Tinnitus Resulting from Covid or Vaccines

[DaveC]

I'm wondering if anyone else is suffering from tinnitus due to covid or covid vaccines, and what your experiences are?

I got hit with it about 6 weeks ago. It started with headaches and tinnitus, but I didn't recognize what it was. At the time I was working out every other day, doing both interval and weight training. I cut back on intensity but continued workouts as I wasn't feeling fatigue and they made me feel better. After a week to 10 days I went back to normal intensity and ended up in the ER the next day as I thought I might pass out. Blood work and ct scan of my head came back with no issues, so they sent me home to follow up with a general care dr, who has been useless so far. Neither the ER nor general doc ever tested me for covid or antibodies, so I'm guessing on the covid diagnosis but can't think of anything else, and the headache/tinnitus symptoms fit. I believe my issue was a result of training while having covid.

Now I'm dealing with some major health issues, my nervous system went haywire... my heartrate and blood pressure went way up, sleep and digestion were disrupted, fatigue, brain fog, more tinnitus. After a month keeping my hr under 125 bpm I'm ramping up, and while its up and down, I'm making progress... but tinnitus is still as bad as it ever was and seems pretty random. Exercise seems to help to some degree, but then it can cause sleep disruption which seems to result in worse tinnitus. Often my hr after exercise is elevated for hours, then I don't sleep well. Sleep itself causes tinnitus, if I nod off watching a movie at night without tinnitus, I wake up with tinnitus. This is the only factor that is very consistent. Also, being in a noisy restaurant or driving at highway speeds with the windows down seems to bring it on as well. I do get some times when it goes away, but half the days it does not. I have to sleep with white noise, but the tinnitus is high pitched, like being in a room full of CRT TVs that have that 18 kHz tone from flyback transformers, so its nearly impossible to mask fully.

I'm just going to have to be patient and hope for the best, but if anyone has any experiences to share, supplements or anything else that has helped them, I'd be interested to hear it... thanks!

 

[bonzo75]

Sorry to hear, this sucks. Your story with Blackmore, suddenly happening to people…

 

[allvinyl]

Yes, I have experienced similar symptoms that began after my hospital stay 12/7/21 through 12/24/21. I had pneumonia and covid. My pacemaker/defibrillator shocked me twice on 12/11 and I didn't even know it. During each instance my HR was >300bpm. Once home on Xmas eve I got back on my supplement regimen, which I was not allowed to access while in the hospital, I started to feel better right away. Since I had lost 20lbs it took me a couple of months of in-home therapy supplemented by O2 to gain back any semblence of normality. I didn't get back on my regular exercise regimen for 3 months. The tinnitus is reduced, but like you, still comes and goes to this day. On cardio days before covid I could do 5.5 miles on my Octane elliptical in 35 minutes. Now, a mile less. It's really messed with my wind and stamina to this day.

 

[Al M.]

Very sorry to hear about your health issues, Dave and John.

 

[Steve Williams]

Hi Dave

have you seen a cardiologist and/or have you had an EKG. Myocarditis is always a worry in younger patients with covid. As to the tinnitus issue I would hope that it would improve however I would also suggest you see a neurologist re the tinnitus.

 

[Steve Williams]

as an aside you could also be suffering from Long Covid Syndrome

Symptoms​

People with Post-COVID Conditions (or Long COVID) may experience many symptoms.
People with Post-COVID Conditions can have a wide range of symptoms that can last weeks, months, or even years after infection. Sometimes the symptoms can even go away or come back again.
Post-COVID Conditions may not affect everyone the same way. People with Post-COVID Conditions may experience health problems from different types and combinations of symptoms happening over different lengths of time. Though most patients’ symptoms slowly improve with time, speaking with your healthcare provider about the symptoms you are experiencing Post-COVID could help identify new medical conditions. For some people, Post-COVID Conditions can last weeks, months, or years after COVID-19 illness and can sometimes result in disability.
People who experience Post-COVID Conditions most commonly report:
General symptoms (Not a Comprehensive List)

• Tiredness or fatigue that interferes with daily life
• Symptoms that get worse after physical or mental effort (also known as “post-exertional malaise”)
• Fever

Respiratory and heart symptoms

• Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath
• Cough
• Chest pain
• Fast-beating or pounding heart (also known as heart palpitations)

Neurological symptoms

• Difficulty thinking or concentrating (sometimes referred to as “brain fog”)
• Headache
• Sleep problems
• Dizziness when you stand up (lightheadedness)
• Pins-and-needles feelings
• Change in smell or taste
• Depression or anxiety

