ASK DR ZOE
I can hear my heart beating in my ear for days at a time – what does it mean?
The noise tends to be caused by a change in blood flow in vessels near your ear, base of your skull and in the neck
EXPERT advice from Dr Zoe Williams, our resident specialist and NHS GP
This week Dr Zoe Williams helps a reader who has a sound like a heartbeat in their ear.
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Q) I AM a male who has a sound like a heartbeat in my right ear.
Sometimes it’s there for one or two days at a time then stops for about a day before it comes back.
A) You’re describing pulsatile tinnitus, a symptom where people hear a noise which pulses in time with their heartbeat.
You can identify whether it’s pulsatile tinnitus by feeling your pulse at the same time as observing the tinnitus when it occurs.
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The noise tends to be caused by a change in blood flow in vessels near your ear, base of your skull and in the neck.
Blood flows either faster or slower than it should, although blood flowing more quickly is generally noisier to the sufferer.
It’ll be hard for you to decipher which you have.
It doesn’t sound like you’ve made an appointment at your GP yet.
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If not, you should and maybe take this note with you.
Pulsatile tinnitus is rare and accounts for only a small proportion of people who have tinnitus.
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While other types of tinnitus can be hard to find a cause for, finding what’s causing pulsatile tinnitus is more likely.
It can occur in pregnancy, during strenuous exercise, with anaemia and with an overactive thyroid gland.
It can be caused by the narrowing of the arteries in your neck, called carotid stenosis, which is important to treat, so do make a GP appointment.
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