Milk Thistle Worsened My Tinnitus (Ringing in the Ears)

I had taken Milk Thistle the other day and my ringing had seemed to increase to about where it was when it had initially started.

After a day or so, it died down.

I tried again, and same result. I thought maybe the effect would be similar to NAC because they both increase the synthesis of glutathione. I can't take NAC any longer, it gave me a bad rash, but I had good results on it otherwise.

But I just wanted to offer a heads up. I'm not sure why that happened.

 

It is normal, when you detox all your symptoms will increase because of toxicity coming out of your body.

Give it some time.

 

I just want to state for the record (for future people searching) that I took Milk Thistle and within an hour or two it made my tinnitus the worst it has been in a long time, including ear pain and pulsing.

This was 18 hours ago, and it's gotten even worse the past 6 hours.

I'm cautious about attributing causation but there's zero doubt in my mind this was caused by the milk thistle. I've taken a few other vitamins/supplements in the past year with no problems.

My tinnitus had been very mild in recent months, which was fortunate since I've had some significant other health problems, including chronic pancreatitis and a bile duct disorder that is causing liver problems (no, I don't drink, it was originally caused by gallstones).

Anyway, I've seen one other post mention Milk Thistle worsening his tinnitus, and another complaining about worsened tinnitus after starting Milk Thistle but wasn't sure why it had gotten worse (likely because of the Milk Thistle). I'd stay away from the stuff unless you already know you can take it without issue.

 

Thanks for the heads-up! I took a Quercetin/Bromelain pill yesterday and my tinnitus spiked all day.

I am not sure if it was coincidence (due for a bad day anyway?) or the Bromelain, but don't want to try again to find out. As for Milk Thistle, I wonder what the mechanism behind your reaction was? Maybe you have a slight ragweed allergy and experiences some sinus swelling or swelling within the ear (since you had pain) which triggered the spike?

If supplements like milkweed can spike tinnitus, then you'd think there'd be supplements or pills that would do the opposite, right?

I hope you feel better soon.

 

My understanding is that Milk Thistle has the highest concentration of Silymarin of any known food product. Silymarin is (apparently) one of the best compounds when it comes to supporting liver function and detoxification. I can see where it could easily cause of rush of toxins to be mobilized from the liver and into the bloodstream, causing nerve irritation throughout the body, which could easily spike tinnitus. I think the danger of something like this is mobilizing toxins (especially heavy metals) too quickly, so that our detoxification filtration systems in the body is unable to keep up.

 

Ear pain from this is really strange. I'm trying to wrap my head around why this would be the case. Did it increase nasal congestion at all by any chance? I think @BuzzyBee asked a good question about whether there could be an allergic or sinus component to this. Something that affected middle ear pressure somehow.

Just to clarify, it didn't give you a new tone, correct? Just increased your old one?

Can you describe your pain? Does it feel like an ear infection ear ache? Any jaw or face pain? Hope it gets better soon.