Welcome to Phoenix Rising!
Created in 2008, Phoenix Rising is the largest and oldest forum dedicated to furthering the understanding of, and finding treatments for, complex chronic illnesses such as chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), fibromyalgia, long COVID, postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS), mast cell activation syndrome (MCAS), and allied diseases.
To become a member, simply click the Register button at the top right.
Hi jwat, yes I used to get this phenomenon but called it tinnitus, strangely, one of the warning signs I got of impending crash was a kind of clicking sound in my ears together with aching in my thigh muscles. I learned to respond to this by immediately stopping what I was doing and resting.I get a high pitch frequency sound mainly in one ear, it sounds different from tinnitus and not as bad. It's hard to tell what causes it because it comes on randomly, sometimes from food and sometimes from methylfolate.
Hi Mohawk, that is an excellent classification. for me it was type 3 and very irritating.I am not an ENT or Audiologist, but I have had many patients who complain of ringing in the ears or hearing odd sounds as 62milestojoe mentioned. I usually take it into account and look at symptom behavior. Constant or Intermittent? Causal factors (loud noises, upon change of position, etc...) and Associated Factors (does it occur immediately before or after some other symptoms).
It is always something I have taken note of and considered in relationship to every other finding. It also sparks my alertness to unusual or potentially hidden causes and leads me to ask questions about fatigue, sleep, brain fog, heavy use of stimulants (lots of caffeine), gut problems, activity level and tolerance and/or unusual pain complaints.
- If it is constant, I would refer the patient back to PCP or ENT for further work up.
- If it is intermittent and associated with Causal or Associated Factors I would track it just like any other symptom associated with those factors (providing all other test results are negative).
- If it is intermittent with no particular Causal or Associated Factors I tend to think it is a form of a neuro-physiological feedback loop. Could be neural outflow associated with some other Nerve inflammation/ immune response ie ME, Migraine, Fibromyalgia or some other undetermined underlying issue such as High BP, Cardiac, pulmonary or disease state. This I would consider as a centrally up-regulated response.
Not that this answers your questions, but may give you a different perspective.