Worrying... Is Taking Acetaminophen During Cold Making Tinnitus Worse?

A few days ago I posted my introduction to these forums I'm putting below, but nobody exactly replied to it unfortunately. Anyways, now I'm starting to get really worried. I didn't exactly know about Ototoxicity of medicines until today, and I see that Acetaminophen is on the list of ototoxic drugs. The REASON I'd been looking for that in the first place was because I noticed my tinnitus go up while I'm sick. Now I don't know whether or not this change is caused by me taking the Aleve. Even worse, I'm wondering if this change (and an introduction of a new sound, at that) is PERMANENT. If anything, that's what I'm worried about. It's also loud enough that I was a little phazed by it when talking to my sister today. I seriously am worried. I also took Noproxen one night. Does anyone know the answers? Look, even if you tell me it's permanent at least that's an answer. I really don't like all this uncertainty surrounding tinnitus. I just want to know if I should prepare myself now to be used to this level of tinnitus or not.

 

The only thing I can say based on my experience is: stay away from any medication that is listed as ototoxic. I got quite some hearing loss in my right ear due to ototoxic meds.

 

You always have to balance taking meds vs risks of side effects. If you're going to take acetaminophen, then you may want to think about taking NAC along to give your hair cells more resistance to potential damage. They give NAC when you have acetaminophen overdose, if I recall correctly.

 

There's no definite answer to the questions you're asking, so in that regard, accept it as permanent and move on. You're better off doing your best to adjust to this new level of tinnitus than driving yourself insane monitoring your tinnitus if it's getting quieter or not. Remember from here on out that no pain reliever is 100% safe.

Hope you feel better

 

If you are having a cold then that is probably the reason your T is worse. I know acetaminophen is listet as ototoxic but I assume that you didn't take a huge dose for several weeks. I've had colds where my T spiked without taking anything, and I've had colds where I've taken acetaminophen without worsening. I think a lot of people blame medication that they take during colds and forget that colds can affect the eustachian tube and ears as well.

 

Or so I've seen recently.

Yes, I heard ototoxicity becomes a problem in larger doses over longer periods of time too. I stopped taking it after last night's dose, and I know I shouldn't expect the T to settle down for another 2 or 3 days. I'll hope for the best and come back to this thread in a few days I think.

 

Permenent or not. You can still make sure of that your brain filters your noises.
I'm not to keen on my T myself, but letting stress go is a big deal.
A cold is a cold with the same effects on everything, meaning the T will only get
worse during the times you have the cold. Otherwise it won't.

You are stress, and worried, let that go. It won't help, do something fun, and then
go back from time to time and see how it is doing.

Hope i helped.

 

Well, since this post has gone up I stopped taking the Acetominophen. It did go down, but has also gone up elsewhere and down again. My guess is that this is my current range of volume spikes and drops, and that's fine. Most importantly is that I'm doing fine.

 

Most people with tinnitus experience significant spikes when they have a cold because of changes in the eustachian tubes. It's completely normal and can linger for a couple weeks ever after you recover from most of your cold symptoms. That's been my experience anyway. I get sick, my ears get muffled up and my tinnitus spikes like crazy and then it eases up over a couple of weeks. Been through it a dozen times now.

Don't worry about acetaminophen (paracetamol for my fellow aussies) ototoxicity. I know there was one study done on it, but I don't know how much further investigation was done into it. The topic of ototoxic medications is tricky because you can almost look up ANY medication and ototoxicity on google and something will pop up linking the two. It's very easy to get scared and avoid almost everything, I did for about 2 years. Use the acetaminophen responsibly (no more than 2000mg per day) and you should be fine. I've used it A LOT over the last 3 years and have never had any problems, no spikes or hearing loss to be reported.

On the other hand, the Noproxen you took could cause temporary spikes seeing as it's a NSAID. NSAIDs like Ibuprophen, Asprin, etc have a lot more evidence behind them as being ototoxic, the good news is that it's almost always temporary. So you'll probably be fine using that also, just try to limit your use and if you do experience a spike it'll be temporary. This has also been my personal experience.

TL;DR: you'll be fine. spikes are common when you're sick. acetaminophen/paracetamol is fine if you use it as prescribed. NSAIDS like Noproxen might cause temporary spikes but don't worry too much about it.

Good luck!

 

I doubt that paracetamol is truly ototoxic. Like many common things, somebody takes a tablet, their tinnitus coincidentally worsens and the two are then eternally linked, but are casual and not causal. Much more likely in this case is that the cold which has worsened the tinnitus.

If you look at the list of side effects of most medications, then just about anything will have been reported as a side effect at some time. Those which are said to occur commonly almost always ARE side effects of the drug, those said to be rare/very rare may well not be.

I can and do take ibuprofen regularly without any effect at all on my tinnitus, but some folk, undoubtedly, do have spikes with it. We are very much individuals in our response to environmental factors, but avoiding all substances which have ever had ototoxicity reported as a side effect means that a lot of very useful and potentially curative drugs etc will be shunned.

Personally I try to adopt the position that I don't anticipate worsening of tinnitus from prescribed or over-the-counter medicines, and, mercifully, that generally is the case.

P.S. When anyone hears of something which cures tinnitus...please let me know (fully habituated, but would rather have silence for a constant companion)

Fungus