Too much Tylenol, ibuprofen may increase risk of tinnitus for women, researchers find
Before taking that Tylenol or aspirin, experts say you may want to think twice as a new study finds over-the-counter painkillers could increase the risk of developing tinnitus in women.
Tinnitus — the condition of ringing in the ears, often associated with hearing loss — is one of the most common chronic health conditions in the U.S., Dr. Sharon Curhan, director of The Conservation of Hearing Study, told McClatchy News.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about 10% of the U.S. population has dealt with tinnitus for “at least five minutes in the past year.”
But even though it’s a common condition, experts don’t always know how, or why, people develop tinnitus.
In extreme cases, the mental and social impacts of tinnitus have become deadly for people, including Texas Roadhouse CEO Kent Taylor, who died by suicide following his post COVID-19 tinnitus symptoms.
The potential problem with painkillers
The study, published February in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, found that moderate to frequent use of over-the-counter analgesics — including aspirin, Tylenol and nonsalicylate non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) like ibuprofen — are linked to higher risk of tinnitus in women.
“Over-the-counter analgesics clearly have benefits with short-term use,” according to Curhan, lead author of the study. “However, frequent use of these medications and use over long periods of time may increase your risk of tinnitus and may cause other adverse health effects.”
The study included 69,455 women ages 31 to 48 years old, none of whom had tinnitus when the study began. Then, from 1995 to 2017, researchers examined if there was an association between tinnitus and use of aspirin, NSAIDs and acetaminophen.
The answer? Possibly, if you take too much.
The researchers looked at differences between participants who took low doses versus moderate doses of over-the-counter pain medication. For women who took NSAIDs or Tylenol in moderate doses 6-7 days per week, the risk of developing tinnitus increased by almost 20%.
Frequent use of moderate dose aspirin was associated with 16% higher risk of developing tinnitus — but frequent use of low dose aspirin did not increase the risk. A low-dose of aspirin was considered 100 mg or less, for example, and a moderate dose of aspirin was considered 325 mg or more. A person’s painkiller use was considered “high frequency” if they took it five to seven days per week, depending on which drug was taken.
By the end of the study, 10,452 women reported cases of tinnitus.
“Frequent NSAID use and frequent acetaminophen use were associated with higher risk of incident persistent tinnitus among all women, and the magnitude of the risks tended to be greater with increasing frequency of use,” the study concluded. “Our results suggest analgesic users are at higher risk for developing tinnitus and may provide insight into the precipitants of this challenging disorder, but additional investigation to determine whether there is a causal association is needed.”
The study’s authors noted the research has some limitations, however. Both tinnitus symptoms and painkiller use were self-reported, the study notes, and more research on non-white women and men is needed.
According to Curhan, shedding light on scarcely-studied factors in tinnitus is critical to treat the problem.
“Among most individuals with tinnitus, the cause of their tinnitus is not known and the effectiveness of treatments is limited,” Curhan said. “There is a critical need to identify risk factors for tinnitus, unravel the heterogeneous causes that underlie what triggers tinnitus to occur and persist, and to identify targets for treatments. “
People experiencing tinnitus can visit the American Tinnitus Association online for resources on the condition.
This story was originally published February 10, 2022 at 10:57 AM with the headline "Too much Tylenol, ibuprofen may increase risk of tinnitus for women, researchers find."
