68. Tinnitus and Migraines: The Hidden Link

Do you hear a constant high-pitched ringing in your ear? Wake up at 3 AM unable to fall back asleep because that sound won't stop? Been told there's nothing you can do and you'll just have to "learn to live with it"?

Dr. Leslie reveals the surprising connection between tinnitus and migraines, and why that ringing in your ears isn't necessarily permanent damage.

For some migraine sufferers, tinnitus only appears during a migraine, acting as an early warning symptom before the pain hits. For others, it's there all the time, blamed on concert exposure or loud work environments from years ago.

Here's what most doctors won't tell you:

If your tinnitus flares and remits, it's probably not anatomical damage. It's a sign that the cells in your inner ear don't have what they need to function properly.

Dr. Leslie breaks down her three principles: getting nutrients to cells, clearing metabolic waste, and restoring cellular voltage. When these cells don't have adequate nutrients, when trash is piling up inside them, and when their voltage is low, they can't pick up and transmit sound signals properly. That's when the ringing starts.

If you'd like to understand what's actually driving your tinnitus and whether it can heal, Dr. Leslie offers free consultations.

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Free Training: 5 Proven Steps to Being Migraine Free (Even if you think you've already tried everything.)

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Episode Transcript

hi everyone it's Doctor Leslie
welcome to the Healing Migraines Naturally podcast
and today
we're going to talk about tinnitus and migraines
is there a connection tinnitus
this is the medical term for ringing in the ears right
usually
people will hear the high pitched ringing in one ear
and usually it's the same side
and so
the most common type of tinnitus is this high pitched
ringing sound usually it's a continuous high pitched
kind of like a beep high pitched beep in the ear
sometimes it can be other sounds
other than this high pitched beep
so sometimes it can actually be like a clicking noise
like a click click click
click
click or like there's something in the environment
maybe it sounds like there's something
like books falling down or something in your house
or something like that
another type of tinnitus can be more of
like a heartbeat type sound
so this is where you could kind of hear the heartbeat
or the rushing of the blood through the vessels
and so it's more of a whoosh
whoosh type sound
more like a a heartbeat or a pulsing type sound
but for migraine sufferers or
or people who are prone to migraines
the sort of the classic
high pitched ringing in the ear sound
that's very very common
so sometimes people will have the ringing in the ear
the tinnitus all the time
it's sort of going on in the background all the time
and then some people
they will only hear the ringing in the ear
when they get a migraine so
sometimes it can be a symptom
that starts to generate
before the pain of the migraine comes on
so it can be almost like an early warning symptom
that starts to generate
or when the migraine sort of goes full blown
and people are in the throes of that really bad
pounding head pain the nausea
the overwhelming fatigue the light sensitivity
the noise sensitivity all
you know the whole show
they will hear that high pitched ringing in their ears
as well it's not too uncommon actually
so it's something that I work with quite frequently
with my clients and so
tinnitus is generally associated
or thought to be caused by damage from loud noises
so usually when I have a new client and she says
you know when we kind of go through all of her symptoms
when we're doing her initial assessment
if this ringing in the ears
if this tinnitus symptom comes up
many times my client will say something like well
you know
I did go to a lot of concerts when I was younger or
you know
I had this job where I was exposed to a lot of noise
and so most people
they're going to blame noise exposure for the tinnitus
okay because sort of just kind of out there
sort of like a pop diagnosis
it's like oh
your ears are ringing
that's because you have damage due to loud noises
and so certainly loud noises or exposure to loud noise
either over a long period of time
or it can be something like somebody was real close to
you know a an explosion or something like that
it can be a one time ordinarily loud blast of sound
certainly this can cause tinnitus because the tiny
inside our inner ear there's these tiny little hairs
so when the sound waves come into the ear
the sound wave vibrates those teeny
tiny little hairs and the vibration of the hair
sends the signal
into the auditory processing area of our brain
and we perceive that as the sound
so if there's a sudden extreme vibration wave of
of sound coming in it can damage those hairs
or if we have that prolonged exposure
time after time after time
of exposure to those sound waves
the sound waves can damage those hairs as well
and so for most people
a lot of people are aware of this
and so
they kind of attribute their ringing in their ears
to some sort of noise exposure
but a lot of times people are like
you know I don't really know what it could have been
yeah I went to some concerts and you know
it was the 80s and 90s right
nobody knew about this kind of thing right
can any Gen Xers out there want to raise their hands
right we didn't really think about that
when we were going to concerts
nobody really wore earplugs
or anything like that back then and
but
they really can't put their finger on what might have
happened or what might the exposure have been
but they attributed to that
so that's the sort of
continuous type of ringing that will occur
but then we have the migraine related ringing
and so this is where
the person doesn't really experience
any ringing in their ear
unless they're having a migraine
and so in that case
we can see that it's definitely a migraine symptom
it's not something having to do with going to a concert
