Pulsing Whooshing in Ear Caused by Vitamin E Overdose

[Ifrash]

Hi,
I have never had ear problems except for the occasional whooshing from weakness. 10 days ago I bought vitamin e oil from CVS and started taking it (5 drops) hoping to cure my dry/peeling lips. 5 days ago, I felt a discomfort in my ear, fluid movement when I shook my head, as if I had water logged in. A whooshing began, made worse at night. A wax remover liquid did not help and the whooshing has since gotten worse. I realized it is tinnitus after some online research, but could not figure the cause until tonight when it suddenly occured to me that the only thing different I have done since it began was take vitamin e oil. Well, that's going to stop now. I have an ENT appointment in the morning. Since there is no pain, I am assuming it is not a ruptured eardrum. I will post what the doctor says. But if it is the vitamin e oil, then it is quite scary how the intake of unprescribed vitamins can cause such damage. Thoughts?

 

[Fungus]

Hi,Ifrash,
Sorry you have pulsatile tinnitus.....I hope your visit to the ENT doc. will be insightful. Certain vascular problems and types of inflammation can cause PT and your doc may order MRI/MRA etc.
I have PT as well as 'hissing' tinnitus. No cause ever given for my PT, though I have persistent and severe ETD such that I have T-tubes to permanently ventilate the middle ear.
I think that there's no real relationship between the vitamin oil and your tinnitus, other than a temporal one (i.e they both happened at roughly the same time). We all tend to 'blame' something if this happens, though there's no real causal link , just unhappy chance. This is one of the reasons why somebody will claim that just about anything caused their tinnitus....'I painted my toenails green and developed tinnitus. Painting toenails green causes tinnitus'.
For many of us a definite cause may never be found.

I hope your ENT trip goes well.

Fungus.

 

[Karen]

Hi, @Ifrash,

I'll be interested to hear what your ENT has to say about your whooshing sound. I have both pulsatile tinnitus and hissing tinnitus, and I've been to a number of doctors, without a specific cause being found. My pulsating started after taking a blood pressure drug; I got off the blood pressure drug, but I'm afraid the pulsating is still there. However, I will say that I have gotten more used to it, so that it doesn't bother me as much as it used to.

Best wishes, and I hope that your doctor is able to help. Please do report back and let us know what he says.

Karen

 

[Ifrash]

Thank you Fungus and Karen for your replies. I guess we are suffering from the same thing and there is really no cause that can be pinpointed.
The ENT visit went as expected. There is nothing physically wrong with my ear. Although the doctor did tell me that the pulsing wooshing is linked to the vein running behind my ear. When he pressed it, the rhythm changed slightly. He also could not confirm if the vitamin-E had anything to do with it, saying that was most probably not the case.
I don't accept that there is nothing to be done about it except to get used to the sound. When I do breathing excerices, such as decompressing my chest to let out air through my mouth rapidly, the sound recedes for about 30 or so seconds, then returns gradually. I am thinking the body definitely has some inner mechanism to fix this, so I will try excercising, maybe swimming, to see if that has any effect. Wish me luck. I'll let you know if there are any changes. Thank you!

 

[Karen]

Thanks for the update, @Ifrash! Yes, whooshing sounds usually have something to do with the veins or the arteries, and I am glad he was able to find that yours seems to be caused by a vein near your ear. You are correct that, for many pulsatile tinnitus sufferers, something more can be done. Some people have causes that can be corrected by surgery. If yours begins getting worse or more bothersome, it might be worthwhile to go to a specialist, such as a neurologist or neurotologist, to have testing done.

If yours doesn't bother you too much, however, you are right to try lifestyle changes such as exercise, diet, etc., to see if that helps. I've found that exercise seems to help me; also, getting enough sleep and following a good diet.

Keep us posted on how you're doing. We're all in the same boat here!!

Best wishes,
Karen