Can GERD Cause Tinnitus

Ringing is a good thing when it’s your doorbell doing it and the DoorDash guy is outside. It’s not a good thing when it’s happening in your ears and for seemingly no reason. If that ringing in your ears continues without stopping then it may be that you have tinnitus, and some people who have this type of permanent hearing damage are truly tormented by it. The usual cause for a person having tinnitus is repeated exposure to loud noise without ear protection, and it might not make sense to think that anything gastrointestinal would be contributing to it. But perhaps it can, and this leads to can GERD cause tinnitus? 

Gastroesophageal reflux disease is when a person experiences pain and burning in their upper thorax because of stomach acid moving up into the esophagus. And it turns out there is a connection it and the possibility of having ringing in your eyes, but not with having tinnitus. That’s an important distinction, because tinnitus is when you have ongoing ringing in the ears. Some people may be confusing that with having ringing in their ears after a night out at a loud rock concert. Do that enough times and you likely will have the permanent ringing of tinnitus, but if it’s only occasional then it doesn’t quality as that.  

It turns out there is a legit connection there with can GERD cause tinnitus though, and it has everything do with the two eustachian tubes you have on either side of the back of your neck. Their purpose is to drain fluid from the middle ear and they are very sensitive tubes, which means they can be easily irritated. Sometimes the digestive acid that escapes the stomach into the esophagus makes it way quite far up the passage, and if that acid is in the throat then it can irritate the tubes, and cause either ear pain or ringing in the ear.  

Burn & Ring 

There are other types of questions that folks might be asking around this subject, like can GERD cause hemorrhoids or can GERD cause pancreatitis. GERD isn’t going to cause you to have hemorrhoids, and there is no strongly established link between GERD and pancreatitis. Although both are more likely to be a problem for people struggling with obesity or those who consume alcohol excessively. Different subjects for different blog entries maybe, but we’re going to get back on track with can GERD cause tinnitus here. We have explained how it’s possible, and now let’s go over the actual workings of it.  

There is an area of the middle ear called the round window membrane, and in order for it to function properly it shouldn’t be compromised in any way. If stomach acid makes its way up into the throat it may be able to get into the middle ear via the eustachian tubes and if it does then the membrane often becomes more permeable. This can lead to tinnitus, although it’s very rare that gastroesophageal reflux disease is the cause of it. Can GERD cause tinnitus? It can, but it’s typically only seen with people who have especially bad acid reflux.