at the ototoxic information and decide whether you fit the “profile” or not. Just because a herbal can be ototoxic under certain conditions doesn’t mean that you should avoid it. You just have to understand what those conditions are and act accordingly.

For example, say you have been taking large doses of garlic and you start experiencing vertigo, all you have to do is reduce the dose you are taking. You don’t have to avoid garlic altogether unless you are extremely sensitive to it. I explain how to apply this to several potentially ototoxic foods in much greater detail in the section at the beginning of Chapter 15 in the 3rd edition of “Ototoxic Drugs Exposed“.

3. Highlighting truly ototoxic substances. The 3rd edition of “Ototoxic Drugs Exposed” contains information on the ototoxicity of 1,060 different drugs, herbals and chemicals. To be sure, not all of them have the same degree of ototoxicity. A few of them are highly ototoxic, some of them are moderately ototoxic and many of them have a low degree of ototoxicity (or more accurately a low degree of risk of ototoxicity).

Since some people have experienced the various ototoxic side effects for each drug listed, that is why they are there. It is my duty to report this information to warn people about any possible ototoxic risks. Then it is up to each person to decide whether they are prepared to accept that risk or not.

In order to help people decide, since most people reading my drug book are not experts on ototoxic drugs, I have chosen to place all the listed drugs in 1 of 5 risk classes. Note that this is my own subjective interpretation of how much risk there might be of having an ototoxic side effect, and how bad the resulting side effect might be if you take that drug.

For example, drugs with a risk class of 4 or 5 are “truly ototoxic” drugs in my opinion. Drugs in class 3 are “iffy”, whereas those with a risk factor of 1, while ototoxic to someone somewhere, either affect people rarely, and/or do not have serious or permanent resulting ototoxic side effects.

As a matter of information, I list a total of 52 drugs in classes 4 and 5; 68 drugs in class 3 and 730 in classes 1 & 2. Thus, you can see that most drugs are not what you would call “truly ototoxic”. However, they can be ototoxic at times, but probably not all that often. This is small comfort if you are one of the unfortunate ones that gets a side effect from one of the class 1 drugs and discovers that the resulting side effect is permanent. So, even though the risk might be low, you would still want to know about it.

If the information is available, I list whether any given side effect is temporary or permanent. Unfortunately, there is little authoritative information available whether side effects will be permanent or not. I just report the best information I can find.

To complicate matters further, side effects for a given drug may be temporary or permanent. One person could take a given drug and find a certain ototoxic side effect temporary, while another person could take the same drug and discover the side effect never goes away. That’s just the way it is. There is currently no way to know this in advance.

This can even happen to the same person. For example, one man began taking a certain drug and reported to me that his ears began ringing. I suggested it might be the drug, so he stopped taking it for a week or so and found his tinnitus went away. Based on this experience, he decided to put up with the tinnitus while taking the drug for the full duration his doctor had prescribed knowing that when he finished the drug, he could give it another week or so and his tinnitus would be gone.

Imagine his shock when he did this—and discovered to his horror that his tinnitus refused to go away. It was now permanent! This too happens. Again, there is no way to tell in advance whether this will happen to you or not.

Since you don’t know in advance whether any ototoxic side effects will occur, how bad they will be if they do occur and whether they are going to be temporary or permanent, I warn people about all known ototoxic side effects whether they are high or low risk. They can then use this information however they wish. Some people may choose to take the risk and others not to. That is fine. They have made their choice based on the best evidence available to them—and that is as it should be.

Don’t let ototoxic drugs inadvertently damage your ears and leave you with hearing loss, tinnitus or balance problems. To learn which drugs are ototoxic, get the 3rd edition of  Ototoxic Drugs Exposed. This book contains information on the ototoxicity of 877 drugs, 35 herbals and 148 chemicals.

A lady asked,

If an ototoxic drug is the cause of tinnitus, how long would it take to resolve once you stop taking the drug? I know that’s a difficult question to answer since every one is different but I’m wondering if you have some sort of idea based on your experience.

