Thumping/drumming in one ear

Posted by kerryf88 @kerryf88, Mar 15, 2019

It started about a week ago, I was walking my dog and suddenly I hear this rapid drumming sound in my right ear, twice, it doesn’t match my heartbeat at all, the second time it happened I covered my right ear with a finger and it’s gone. And since then I’ve been having occasional rapid thumps (3-4 thumps) in the right ear, maybe once or twice a day or sometimes none in a day, no common trigger, just happens randomly during the day. I don’t know why? When the thumping happens it feels like that ear is partially blocked like under water.

I’m currently experiencing slight dizziness due to bad postures from a few weeks ago, which leads to sore neck and shoulder, not sure if this could be related?

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@joylynn22

Hello @tamshe3 and others
Thank you for sharing. How much magnesium do you take? Does it help? I have the drumming thumping in my right ear as you described. Once it starts it goes on almost all night. I'm really scared and it's making me anxious and crazy!!

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Hello,
Sorry to hear you are going through this too! I was taking 250 mg of magnesium citrate and it got better for a couple of days but I went off of it for a day because it upset my stomach and now my thumping has been back for a couple of days making me crazy and anxious too. I am planning on taking a different type of magnesium which is easier on the stomach. Mine is during the day and doesn’t do it much at night. Four years ago I had this and it would be at night only and I was unable to sleep. One night I layed down on my hand with my palm facing up and applied a lot of pressure and the thumping slowly died down after some time so you might want to try that at night. Not too much longer after that it did go away completely for a few years and now is back. I’m hoping yours and mine and everyone else’s will just go away in it’s own. My doctor did say anxiety and lack of sleep can cause it but it’s so hard when the thumping is causing the anxiety and lack of sleep! Best wishes!

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@tamshe3

Hello, sorry to hear about your ear. I am having similar issues. Mine is random thumping throughout the day. Some days are worse than others. Sometimes it’s a lot of thumping which makes me anxious. My ear doctor also said it was spasms of the ear muscles kind of like an eye twitch in the ear. He recommended magnesium. I started to take it and it did help for a couple of days and I didn’t take it last night and today the thumping is back. If it makes you feel better my doctor said it is usually just goes away on its own over time. I also had this 4 years ago and it would thump all night and I couldn’t sleep and it made me so anxious. One night I layed down and slept with my hand on my bad ear and applied a lot of pressure and the thumping stopped! Shortly after that they went away and didn’t return until now. I’m hoping it goes away on its own soon but the magnesium does seem to help a bit. Please let me know if you find anything else that works.

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Also, has anyone tried acupuncture? I was going to look into doing this at some point if this does not go away soon. I was just wondering if anyone has or has not had success with it. If I try it I will let everyone know.

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@cmack14

Hello Gary, I am also experiencing this thumping sensation in my right ear but it went away for a couple of days but has now come back. Did you change anything significantly about your diet from when the thumping started/stopped?

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Cmack14--At the time I was scared and depressed so I was eating less. I also cut down on my morning cups of coffee and forced myself to drink more water. The main thing I think helped me was I forced myself to stay active. Also--I can't stress enough to protect your thumping ear from loud noise.

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@tamshe3

Also, has anyone tried acupuncture? I was going to look into doing this at some point if this does not go away soon. I was just wondering if anyone has or has not had success with it. If I try it I will let everyone know.

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Hello @tamshe3 , Thank you for sharing that info. I will try magnesium and pressure on the ear. I'm sure hoping something helps. You're so right, that the thumping is causing anxiety. I'm so upset over this! If I may ask, how long did it last before it stopped when you got it 4 years ago? Now, how do you cope with it during the day? Mine is still mostly evenings and all night. Best wishes too!

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@joylynn22

Hello @tamshe3 , Thank you for sharing that info. I will try magnesium and pressure on the ear. I'm sure hoping something helps. You're so right, that the thumping is causing anxiety. I'm so upset over this! If I may ask, how long did it last before it stopped when you got it 4 years ago? Now, how do you cope with it during the day? Mine is still mostly evenings and all night. Best wishes too!

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Hello, So I can’t exactly remember how long it lasted 4 years ago. I’m thinking the whole thing was maybe a month or less. I do remember it happened around the exact same time and month now which I find weird. Besides stress I also think maybe weather (pressure) changes might be a cause of it too but that’s just my theory. I do not cope well with it. My anxiety has been through the roof with it. However I’ve been getting better at coping and mine will seem to be good for a couple of days where it hardly thumps and some days bad where it will do it all day. I do believe the magnesium helps though. I started it up again and the thumping has gotten a lot less. Also I know it’s extremely hard to relax while your ear is thumping but I’ve been doing everything I can to help my nervous system relax when it’s not. I wake up and listen to calming music, I use the calm app on my phone (which is great by the way) to guide me through meditations and relaxing my body, I take a walk. Try to do whatever you can to relax during the day when your ear isn’t active. I didn’t even realize how tense my jaw and face muscles were until I started doing these exercises! Do it even if you feel anxious while doing it. Over time it will calm your nervous system. Once again, I’m no doctor but this seems to be working for me. If mine starts to come back or get worse again I’m going to look into acupuncture. Ive heard some people had luck with that too. I hope this helps a little. I know how maddening and stressful it can be. My ear doctor who has dealt with this before says it is self limiting and the majority of times just goes away. Hang in there!