Digestive symptoms

• Diarrhea
• Stomach pain

Other symptoms

• Joint or muscle pain
• Rash
• Changes in menstrual cycles

 

[Alrainbow]

May I ask when was your shot if taken
what company ?
I’ve had COVID a few times might have had it in late Oct end of year just before announcement.
for me it began as octal migraines
General weakness and loss of taste
it lasted a week or so
I’m Feb a confirmed case
Vac some time late April and 30 days after
I suffered for months with weakness
On and off and no real answers
I’m pretty sure it will be many years to really know info like many past med and sickness issues.
Ps I still get octal migraines at times need sunglasses most times

 

[SlapEcho]

I'm laughing while reading this, not because it's funny, but because it validates what I've been going through since late fall of 2021 after a bout of covid. For the longest time I thought maybe I caused it by an overly egregious listening session. Yes, it comes and goes, sounds like old CRT tubes partially in my head, and its not what is typically described as ringing.

 

[Steve Williams]

I'm laughing while reading this, not because it's funny, but because it validates what I've been going through since late fall of 2021 after a bout of covid. For the longest time I thought maybe I caused it by an overly egregious listening session. Yes, it comes and goes, sounds like old CRT tubes partially in my head, and its not what is typically described as ringing.

Case in point…….long Covid syndrome

 

[Alrainbow]

I was told this a few times and had COVID 2 times before the shots and 3 times after. I have n idea but was sick for about a year
I would have to go to bed during the day

 

[jadedavid]

I was just in Chapel Hill NC for a visit. While there, friends told me about the possibility of the University launching a study on this after receiving disturbing reports from numerous ENT's concerning a recent high rate of patients with tinnitus.
In the very early stages there is a suggested link with the Moderna vaccine.
NOTE: this is all second hand information that may or may not be substantiated.

 

[DaveC]

Thanks for sharing your experiences and info, I hope everyone currently suffering with covid symptoms recovers fully!

My history is I got the Pfizer vaccine when it was first available, avoided alpha, got delta before the boosters, and because of that never got a booster. Then I got Omicron about 14 months ago and once again starting 6 weeks ago or so. The first time I got Omicron I felt sick and lost my sense of smell for a few days, so I knew to take it easy, this time I didn't as the symptoms were totally different (headache and tinnitus), and having covid combined with a workout basically shocked my nervous system, it just went haywire and I ended up in the ER with extremely high blood pressure (180/110 or so) and tachycardia, I couldn't think straight and felt passing out and dying was a real possibility.

At first I thought it was overtraining syndrome, but I didn't experience a fall-off on cardio or weights, in fact I was in the best shape of my entire life, I could bench 205 lbs 8 reps and maintaining 250w on a bike or elliptical felt easy. I achieved this pretty quickly, snow set in here in CO by mid December and I upped my volume too fast, but was feeling great, so didn't worry about it. After some time I realized it was covid due to the symptoms and a few other guys at the gym got it too.

Despite how much this sucks I do feel lucky its not worse, I've been able to ramp up my physical exertion pretty regularly over the last couple weeks. I do pay a price for it, my heartrate doesn't recover normally and I may not sleep well as a result, but after that my capacity increases quite a bit. At first minor efforts pegged my heartrate and I felt like crap, but I got over that hump and little by little, I could do more and more without my body freaking out. I did keep my hr under 125 bpm for about 4 weeks though, just went on walks every day, at first short, and then gradually increasing distance and pace if I could keep my hr <125 bpm.

So, I do think exercise is super important, I feel like the viral load is decreasing every time I exercise. I've also been getting acupuncture, this has an immediate calming effect, I can do the same exercise with my hr 10-15 bpm lower after getting it done. It may be necessary to do this every other day for a while, it in effect retrains the nervous system, the practitioner told me its like training a dog. Over time you can extend the times between treatments, now I'm at once a week.

On supplements, its hard to tell as I go up and down with all this, but I think trace minerals and electrolytes may be helping. I've been using Trace brand Mega-Mag (which is just concentrated Utah Dead Sea water, tastes horrible), nuun tablets or Skratch drink mix and Shilajit, a few links below... for Shilajit, I got a 1 kg block from a Etsy seller who was able to provide test results for contaminants, but it may be best just to get it from a known source, its pretty common. Shilajit is mostly fulvic acid and trace minerals.

I've been taking the regular stuff as well for years now, D3/K2, a men's multi, various amino acids, and recently some herbs for blood pressure. My bp luckily has dropped and is closing in on normal. The tinnitus sucks though, what a PITA, I ignore it as much as possible so it doesn't drive me crazy. The fact sleep brings it on has not been a great association either. The hormones and chemicals released as you fall asleep trigger it. It's just bizarre.