This is an excellent question, but like you said, there is no easy answer. This is because so much depends on the specific drug and on your emotional makeup, among other factors.

For example, you could expect tinnitus from taking a lot of Aspirin to go away within a day or two

after you quit taking the Aspirin. However, with some drugs, such as the Aminoglycoside antibiotics (e.g. Neomycin, Gentamicin, Tobramycin, etc.), you may find the resulting tinnitus is permanent and will never go away—although you can learn how to habituate to your tinnitus so it won’t bother you.

Most drugs fall somewhere between these two extremes. As a rule of thumb, I say give it a couple of weeks after you stop taking a drug before you worry whether your tinnitus might be permanent or not.

However, whether your tinnitus persists and bothers you depends a lot on your emotional makeup. If tinnitus is no big deal to you, your tinnitus will likely disappear or fade into the background fairly quickly. However, if your tinnitus elicits a strong negative emotional reaction from you, and you subsequently form a strong negative emotional bond with it, your tinnitus can take on a life of its own and become a self-perpetuating condition. In such cases, the thing that triggers your tinnitus in the first place (a drug) may have nothing to do with whether your tinnitus persists or not.

Thus, the trick is to remain emotionally neutral towards your tinnitus and ignore it. Treat it like a totally meaningless sound, such as fridge noise—something you actively have to listen for before you can even hear it because it is so meaningless to you. If you can treat your tinnitus the same way to treat “fridge noise”, you should not have much of a problem with your tinnitus.

A lady asked,

After you’ve already lost all your hearing, what difference does it make whether the drug you are taking is ototoxic or not?

That’s a good question. If you now have no useful hearing remaining, you wouldn’t think you’d have to worry about taking ototoxic drugs, would you? I mean, you don’t have any hearing left to lose—or do you?

This would be true if you are deaf and are planning on staying deaf for the rest of you life. However, if you want to hear via cochlear implants (CIs), taking ototoxic drugs can still cause you hearing problems even though the electrodes in your cochlear implants effectively bypass the dead hair cells in your inner ears.

This is because some ototoxic drugs affect the retrocochlear auditory system. “Retrocochlear” is just a fancy medical term that refers to the auditory system on the far side of (after) your cochlea—specifically your auditory nerves and the auditory parts of your brain.

Anything that damages or negatively affects your auditory nerves or the auditory circuits in your brain will affect how well your CI works. Unfortunately, some ototoxic drugs affect how your auditory nerves transmit the sound signals to your brain, and/or affect how well your brain processes these sound signals. This can affect how well you hear with your CI.

In addition, there are many other reasons for avoiding ototoxic drugs besides just hearing loss. What about tinnitus? Do you really want tinnitus—where your ears ring, roar, buzz, sizzle, hum, click, hiss, chirp, whistle, rumble, etc.—even though you can’t hear? More than 520 ototoxic drugs can cause tinnitus.

What about the many vestibular (balance) side effects? Are you, for some strange reason, looking forward to experiencing horrible vertigo (spinning sensation), dizziness, ataxia (staggering gait), nystagmus (jerking eyes) or oscillopsia (bouncing vision) because an ototoxic drug has damaged your vestibular system?

Furthermore, the side effects of ototoxic drugs damaging your vestibular system can affect your vision, your memory and your sense of well-being. In addition, you may end up fatigued, nauseous and suffering from muscular aches and pains, including ear pain.

All of these are ototoxic side effects. As you can now see, the side effects of ototoxic drugs can damage far more than just your hearing. that is why you want to be careful, and only take ototoxic drugs when it is absolutely necessary.

Don’t let ototoxic drugs inadvertently damage your ears and cause hearing loss, tinnitus or balance problems. To learn which drugs are ototoxic, get the 3rd edition of  Ototoxic Drugs Exposed. This book contains information on the ototoxicity of 877 drugs, 35 herbals and 148 chemicals.

A man asked,

If Ibuprofen (Advil), Aspirin, Naproxen (Aleve), and Acetaminophen (Tylenol) are ototoxic, what’s safe for over the counter pain relief?