in 1995 right
if it's kind of turning on and turning off
with a migraine it's a neurological symptom
that's part of your migraine
sort of constellation of symptoms that you experience
right so
migraines are a very complex
neurological set of symptoms
and while there are
common themes to the symptoms that are generated
each person has a slightly different migraine
that they experience
so everybody's migraine is a little bit different
even though there's sort of this umbrella
where there's some common features
that are under that umbrella
so for some women
that tinnitus or that ringing in the ear symptom
that's gonna be a specific migraine symptom
that they experience and it comes and goes right
more than likely
this is something that's happening within the auditory
processing area of the brain
and not really happening within their ear
even though that's what it feels like right
because if there was some anatomical damage
from excessive noise exposure
that would be happening all the time right
so with a migraine it's more than likely
that this is something that's happening
within the auditory processing area of the brain
very similar to a visual aura right
so when we have a visual aura
and we see the the scintillating
sort of geometric patterns within our vision
to us
it seems like there's something wrong with my retina
or there's something going on with my eyeball
but there isn't it's completely happening within
the visual cortex of the brain
so I suspect that the migraine
tinnitus phenomenon is actually happening within
the auditory processing area of the brain
and nothing is really going on within your ear
that's my hypothesis on that so with tinnitus
whether it's occurring all the time
or it's only occurring with the migraine
what I'm expecting is that the tinnitus will improve
as the health improves now a lot of people will say
well sure
if I'm not getting migraines
I won't have the migraine related tinnitus
but what do you mean that
that other kind of tinnitus that's there all the time
isn't that permanent I mean
if I have damaged to my ear
isn't it just damaged
and that's something that I'm gonna have to live with
for the rest of my life what is she talking about
so I have found this to not be the case
so even when people have the
continuous ringing in the ears
the chronic tinnitus
that's not connected to their migraines
it's just happening all the time time after time
I see this actually improve
and this is really good news
for people that are struggling with this symptom
because this is a really really annoying symptom
so what I have found in my work is that
as we restore the body to health
as we give the body what it needs
if we work on removing what I call the deficiencies
or the blockers or the missing pieces
within the 3 things that we need to do
to restore and maintain our health
that I've talked about on this podcast
when we give the body what it needs
the tinnitus improves many
many times so even so
let let let me break this down a little bit more
so let's take a look at the type of tinnitus
that is caused
by damage to the little hairs within the inner ear
so the body can repair itself okay
and this is something that we really lose sight of
our body is designed to heal and repair itself okay
this is what allows life to continue right
so we are no exception to that
so there are parts of the body
that will heal and repair themselves very quickly
and then there are parts of the body that
will heal and repair themselves very
very slowly but that healing and repair
the body is continuously trying to make that happen
within all of the cells of the body
all of the different organs
all of the different types of tissue within the body
the body is always trying to heal and repair itself
so like for example
our skin cells are continuously regenerating
and so if we cut our skin
well those cells are already like regenerating
even if there's no injury right
because we're continuously making new skin
and it's continuously sloughing off right
so this our skin cells
they will repair very rapidly
and this is great because if we cut ourselves right
we can repair that really quickly
our liver is an organ that is continuously
regenerating itself
you've probably heard of stories where people have been
like in a car accident and they had internal injuries
and they had to have 3/4 of their liver removed
because it was so damaged in the accident
and then their liver actually regrows itself
right in the abdomen right
well that's because the liver is continuously
repairing itself a little side fact
that a lot of people are not aware of
our liver is our main organ of detoxification
so our liver is processing toxin molecules
or waste materials
metabolic waste materials or toxin molecules
and those molecules damage things
that's why we want to get them processed
and out of our body so
the liver is making molecular changes
to those toxin molecules so that they can
be eliminated from the body
but those toxin molecules
they're so damaging
that they actually kill the cells of the liver
as the liver is trying to process these
that's how bad these are okay
they're literally killing our liver
these toxic molecules
so that's why our liver is designed to regenerate
so our liver is it's
the cells in our liver are not the same types of cells
that our skin is made out of
but the cells in the liver are similar to our skin
in that they're continuously dying
and continuously regenerating
so
our liver is actually dying and regrowing all the time
and so this is why
you can lose a large part of your liver to an injury
and be totally fine it's going to regrow
people will have severe liver diseases
and when we work on
what are the actual root causes here
and we work on giving the body what it needs
the liver can heal itself very
very quickly actually
so those are two examples of cells or
or organs within the body
that are regenerating themselves all the time
and so they have the potential to heal very rapidly
our digestive track can heal very quickly as well
so I've had many clients again