Mega-Mag

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Anyways, let me know if anyone has more input on what's helped them or just wants to share their experiences, thanks!

 

[the sound of Tao]

I'm wondering if anyone else is suffering from tinnitus due to covid or covid vaccines, and what your experiences are?

I got hit with it about 6 weeks ago. It started with headaches and tinnitus, but I didn't recognize what it was. At the time I was working out every other day, doing both interval and weight training. I cut back on intensity but continued workouts as I wasn't feeling fatigue and they made me feel better. After a week to 10 days I went back to normal intensity and ended up in the ER the next day as I thought I might pass out. Blood work and ct scan of my head came back with no issues, so they sent me home to follow up with a general care dr, who has been useless so far. Neither the ER nor general doc ever tested me for covid or antibodies, so I'm guessing on the covid diagnosis but can't think of anything else, and the headache/tinnitus symptoms fit. I believe my issue was a result of training while having covid.

Now I'm dealing with some major health issues, my nervous system went haywire... my heartrate and blood pressure went way up, sleep and digestion were disrupted, fatigue, brain fog, more tinnitus. After a month keeping my hr under 125 bpm I'm ramping up, and while its up and down, I'm making progress... but tinnitus is still as bad as it ever was and seems pretty random. Exercise seems to help to some degree, but then it can cause sleep disruption which seems to result in worse tinnitus. Often my hr after exercise is elevated for hours, then I don't sleep well. Sleep itself causes tinnitus, if I nod off watching a movie at night without tinnitus, I wake up with tinnitus. This is the only factor that is very consistent. Also, being in a noisy restaurant or driving at highway speeds with the windows down seems to bring it on as well. I do get some times when it goes away, but half the days it does not. I have to sleep with white noise, but the tinnitus is high pitched, like being in a room full of CRT TVs that have that 18 kHz tone from flyback transformers, so its nearly impossible to mask fully.

I'm just going to have to be patient and hope for the best, but if anyone has any experiences to share, supplements or anything else that has helped them, I'd be interested to hear it... thanks!

Very sorry to hear it Dave. I do feel your stress. Not tinnitus but I had Covid back in December (it was a pretty fierce version of the virus) and it turned into long covid and I’ve not that long now been diagnosed as new onset Atrial Fibrillation. The life changing outcomes of the virus can be drastic. For a guy with the cardio of an ox who’s swam at least 5 to 8 km a week for the last 40 years the change is pretty dramatic/devastating. I’ve been in constant AF for a month now so already persistent AF and I’ve not long started onto beta blockers. The lifestyle changes and work changes have kicked in this week. Just starting to get my head around the implications and also the feeling that my body has gone from very fit for my age to feeling suddenly like I’m 15 years older than I am with fairly chronic shortness of breath (from even just mild activity) and constant exhaustion, and months of sleep deprivation often just 2 to 3 hours a night sleep (unlike most of my life where I’ve been blessed with an easy and reliable undisturbed 6 hours as routine).

That said I’ve had resilient and robust health most of my life so I do feel I’ve had it good but as my GP said after the first EKG knowing how fit I have been and how much I have exercised that this is not the guy I was expecting to become.

As an aside getting an Apple Watch the last few weeks has been a brilliant investment and it’s an amazing health tool and gives extraordinary active cardio support and considerably more peace of mind than I’d have had without it. I’ve been able to indicatively monitor constantly the last month and watched my resting heart rate go spiking at up to 120 and registering consistently with AF before proper diagnosis and treatment and recently since gone back to rest rates around 70-80 bpm(since starting on Metoprolol) and then identify occasional new spikes of up to 120 just getting in the car and driving to work today. Troubling but reassuring to get that kind of consistent live feedback and warning.

The impact brought about by that inevitable virus is certainly life changing. It knocks around the body but also the mind and spirit.

Hopefully as my cardiologist fine tunes the meds I will get a bit less hazard happening and see what I can bring back to something approaching normalcy but it’s a lot of change to undergo in a few short months. I do balance all this against how fortunate I’ve been for most my life though and how much worse still it has been for others. But phenomenal kinds of change and uncertainty it has certainly brought about for most of us.

 

[Al M.]

I was just in Chapel Hill NC for a visit. While there, friends told me about the possibility of the University launching a study on this after receiving disturbing reports from numerous ENT's concerning a recent high rate of patients with tinnitus.
In the very early stages there is a suggested link with the Moderna vaccine.
NOTE: this is all second hand information that may or may not be substantiated.