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I have been experiencing thumping/drum beat as I call it in my left ear...not sure when it started, maybe 6 months ago. It comes and goes, doesn't happen every day. I have had headaches and neck aches and am under stress as well. My ENT doctor checked both ears and said that everything seems normal. It usually only lasts for an hour or so, but tonight it has been going on for hours, even keeping me awake. I tried googling this, but didn't find any answers that made sense...however, I have read some comments regarding magnesium...does this help?

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@char57

I have been experiencing thumping/drum beat as I call it in my left ear...not sure when it started, maybe 6 months ago. It comes and goes, doesn't happen every day. I have had headaches and neck aches and am under stress as well. My ENT doctor checked both ears and said that everything seems normal. It usually only lasts for an hour or so, but tonight it has been going on for hours, even keeping me awake. I tried googling this, but didn't find any answers that made sense...however, I have read some comments regarding magnesium...does this help?

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Have been having this problem for years! Have not found help for it. Please let me know if you tried magnesium and if it helped. Mine comes and goes, seems to be on for a week and off for a week.
Appreciate any thoughts.

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@char57

I have been experiencing thumping/drum beat as I call it in my left ear...not sure when it started, maybe 6 months ago. It comes and goes, doesn't happen every day. I have had headaches and neck aches and am under stress as well. My ENT doctor checked both ears and said that everything seems normal. It usually only lasts for an hour or so, but tonight it has been going on for hours, even keeping me awake. I tried googling this, but didn't find any answers that made sense...however, I have read some comments regarding magnesium...does this help?

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B12 cured my ear thumping

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Hello everyone I suffer from this ear pulsing in both ears for almost id say since 2018. Woke up one morning with ear plugs in and my left ear was thumping very similar to a muscle spasm if I had to describe it, doesn’t match my heartbeat I’ve self diagnosed myself in many ways possible,from going vegan seeing if it’s blood pressure related and it still continued, I added magnesium in my diet for months and still no improvement. I don’t drink alcohol nor do i smoke. I am under lots of stress generally from the ear,It originally started in my left ear and my left ear only and now I experience it in both ears,sometimes they go off at the same time, sometimes it’s just one ear, I noticed what triggers it on demand is when I burp or yawn other then that it will spasm out the blue. I’ve done MRIs and found nothing. I went to Stanford University only to get looked at funny by a doctor telling me it’s just all in my head and I’m fine haha Dr Sherago is the man, real wonderful guy …NOT… avoid !
I then gave up with Stanford and made my way to UCSF who also didn’t really give me many options besides wanting to do surgery and I declined only cause I’ve done my research and there’s other options out there available like Botox but the doctor completely was against it which I found pretty funny cause there’s forums out there saying Botox is the best way to start prior before surgery to see if it actually targets the muscle, from there if the Botox works it’s possible surgery could work as well, keep in mind no one at the end of the day wants to do surgery so I’m not really up for it unless I had a clear diagnosis stating I’ll be okay or for say the surgery could go 80% well then that’s something I may consider as of right now most of these so called doctors with degrees just want to crack my ear open and make me worse then what I am now. I then realized that UCSF gets terrible reviews and falls I think maybe the 13th best clinic in the United States in other words your not in good hands,
That’s why I’m on the Mayo Clinic’s page cause they have a pretty decent reputation and fancy equipment other clinics don’t have. Keep in mind I’m in Northern California so I’m not 100% sure if I can just visit the Mayo Clinic,it may be my last option if I have to do surgery. As of now ! I’m seeing a doctor in Beverly Hills who actually encouraged me to not do surgery basically gave me the crazy look and we will be doing Botox soon ! If that fails he recommends these hearing aids but nonetheless he’s not up for surgery doesn’t even mention it to me nor does he feel comfortable of doing it. So far I’m diagnosed with this crazy ear pulsating that I think he may have diagnosed it as tittnitus and as well as hypercusis cause I have ear sensitivity in the left ear which is the worse ear , I can’t tolerate dishes or the dog door slamming back and fourth. If I’m in a room quiet and a plate drops for example it really makes me ear uncomfortable, no it doesn’t it set the pulsating off, it just feels sensitive. I notice sometimes when I put pressure in my ears it will stop but not right away how ever it does make it a little bit more comfortable when I do put pressure on it but then there’s the fear of me damaging my ear even more cause I’m almost convinced that it was the ear plugs that damaged my ears ! Why ? Cause when ever I use one or for say mimic a ear plug it somewhat stops. I bin suffering with this condition for years ! I’m 30 years old and I feel like a vegetable I can’t take on any big tasks I barley have enough energy to get work done during the day, it’s messed up my social life and everything else ! I’m not to sure how much I can take and I could just only imagine if I had to deal with it 24/7 I don’t think I would be writing this message right now. Sad to say but it’s the honest truth, this impacted my life to the max ! Almost to the point there’s no sense of living anymore since I can’t be normal… anyways I don’t encourage suicide to anyone, anyone out there just no your not alone

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