For some reason gorush sent me a Freepmail re this old thread on the ringing in the ears. That was timely as I have some ringing in my ears this morning.
A little update on the ringing. The pharmacy company that provides our Rxes made a generic substitution for my Vasotec about a year ago.
The ringing in my ears came back with a roar in the evening and for a couple of hours in the morning. I bought one of the personal electronic bp monitoring units, and my BP was high during these ringing spells. My wife, an office RN, bought her gear home to check me, and she confirmed that my BP was up for a few hours in the morning before and after the morning generic Vasotec and the same with the 6-6:30 pm generic.
My doctor wrote a Do Not Substitute rx, and I had a go around with one of the pharmacists and got the real Vasotec. After a week or so on the real stuff, the ringing went back to minimal ringing a little before and after I took the Vasotec. Then it would go away for the rest of the day.
Merck changed the look of the Vasotec Tablets and maybe the fillers. The ringing has basically gone away except when I wait more than 12 hours between doses with the new tablets.
Last night we met friends for dinner at 5:30 pm. I took my Vasotec at 5 pm, normal dosing is between 6 and 6:30 pm. This morning I got up at 5:30 am, and by 6 am the ringing had started. I took my morning dose of Vasotec at 6:30 am, and the ring is going away 15 minutes later.
So medication for HBP and... even as a precurser to getting a cold or virus caused illness... WOW! I was told all kinds of stuff like it is caused by consuming to much Aspertame sweetner like what is found in the gallons of Diet Pepsi I used to drink like a fiend. Now it's in the gallons of Lipton Diet Green Tea that I drink.
I have to admit that when I switched to CountryTime Lemonade for a summer in '04, it seemed to lessen just a little, but the acid in that stuff started to wreck the enamel on my teeth, so now I'm on the bottled green tea. I can't stand to drink just plain tasteless water for some stupid reason.
I've often thought the condition was completely psychosomatic as it is NOT a "noise" as no one else can ever hear it... just you! So it's truly "all in your head!" However, I'm really drawn to your HBP/chemical causes and even the colds and virus causes as the most logical and likely. Thanks for sharing with me and thanks to gorush, too!!!