they're coming to me
because they're struggling with migraines
but you know low and behold
they also have colitis or Crohn's diagnosis
and these things can turn around very
very rapidly when we give the body what it needs
because again
the digestive tract is regenerating itself all the time
and so it can heal very quickly
relatively speaking so
then
we have other cells or organs within the body that are
that heal more slowly because they're not
continuously regenerating themselves
one example
sort of a famous example of that are our neurons right
like our nerve cells or our brain cells
so you know
for for many years
it was medical orthodoxy that your nerves
once cut or once damaged can never regenerate
a lot of things are healing
but not the nerves right
that was medical orthodoxy for years and years
and that is now now
it's medical orthodoxy
that even your nerves can regrow and repair
and people can recover the use of say
a hand or a leg or other function
because those neurons
those nerves will actually repair and regrow however
they do it more slowly OK
you have to really focus
you gotta get it really dialed in OK
do we have what the body needs to support
the regeneration
and the regrowth and the repair of these neurons
these nerve cells and then we have to wait okay
because those will repair themselves more slowly
so the cilia in your inner ear
the little hairs in your inner ear
they are going to repair
but they are a type of cell that's going to take longer
to repair okay
so what I have found is that when people have
that chronic tinnitus that chronic ringing in the ears
I'm usually expecting that it will take several months
but we should see an improvement in that
because those little cilia
those little hair cells in the ear
they can repair
if they have been damaged by sound waves okay
so in those cases where people say yeah
you know I used to work in a factory or you know
I used to be in a rock band
and I know that I was really exposed to a lot of noise
we can assume that there was some damage but again
if we get things dialed in
and we give the body what it needs
it can repair the more damage that has been done
the longer and longer we would have to wait for
you know full repair but with something like tinnitus
if we can get a 50% reduction
that can be really life changing for people
because this is such an annoying symptom
so even in those cases
where we suspect that there's been
actual anatomical damage I still expect that we can get
some level of improvement
we may not be able to get it to fully remit
but we can get some improvement
in that type of tinnitus now
more common than actual damage related tinnitus
is tinnitus that's being generated
because the cells within the inner ear
don't have exactly what they need to function properly
and now we're gonna go back to what I
call the three principles right
so the three things that we have to do
to restore our health and maintain our health
basically the three things that every cell in the body
needs to function properly
are what I call the three principles
so the first principle is
that
our cells have to have the nutrients that they need
to function optimally
that's the first principle
getting the nutrients to
the second principle is clearing metabolic waste
material and toxins that the cells themselves generate
we have to get that material out of the cell
and out of the body so
when the cells
get the nutrients that they need to do their work
they generate metabolic waste material byproducts
you could call them toxins
most people call them toxins
I like to call them metabolic waste material
those
that waste material has to be removed from the cell
and remove from the body OK
the cell is not gonna function optimally
if there's a whole bunch of trash laying all over OK
so the second principle is
facilitating the removal
of that waste material from the cell
and out of the body the third principle is
restoring our resilience and vitality
at the cellular level
this corresponds to the literal cellular voltage
so they have actually measured
the literal cellular voltage
within the cell
and they have documented that the voltage changes
within the cell depending on
you might say like the state of the health of the cell
okay so when a cell is functioning optimally
there's that optimal voltage literal
like electricity within the cell
and then as the function
or the health of the cell declines
they can measure
the difference in the intracellular voltage
so if we're looking at the voltage of sort of like
a healthy cell
versus like your worst case scenario cell
which is a cancer cell
there's a marked decline in voltage
along that spectrum right
cause you don't just go from like
healthy cell one day to cancer cell right
there's there's a decline in the health of the cell
and there's
they have measured a decline in the voltage
of the cell as well
so when we think of the little cells okay
so we've got the little hair
the little cilia
and that little hair is kind of sticking in
to a little cell that picks up the vibration okay
so first of all
that little hair has to be made properly okay
just like the hair on our head right
there are certain nutrients that are required
to make those cilia optimally
let's use the example of our of the hair on our head
if the hair follicle
doesn't have all of the nutrients that it needs
to make a nice thick strand of hair right
that's got pigment in it
and it's thick and it's strong right
that hair that we dream of
if the hair follicle
doesn't have exactly what it needs to make that
perfect little piece of hair
a little strand of hair it's not like the follicle says
well I'm gonna make
I'm gonna do the best I can with what I've got right
and so it'll make a hair well
kind of brittle it's not that thick
and doesn't have a lot of pigment in it
so it's kind of gray it's kind of drab right
it's not like the cells in our body
if they don't have exactly what they need
if the conditions aren't exactly perfect
they just you know
die or they don't do anything
they do the best with what they can