I don’t keep track of all the over-the-counter (OTC) pain relievers or any other drugs for that matter. I just keep track of drugs with ototoxic side effects. As a result, I can’t tell you the drugs that are “safe to take”.

However, the above drugs you mention, although all ototoxic, when taken in low doses and for short periods are probably not going to cause severe or permanent ototoxic side effects. But taken in higher doses, for longer periods or taken regularly in lower doses over a period of months can and do damage ears.

Instead of taking drugs for pain, why don’t you first consider natural alternatives. These differ depending on the pain. For example, for minor pains, I just tough it out. Hot packs and cold packs work in many cases. Depending on the source of pain, I use a chiropractor. Then too, there are a number of herbs for pain—again depending on the source of pain—for example, Feverfew is good for headaches. Sometimes you really need bed rest. Other times you really need exercise. All these things are safer alternatives than drugs—and none of them cause ototoxic side effects.

Another man asked, “Please send me in order the ototoxicity ranking of the below drugs so if I have to take one I can consider my options. But first let me guess. I promise I haven’t goggled any of this. This is my own experience.

In order of ototoxicity:

1. Ibuprofen
2. Excedrin
3. Aspirin
4. Aleve
5. Tylenol”

That’s was a good attempt. It goes to show how everyone’s experience is different. However, on the average, here’s my order—from least ototoxic (Class 1) to most ototoxic (Class 5)

1. Acetaminophen (Tylenol) (normally Class 2—but can be class 5)
2. Acetylsalicylic acid (Aspirin, Excedrin) (Class 2)
3. Ibuprofen (Advil, Motrin) (Class 3)
4. Naproxen (Aleve) (Class 4)

Now let’s look at these drugs in more detail so you have a better understanding of their ototoxic ranking.

Acetylsalicylic acid (Aspirin) almost always causes temporary side effects (tinnitus and hearing loss). So if you take it and notice increased tinnitus and reduced hearing, when you get off it, your tinnitus should go away in 3 or 4 days and your hearing return in a week or so. Also, typically you need to take 6 or more Aspirin a day to get tinnitus (unless you are particularly sensitive to Aspirin). So if you don’t take too much per day, this is probably the way to go.

Acetaminophen (Advil) in normal doses for short periods (i.e. a couple of weeks or less) shouldn’t give you any problems. But recent research has shown that taking Acetaminophen regularly (say a couple of times a week for a year) increases your risk of hearing loss 99%. Thus if you only take it occasionally or for short periods at normal doses, it shouldn’t bother your ears much if at all. Note, taking Acetaminophen in very high doses for 2 or more months can cause massive hearing loss—hearing loss so bad you will need a cochlear implant, if it doesn’t kill your liver first.

If I were going to take one of the above drugs, it would be one of those two. Naproxen and Ibuprofen are more ototoxic and since their side effects can be permanent, I put them at the bottom of the list.

A lady wrote,

I am 64 years old, and I have had tinnitus since around 1990. I have been taking Propranolol since 1979, which was originally prescribed for my migraines. At this point in my life, I have developed hypertension which is not controlled by this dose of Propranolol. My doctor is trying to find the proper blood pressure drug for me, but unfortunately, she knows little about ototoxic drugs, so I have to make my own suggestions to her. I realize that most ace-inhibitors, calcium channel blockers, and beta-blockers can be ototoxic.

My question is, ‘Are there any blood pressure drugs that do not seem to cause tinnitus or harm our ears?’ I understand that no drug is perfect and may cause other side effects, but I am feeling desperate to find a medication that would help control my blood pressure without worsening my tinnitus.

I sure understand your desire, but I can’t tell you which drugs do not cause tinnitus because I don’t compile information on non-ototoxic drugs, just on ototoxic ones. Thus, I really don’t know if there are other drugs in the above classes that are not ototoxic.

Since I list all known ototoxic drugs in the above classes in my book Ototoxic Drugs Exposed, if you find drugs in these classes that are not in my book, there is a good chance they are not ototoxic (unless they are new drugs just on the market).

