Headaches and Tinnitus: Correlation Found

Hi guys, I thought this was an interesting read for those who do have headaches and tinnitus.

http://www.theheadacheclinic.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Specialist_Forum_May06.pdf

Sorry if it has been shared before.

 

The numbers of participants are quite impressive.

Risks of tinnitus, sensorineural hearing impairment, and sudden deafness in patients with non-migraine headache

Abstract
Tinnitus and hearing impairment are prevalent among headache patients. This study aims to investigate the risk of tinnitus, sensorineural hearing impairment, and sudden deafness in patients with non-migraine headache. Participants included 43 294 patients with non-migraine headache (non-migraine headache cohort) and 173 176 patients with no headache of any type (control cohort) frequency-matched with respect to 10-year age interval and sex from the Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2005 of the Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database. The mean age of the non-migraine headache cohort was 28.4 ± 14.9 years, and 58.5% of this cohort was male. The incidence rates of tinnitus, sensorineural hearing impairment, and sudden deafness were compared between cohorts using the Kaplan–Meier method with the log-rank test. A Cox proportional hazard model was used to examine the association of tinnitus, sensorineural hearing impairment, and sudden deafness with non-migraine headache, with adjustment for all covariates. The combined risk of either tinnitus, sensorineural hearing impairment, or sudden deafness was higher in the non-migraine headache cohort than in the control cohort (adjusted odds ratio [aHR], 2.73; 95% confidence interval [95% CI], 2.62–2.84; p < 0.0001). Subgroup analysis showed that patients in the non-migraine headache cohort were at significantly higher risk of developing tinnitus (aHR, 3.05; 95% CI, 2.91–3.19; p < 0.0001), sensorineural hearing impairment (aHR, 1.89; 95% CI, 1.74–2.05; p < 0.0001), and sudden deafness (aHR, 2.14; 95% CI, 1.77–2.59; p < 0.0001) than were controls. In this population-based study, the risks of tinnitus, sensorineural hearing impairment, and sudden deafness were found to be significantly higher in patients with non-migraine headache than in those without headache.

Full article: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0222041

 

Dear Frederic,

You should be paid by the BTA and the ATA.
Your scholarship and research is beyond human, I would not be surprised if you have cybernetic implants. Thank you for your work, you're a blessing to this community. Hazel, Markku, yourself, and Autumnly should be paid at least 20 to 30 grand year to just help with your rent.

I will write to Mr. Gates and Trump, and a bunch of rich cats to see if I can scrounge some money for you. Thank you so much for your hard work.

This post went over my head, as of course i have freaking headaches, so I will not comment, I am just blown away by your dedication and selfless humility. Thank you.

 

@Daniel Lion: I blushed while reading your message. Thank you very much.

So will I divulge my secret? No, I do not have cybernetic implants and I do not think I deserve so much kindness from you.

Specifically, what I do is:
- I subscribed to alerts on several websites of scientific publications with the word "tinnitus" (the most important by far being Google Scholar),
- I receive about fifteen articles every day, I then take the time to read them (it takes about 2 hours), to filter them in order to relay the most relevant ones.

In addition I am not the only one to report information. @Aaron123 did it regularly (though it's a pity not to see him anymore), @JohnAdams does it too.

So it's very little compared to the work provided by @Hazel, @Markku, @Autumnly and many others (@Jack Straw, @Ed209) who spend a lot more time/money for Tinnitus Talk than me and have done a lot more (attending conferences, interviews production, videos editing). So great thanks to them.

 

Agreed. I still am grateful for your work and you should be paid.
You are humble....

Take care, thanks again.

 

I used to have the most excruciating, debilitating headaches from my 20s up until my early 30s. I'm talking off work for a week, howling/whimpering, climbing the walls, nothing-helps kind of headaches. They mysteriously stopped when I got married. For which my better half takes full credit of course. Then a decade or two when nothing much happened, and now here I am.

I guess whatever conditions underly the onset of tinnitus could also trigger headaches by some means. I've also had bad dental problems including bruxism all my life. The dots may all be joined up one day.

 

Wow! Thank you!

 

Relationship between headaches and tinnitus in a Swedish study
Published: 22 May 2020 - Alessandra Lugo, Niklas K. Edvall, Andra Lazar, Golbarg Mehraei, Jose-Antonio Lopez-Escamez, Jan Bulla, Inger Uhlen, Barbara Canlon, Silvano Gallus & Christopher R. Cederroth