That is anecdotal. There is a 2022 study of 2.5 million people where the incidence of tinnitus after vaccination was 0.038 %.

See (with link to the study as well):

https://www.goodrx.com/conditions/covid-19/tinnitus-covid-vaccine

There is, however, greater incidence of tinnitus after Covid infection:

Frontiers | Tinnitus emerging in the context of a COVID-19 infection seems not to differ in its characteristics from tinnitus unrelated to COVID-19

Background and aimCOVID-19 is a respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, for which the first cases were reported in China, by December 2...

www.frontiersin.org

COVID-19, vaccinations, and tinnitus

Some people report tinnitus, or ringing in the ears, after a COVID-19 infection or even vaccination. Can coronavirus cause tinnitus? We take a look at the research.

www.healthyhearing.com

 

[allvinyl]

Very sorry to hear about your health issues, Dave and John.

Thank you for your kind thoughts.

I've contracted covid 3 times. First in Oct 2020, then Dec 2021 significantly compounded by pneumonia, lastly a mild case in Apr 2022. Now 72, I was diagnosed with CHF at age 39. Neither my healthcare worker wife, retired in Jan 2023, or I have taken any covid shot and won't. From the onset, I didn't trust the information given to the public. I wasn't initially, and am still not convinced that I wouldn't suffer additional heart related issues as a result of a covid shot. Just my humble opinion.

As noted by others here, my tinnitus comes and goes and varies in severity. I will note that long car trips do seem to be a trigger. I just returned from the Chicago area back to Minneapolis and the tinnitus has been worse. In a couple of weeks, I'll leave again on 4//12 for Axpona returning on 4/17. After setup day on Thursday and I have time to really concentrate on listening during the Fri to Sunday show days, I will be carefully noting any symptoms. Also, after the car ride home on Monday 4/17.

 

[WBF Team]

Guys, just a gentle reminder that the discussion of vaccines is a violation of the TOS so let’s keep on topic about Dave’s current medical issues as well as general COVID heath issues.

 

[Joe Whip]

wishing Dave and John all the best and a return to good health. Hopefully the tinnitus will resolve over time!

 

[allvinyl]

Guys, just a gentle reminder that the discussion of vaccines is a violation of the TOS so let’s keep on topic about Dave’s current medical issues as well as general COVID heath issues.

OK, thanks...

 

[DaveC]

Thank you for your kind thoughts.

I've contracted covid 3 times. First in Oct 2020, then Dec 2021 significantly compounded by pneumonia, lastly a mild case in Apr 2022. Now 72, I was diagnosed with CHF at age 39. Neither my healthcare worker wife, retired in Jan 2023, or I have taken any covid shot and won't. From the onset, I didn't trust the information given to the public. I wasn't initially, and am still not convinced that I wouldn't suffer additional heart related issues as a result of a covid shot. Just my humble opinion.

As noted by others here, my tinnitus comes and goes and varies in severity. I will note that long car trips do seem to be a trigger. I just returned from the Chicago area back to Minneapolis and the tinnitus has been worse. In a couple of weeks, I'll leave again on 4//12 for Axpona returning on 4/17. After setup day on Thursday and I have time to really concentrate on listening during the Fri to Sunday show days, I will be carefully noting any symptoms. Also, after the car ride home on Monday 4/17.

I just got some earplugs to mitigate these circumstances, used them yesterday at a restaurant with good results. I've had some similar plugs in the past for loud concerts, but these are a nice upgrade on what I had. Frequency response is pretty even and very low distortion...

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B074P5PXQZ?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

 

[DaveC]

That is anecdotal. There is a 2022 study of 2.5 million people where the incidence of tinnitus after vaccination was 0.038 %.

See (with link to the study as well):

https://www.goodrx.com/conditions/covid-19/tinnitus-covid-vaccine

There is, however, greater incidence of tinnitus after Covid infection:

Frontiers | Tinnitus emerging in the context of a COVID-19 infection seems not to differ in its characteristics from tinnitus unrelated to COVID-19

Background and aimCOVID-19 is a respiratory disease caused by the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2, for which the first cases were reported in China, by December 2...

www.frontiersin.org

COVID-19, vaccinations, and tinnitus

Some people report tinnitus, or ringing in the ears, after a COVID-19 infection or even vaccination. Can coronavirus cause tinnitus? We take a look at the research.

www.healthyhearing.com

Another anecdote is the covid going around right now is causing a lot more tinnitus, and its generally at very high frequencies, sounding like a tube TV. Seems like tinnitus is the new loss of smell, but only time and studying the facts will tell...