so we want to have what we need
to make those little cilia in our inner ear
top notch right
and if we don't have what we need
well we're gonna make them
but eh maybe they're not that great OK
and then
they're sitting in their little cell that receives
you know
the vibration that's being transmitted with the nerves
there's a whole bunch of cells that are involved
to transmit that signal to our brain
so if those cells
don't have what they need to function optimally
if there's a whole bunch of trash laying all over
inside of those cells
and we don't have adequate voltage
or the voltage is a little bit low within those cells
then the signal is not going to be picked up
the signal is not gonna be transmitted optimally
and I believe that this is a
major driver of most people's tinnitus okay
so if you have the type of tinnitus that comes and goes
right some days
I don't really notice ringing in my ears at all
other days oh my goodness right
this is just driving me crazy
I can't get away from this right
if you have the type of tinnitus
that flares and remits that comes and goes
then I believe that this is actually
more of what's going on within your ear
and within the auditory processing area of your brain
than actual damage to your ear
and this again is really
really good news because most people with tinnitus
they don't have a continuous 24 7 same volume
same pitch type tinnitus most people who have tinnitus
have the flaring and remitting type of tinnitus
so what does that tell us
if there was anatomical damage within the ear
it would be more likely that I would have that
continuous 24 7
same volume same pitch tinnitus all the time
but if there's some deficiencies
if there's some missing pieces
if sometimes all of these cells involved in
in my inner ear have what they need
and we've gotten the trash out and the voltage is good
yeah things are gonna work a lot better but if oh
by three PM if I'm kind of low on nutrients
and the trash is piled up and the voltage is low well
then things aren't gonna function as optimally
and then oh
what do you know by mid afternoon
oh this tinnitus
oh my goodness
it's really ramped up so like I say
if I have a client and this is
you know if there is this symptom
I will always ask is it worse at a certain time of day
is it better at a certain time of day
does it flare and remit does it get better sometimes
does it get worse sometimes
if the answer is yes then
the likelihood that the tinnitus will completely heal
and go away when we give the body what it needs
is much much more likely
so this is really
really good news because most people with tinnitus
when they've gone in the doctor and talked about their
their doctor tells them well
there's nothing we can do about this
you're just gonna have to learn to live with it
and then people are told to
you know use a noise machine at night
right'cause it's it's really irritating
when you're trying to fall asleep
and you have that ringing in your ear right
so people are told to use a noise machine while
you know at night when they're trying to go to sleep
to try to mask it or put a fan on
you know
create a little ambient noise to try to drown it out
well what if you go on a trip
and you don't have your noise machine right
it's like these all of these little
little hacks
and little tips are great if you can maintain like
that perfect environment right
but maybe you wanna travel maybe
you know
maybe the power's out and you can't plug this in
you can't plug the noise machine in right
we wanna be able to feel good
when we're in a variety of environments
and we don't wanna feel like we're dependent
on these other things so
I hope this gives you a little bit more insight
into this common symptom of tinnitus
let me know in the comments
if this is something that you struggle with
this is actually something
that I used to struggle with quite a bit
so before I became a naturopathic doctor
I actually worked in training and development
I had kind of like a corporate job
so we used to wear headsets a lot
you know if you're on a phone
you know phone call and you wear a headset and I
I always point to my right ear
whenever I talk about tinnitus
because I would always
put that headset on my right ear okay
and I did develop tinnitus because I had that exposure
right this is a situation where I do think it was that
continuous
noise exposure from the headset on my right ear
that generated some anatomical damage
and I developed tinnitus in my right ear
so I know first hand how annoying it is I remember
you know laying
you know trying to fall asleep
and you got
this ringing in your ears'cause a lot of times
you won't notice it that much during the day
because there is that ambient noise around
but then you're trying to go to sleep
and it can be really annoying
and so
this is something that I don't struggle with anymore
if I do wear a headset you know
maybe I'm listening to a podcast with headphones
or something if I listen for too long
it will come back a little bit
so it is something that I have to be careful with
to not overexpose my right ear to too much sound
because then it will get you know
it'll get a little damaged
it's a little sensitive
but then when I remove that noise exposure
it will remit now pretty quickly if it should flare up
but I have been to concerts
different kinds of things
and I really don't struggle with it very much anymore
at all so like I say
this is something that should give you a lot of hope
if it's something that you experience too
and again if it's something that flares and remits
if it's the type of tinnitus that gets
it gets worse and then it gets better
and then it gets worse again
that's how mine was it would vary
it wasn't continuous 24 7
same pitch same volume level
it would flare and remit
and it's something that I was able to repair
and recover from so if that's you
then let's get to work okay
because
it's really nice not to have that annoying ringing
in your ears so very good
I hope this was helpful we'll see you on the next one
talk to you guys soon