• When focusing on subjects with tinnitus, the prevalence of headaches was 26% and reached 40% in subjects with severe tinnitus. A large number of socioeconomic, phenotypic and psychological characteristics differed between headache and non-headache subjects with any tinnitus. With increasing tinnitus severity, fewer differences were found, the major ones being vertigo, neck pain and other pain syndromes, as well as stress and anxiety. Our study suggests that headaches could contribute to tinnitus distress and potentially its severity.
• The present work goes beyond this analysis by showing the increasing relationship between headache and tinnitus severity reaching an OR of 5.63 (4.10–7.72) in the group with tinnitus as a big problem, suggesting either that headaches contribute to the distress caused by tinnitus, or that tinnitus distress contribute to headaches – a directionality that remains to be investigated.
• These findings are consistent with the notion that headache, and particularly migraine, could be a facilitator to the development of severe tinnitus, as suggested with the greater risk in developing clinically significant tinnitus with migraines [adjusted Hazard Ratio: 3.30 (2.17–5.00)]26 when compared to self-reported tinnitus of unknown severity [adjusted Recurrence Ratio: 1.28 (1.06, 1.56)].

 

I hadn't seen anyone post this before, but there is also this journal article that is quite interesting.

https://journals.lww.com/thehearing..._Migraine__A_Possible_Cause_of_Hearing.3.aspx

 

I am little bit confused, I do not get the added value of this study compared to the studies which are cited in reference. Do they mean that headaches are a harbinger of tinnitus? They mention headaches as a risk factor.

 

@Frederic I like the study that you posted above.

"Headache is common in people of all ages. Common chronic headache disorders include migraine, tension-type headache (TTH), and medication overuse headache [1]. Secondary causes of headache, including temporal or giant cell arteritis, subdural hematomas, central nervous system (CNS) tumors, strokes, and central nervous system (CNS) infections, are less prevalent than primary headache in the general population but more prevalent in older adults …"

And more so with stress and hypertension of having tinnitus.

 

You do a good job Frederic.

 

The Prevalence of Different Types of Headache in Patients with Subjective Tinnitus and Its Influence on Tinnitus Parameters: A Prospective Clinical Study

Both tinnitus and headache are very prevalent conditions in the general population, with bidirectional co-occurrence of them. A number of studies revealed a high prevalence of headache in tinnitus patients; however, most of them used self-reported symptoms, questionnaires, or health databases and were retrospective.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of different types of headache in a cohort of tinnitus patients and to assess the influence of headache on tinnitus parameters, focusing on appropriate headache and tinnitus diagnosis verified by clinical examination. This prospective study involved 286 patients diagnosed with subjective non-pulsating tinnitus.

Patients’ clinical information was thoroughly assessed by the multidisciplinary team, including tinnitus characteristics and severity according to the Tinnitus Handicap Inventory (THI), loudness assessed by the Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), audiometry, type of headache diagnosed according to the third edition of the International Classification of Headache Disorders, severity of headache assessed by the Numeric Rating Scale (NRS), and impact of headache using the Headache Impact Test (HIT).

In total, 141 (49.3%) tinnitus patients were diagnosed with headache, most of them with tension-type headache or migraine. They were significantly younger; mostly women; had bilateral tinnitus, vertigo, and depression more frequently; and had hearing loss less frequently as compared with the non-headache group. In total, 82 (58.16%) patients had the same localization of tinnitus and headache. Younger age, female gender, higher tinnitus burden measured by THI, and coexistence of hearing loss were independent variables connected with the occurrence of headache in the tinnitus group.

According to our study, headaches impact tinnitus on many different levels and may be an important co-factor for tinnitus subtyping. We recommend screening for headache coexistence in all tinnitus patients.

Full article: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/10/11/776/htm

 

How do we fix these headaches?

 

Fix your circadian rhythm, eat healthy, go to nature as much as possible, avoid loud places (they drain energy from you), get a lot of sun (slowly build up resistance) etc. It will work. Trust me. Start slowly short cardio, swimming helps a lot.

 

Whenever I have a bad headache, I find that my tinnitus is spiked with it. The other day my headache was so bad, my tinnitus was bad with it. When the headache wore off, my tinnitus volume went down as well. I believe my tinnitus was noise induced. I don't understand why there is a correlation.

 

Tinnitus is brain damage, so there is your explanation.

 

Although I think based on my research that tinnitus is not brain damage, but rather is a symptom of brain damage as well as of other possible causes like anxiety and stress, your post made me wonder.

Interesting article on this:

Tinnitus is the result of the brain trying, but failing, to repair itself

I agree with you, even if it’s not a fix all solution. I found that being active, sleeping well and doing a lot of sports really helped with my tension headaches. Some gentle cervical massages and stretches as well. This also reduces my tinnitus or at least lets me better cope with it.

I made the correlation between tension headaches and tinnitus after a few years, when I started to notice that my cervical pain was more on the right side, same side where the tinnitus is more present. Gently massaging that area modulates the Tinnitus and sometimes reduces it a bit. Using my own self made bone conduction therapy also is helping a lot, helps me retrain my brain to focus on something else outside my ears.

 

Yeah, you are right, I didn't say it correctly. It's a symptom of brain damage. Thank you for the correction bruh.