Anyone Get Tinnitus from Caffeine? My Tinnitus Started After Having an Energy Drink Celsius

Hi, I’m Katie and new to tinnitus.

I recently got tinnitus from drinking an energy drink called Celsius that has 200 mg of caffeine. Which is so odd to me because I’m a regular high caffeine drinker. But anyway so after I drank it I experienced ringing in my ears. I thought it was in both ears. After a day or two I think it went to one ear? Still not sure.

So I have a ringing in my left ear and it’s driving me crazy. I can barely eat and I’m pretty sure I’m experiencing a bit of depression.

Has anyone gotten tinnitus from caffeine? Please tell me I’m not alone.

 

It can make pre-existing tinnitus appear louder, but not cause tinnitus as far as I know. I would consider other causes for your tinnitus, there are so many things that are more likely to have caused it than this specific energy drink.

 

I’d go to an ENT and get your hearing and ears checked. It would be unusual for caffeine to have caused it.

 

I never had any ringing in my ears before that. And it started instantly after drinking it. My doctor said it could have caused high blood pressure? I don’t have a history of high blood pressure. I don’t know. None of it makes sense to me. I’m afraid to drink caffeine or alcohol again.

 

I’m trying. Sadly it’s taking longer than I would like. I can’t even get a hearing test until January. And then need a referral to see an ENT from audiology. Kaiser.

 

Since you are a regular high caffeine drinker, perhaps it was another ingredient in the energy drink. Can you list the other ingredients

If you need a hearing test, there may be a place that sells hearing aids around you that would do it for free. Some years ago I got a couple of free hearing tests and one time a hearing aid guy looked into my ear one time and told me I had some fluid behind the eardrum. I'm sorry you are having to deal with this right now. I hope your tinnitus goes away asap.

 

What country are you located in? Just asking because in the US anyway you don’t need to have a referral to see an ENT.

 

The drink is advertised as “healthy”. I will look to see about the hearing tests being offered at hearing aid stores. Thank you! Is the hearing test any different than just a dr looking inside with an otoscope?

 

I am in the US. I have Kaiser and they keep telling me I can’t see an ENT without a referral from audiology.

 

You are very welcome. If I understand correctly, I think they use a machine called an audiometer and play various frequencies at various volumes and you tell them if you can hear them or not. I don't know if all hearing aid places do this but the one I went to could look into your ear with some device and also could clean it if he saw wax in it. You would have to ask them if they do that and there might be a charge if they do. The guy wasn't a doctor though. I hope you get better soon.

 

That is not accurate. It depends on the insurance you have. In the U.S.A. many people do have to get a referral from their primary care physician, to see a specialist.

 

If that’s the case you probably just need a referral period. Not specifically from audiology. You could ask for one from your GP or go into an urgent care or even the ER explain what is going on, make sure you get across to them that you are very concerned and don’t think you can wait till January for an audiology appointment, and ask for a referral from them. The next option would be to pay out of pocket for the ENT visit.

 

Thank you so much . Thankfully I was able to get an appointment with audiology tomorrow so hopefully it goes well!

 

You are very welcome. I hope things go well for you!

 

I guess you could do an MRN, could be a vestibular issue. Try chamomile in boiled water and add some honey, it works as a natural relaxer. If that can get you to sleep fine, you’ve won half the battle.

 

I doubt it but I've used caffeine daily since 2004 so how would I know?

 

The same happened to me!
I’ve always taken energy drinks regularly. I decided to switch to Celsius because of its more natural composition, but then I noticed a ringing in my ears. Last month I didn’t drink Celsius for a month and my tinnitus started to disappear. Yesterday I took Celsius, and my tinnitus started all over again. I hadn’t made the connection between this specific energy drink until then. Now that I found your post about it I wonder if there is actually something

 

Nonsense. Millions drink coffee and take caffeinated products around the world. AFAIK, they're not known to harm the ear or cause tinnitus.

Maybe you were listening to music too loud or something else? Maybe, you have been doing something for a long time that damaged your (inner) ears and tinnitus started coincidentally after drinking an energy drink or coffee.

I believe energy drinks are harmful and there is evidence of that but I dunno about it causing tinnitus. That's a stretch. I wouldn't 100% rule it out but I would look at other things you do or have done over time - if anything else might have contributed to your tinnitus (something you overlooked, perhaps)?

 

This is a fallacious pattern of reasoning. You are saying that the general rarity of something negates the evidence in front of our eyes of a rare occurrence. When I phrase it like that, the flaw is obvious.

We must always take the totality of evidence into account and believe people who report the accounts of their own conscious experience.

 

How many people here are CLAIMING they got tinnitus SUDDENLY from caffeine? One or two?

My skepticism is based on logic. Your rebuttal is based on nonsense, imho.

 

You are demonstrating the exact same fallacy of probabilistic reasoning. Knowing that a property A is rare allows you to infer that, given a random individual, that individual is unlikely to have property A.

It does not license the following, which is what I see you doing. "Here is a purported example of property A. Since A is rare, I am going to doubt that the example is real."

The rational response is to take the evidence for what it is and say, "Well there goes one of those rare examples of A. We don't see that so often, do we?"

Now if you have more data to go on, things could come out differently. For example if you knew the rate of false positives for A was greater than the rate of true positives, you could say it is still unlikely to be true even though it "tested" as A.

Why is this important? Because many people like me have experienced a sudden onset of tinnitus after being vaccinated against COVID-19. In my personal situation, due to the timing of events, there is no other plausible causal explanation, so at least it should be taken seriously as a possibility. But I have heard from people something along the lines of, "This is rare, so I don't believe it occurred in your case." Well, sometimes rare things happen.

 

I doubt that tinnitus can be caused by energy drinks.

I've had several months where I didn't touch coffee and/or energy drinks.

And I've had periods where I drink plenty of coffee and at least 1 Red Bull / Monster per day - and I have no reason to believe, that there has been any real changes in my tinnitus in those types of different periods.

But alas; it is difficult to for me to be a 100% sure of this (as it always is, in regards to tinnitus).

 

Tinnitus CAUSED by caffeine? Doubtful although as I've mentioned in other threads, if you believe everything that turns up in a Google search, every single substance we ingest, inhale, touch, look at, or exists in the same airspace as us can cause tinnitus.

But it's more than likely that in some people it can cause a temporary spike in perceived volume or severity when the caffeine is active in your system. Once the caffeine's effect wears off though, the spike should subside.

I saw this thread and decided to add my two cents because I also usually drink one Celsius in the morning. Around noon I follow it up around 1:00 with a V8 Energy which has about 80 mg caffeine.

Fortunately, it doesn't seem to affect my tinnitus at all. As a matter of fact, it tends to be much quieter between about 7:30 and 5:00, at which point it almost always spikes very noticeably. And I'd guess 5:00 is about when the caffeine's effect wears off. And I know it's not a matter of higher ambient noise at work because I work in a pretty quiet room. Much more quiet than in my car, which is where it usually starts to spike as I'm driving home and by the time I get home between 5:15 and 5:30 it's back to being extremely annoying.