If you want to stay on the typical prescription drug blood pressure medications, rather than use natural means to lower your blood pressure, then you need to look for the drugs with the fewest ototoxic side effects—and in your case, specifically for drugs that are not listed as causing tinnitus.

You can quickly and easily find this out if you have the latest edition of Ototoxic Drugs Exposed. All you’d need to do is turn to Table 14-1 and under section 20.8 you’ll find all the ototoxic anti-hypertensive drugs listed by class.

Thus, for example, if you wanted to know whether there are any Beta-blockers (section 20.8.12) that are not known to cause tinnitus, of the 19 Beta Blockers listed there, 4 of them are not listed as causing tinnitus. Therefore, you might want to suggest to your doctor that if you have to take a Beta Blocker, you’d like to try one of these four drugs if he thinks they will do the job—namely Labetalol, Levobunolol, Nebivolol or Sotalol—since none of these are known to cause tinnitus.

You can take this one step further and of these 4 drugs find the one that is the least ototoxic by looking each of these up in the main drug listings and compare all their ototoxic side effects. If you did this, you would find that Levobunolol is the least ototoxic, followed closely by Nebivolol. These two drugs are much less ototoxic in my opinion than the most ototoxic Beta Blockers such as Betaxolol and Propranolol.

However, if you want to bring your blood pressure down by natural means and not use prescription drugs you have other choices.

First you need to determine whether your blood pressure is too high or not. Far too many doctors want everyone to have ridiculously low blood pressure according to complementary medicine standards. You see, some people naturally have higher blood pressure and that is normal for them and is not wrong.

The rule of thumb seems to be that you should keep your blood pressure below 140/90, so if it is lower than that, you probably don’t have to worry about it. The book “Prescription Alternatives” explains that if you are over 60 (which you are), your blood pressure can be up to 180/100 and still be “normal” (although that is a very high “normal”). Thus, trying to get your blood pressure down to 120/80 may be completely wrong for you (but its a good way to sell more drugs).

You want to keep your blood pressure at a reasonable level to be sure. I suggest you first try to do this naturally, and only use drugs as a last resort.

The four main factors that can help reduce your blood pressure naturally are weight loss, exercise, diet and stress reduction. Here are a few examples to get you started.

Weight Loss: If you are overweight, for every 2 pounds of weight you drop, your blood pressure will drop at least 1 point.

Exercise: Just a brisk walk for 30 minutes 3 or more times a week can lower your blood pressure between 3 and 15 points in just 3 months.

Diet: Eat lots of fiber-filled vegetables and whole grains and drink plenty of water. For example, just eating 4 stalks of celery a day can significantly reduce blood pressure. So can taking garlic every day. Another secret to reducing blood pressure is drinking 6 to 8 glasses of clean water a day. It’s so simple that few people believe it works.

Stress Reduction: Getting your stress under control is almost guaranteed to bring down your blood pressure.

There are many natural and healthy ways to reduce your blood pressure if you are so inclined to try. I took much of the above information from the book “Prescription Alternatives” (1st edition) by Earl Mindell and Virginia Hopkins.

If you are serious about reducing your blood pressure the natural way without taking drugs, I recommend you carefully read the chapter “Drugs for Heart Disease and Their Natural Alternatives” in this book.

To find a good price on this book, go to Amazon and in the search box type the words “prescription alternatives”. You will have a number of choices from the 1st to the latest editions.

You can actually get this hardcover book on Amazon for as little as 1 cent to 10 cents (plus shipping which is typically about $4.00) so it is well worth it. There are newer editions too—you can get the latest edition in paperback form for as little as $11.48 (used).

Don’t let ototoxic drugs inadvertently damage your ears and cause hearing loss, tinnitus or balance problems. To learn which drugs are ototoxic, get the 3rd edition of  Ototoxic Drugs Exposed. This book contains information on the ototoxicity of 877 drugs, 35 herbals and 148 chemicals.

