What’s wrong with tinnitus during aerobic exercise

The vast majority of tinnitus that occurs during or after aerobic exercise is a transient physiological reaction of the body. Only a few cases that persist without relief and are accompanied by pain and dizziness need to be alerted to pathological signals.

Last week I was training with a running group for the 15 kilometers before the half marathon. When I was running up the last steep slope, I also had a buzzing for a few seconds. It felt like a little cicada was flapping its wings in my ears. I slowed down and strolled for 200 meters and it completely disappeared. The reaction was more obvious among the novice boys in the same team. After crossing the line, I squatted on the side of the road and covered my ears for almost five minutes. I felt that half of my head was buzzing. I drank two mouthfuls of warm salt water to calm it down. I turned around and could eat supplies with everyone else.

The current mainstream explanation for this kind of exercise-related transient tinnitus is that the heart rate soars during strenuous aerobic exercise, and blood throughout the body is preferentially supplied to the core muscles and limbs. The blood supply vessels of the inner ear itself are extremely thin, and it is easy for short-term blood supply fluctuations to occur. In addition, the pulsating sound of accelerated blood flow is sensed by the inner ear, forming a buzzing sound that we can hear. Some researchers in the field of sports otolaryngology have suggested that most people's tinnitus during exercise is actually more related to improper breathing methods. For example, opening the mouth for a long time to gasp for air, or unconsciously holding your breath when exerting force will disrupt the pressure balance of the Eustachian tube. If the pressure difference between the inside and outside of the middle ear is large, there will be a feeling of fullness and tinnitus similar to that when taking off and landing on an airplane. Both explanations are currently supported by clinical data, and there is no absolute right or wrong.

Of course, not all tinnitus after exercise can be ignored. A friend I met on the cycling team had Ménière's disease. His otitis media had just turned around and he had to go to participate in the 100-kilometer hill climb race. After coming down, the tinnitus was still spinning for almost three hours. He went to the hospital for a check-up and it was caused by inner ear edema. He took half a month of rest before he dared to ride a bike again.

If you suddenly develop tinnitus during exercise, don’t panic and push for PB first. Slow down and adjust your breathing. Hold your nose and gently blow out twice to adjust the Eustachian tube pressure. It will usually be relieved in a few minutes. If tinnitus always occurs every time you do aerobics, or if the tinnitus persists for most of the day and is accompanied by ear pain, hearing loss, and dizziness, don’t delay. Just go to the otolaryngology department to check the basic problem in time. There is no need to be frightened and dare not exercise anymore just because it happens once in a while. After all, most of the time it is just your body reminding you, "You just moved too hard, take a few steps and rest."