A man wrote,

Three weeks ago I started taking Esomeprazole (40mg) 1 tablet daily in the morning before breakfast because of a case of stomach and gastric reflux sufferings. Everything was going well, but about four days ago I started to suffer from strange noises in my ears like bells—very sharp ringing sound. This makes it impossible to lead a normal life, and I can hardly sleep. Yesterday I decided to stop the drug and consult with my doctor. Please, I need your advice because I am concerned that my persistent tinnitus will not go away.

It is interesting that you are the second person in the past few days to tell me much the same thing about this side effect of taking Esomeprazole. A man on the other side of the world from you also took Esomeprazole for three weeks and then began experiencing tinnitus too.

And you two are not the first to report this either. I’d previously heard from another man with much the same story. Furthermore, officially, Esomeprazole causes tinnitus in somewhere around 1% of the people taking it.

Stopping taking the drug as soon as you realized that it was causing your tinnitus was a good first step. The sooner you do this, the greater the chances that your tinnitus will go away.

However, tinnitus doesn’t typically go away immediately after stopping a drug. It can take some days for the drug to get out of your system and your tinnitus to die down. As a rule of thumb, I tell people to give it at least two weeks before they start worrying whether their tinnitus will go away or not.

There are no guarantees that your tinnitus will ever go away—it may or may not. Hopefully it will go away. However, one of the best ways to help it go away is to completely and totally ignore your tinnitus by focusing your mind on other things.

If you worry over, and focus on, your tinnitus, it will just become even louder and more intrusive, and it won’t go away. So treat it as a “non-person”, as though it were a constant inconsequential sound such as a fridge motor running, or a fan, or traffic noise—and just ignore it. Hopefully, it will begin to fade into the background and finally you’ll realize its gone, or it will become very faint and you will only hear it when you really listen for it.

If you want to learn more about tinnitus and the things you can do to help bring it under your control, check out the book, When Your Ears Ring! Cope with Your Tinnitus—Here’s How.

A lady wrote,

I think the tinnitus and intense ear pain I’ve had for 17 months might be a combination of things—Eustachian tube dysfunction from a lot of airplane flights, and some arthritis in my jaw joint aggravated from dental work? I have been taking 5 mg. Ambien to sleep all this time. As an experiment I stopped the Ambien one week ago and slowly have less pain and tinnitus every day that goes by.

It is true that Eustachian tube dysfunction could result in ear pain and tinnitus. Although, personally, I don’t see why flying should cause Eustachian tube dysfunction. I can see it happening the other way around—Eustachian Tube dysfunction causing problems with your ears during and after flying.

Dental work, especially on the upper molars also can cause tinnitus and ear pain. I’ve had a number of people complain about that.

Thus, it seems perfectly logical to blame the various ear conditions you suffer on your Eustachian tubes or your dental work. At the same time, it never crosses your mind that the drug your doctor prescribed is actually causing your problems.

Did you know that Zolpidem (Ambien) can cause tinnitus, ear pain, and middle ear infection problems—in other words the very problems you list above?

When your ear problems exactly correlate to the time you are taking a given drug, you need to be highly suspicious of that drug. You did a little experiment that proved to me that the Zolpidem you are taking is the real culprit.

When you stopped taking the Zolpidem your tinnitus and ear pain immediately began to diminish. It had stayed constant for 17 months—during which time you were taking Zolpidem. Then within a day or two of stopping it the pain and tinnitus began to go away. That’s not a coincidence. It’s the Zolpidem. To me, this says that your ear pain and tinnitus are more Zolpidem-related than anything else.

Incidentally, you don’t want to be on Zolpidem for very long as it can be dependence-forming, much like the Benzodiazepine class of drugs. If this happens you will have a lot of difficulty getting off it—and may experience horrible tinnitus and other problems in the process.

Don’t let ototoxic drugs inadvertently damage your ears. Learn which drugs are (or can be) ototoxic. The book Ototoxic Drugs Exposed contains information on the ototoxicity of 877 drugs, 35 herbals and 148 chemicals.