Most of us know that tinnitus is a highly irritable ringing in your ears. However, one variant is pulsatile tinnitus. This is the term for noises that you hear that appear at the same time your heart beats. If you check your pulse either by putting your thumb on your wrist or on your jaw below your ear, you will find they beat at the same time and rate.

The 2 main causes of pulsatile tinnitus.

Changes to the blood flow to your ears

If, for some reason, a blood vessel is narrower than is would usually be, the supply needs to be carried across neighboring vessels. Think of it like a road system, if one has road blocks or is too busy, the cars will filter onto other roads instead.

This may happen when arteries harden due to the build up of cholesterol or other fatty materials (atherosclerosis). As this causes the unsmooth blood flow as mentioned above, the noises occur due to the extra blood being carried elsewhere instead.

Increased awareness of the blood flow to your ears

Although this may sound the same as above is it entirely different. If you are more aware of the sounds your body makes you will start to notice noises that have been there all the time. For example, a hearing condition or perforated ear drum may leave you without proper hearing and you are more than likely to realise the normal sounds that your body makes as they are not hidden by external sounds.

If you have started to notice a beating noise in your ear then you should speak to your doctor about it for diagnosis. This is done by looking at your eardrums and the blood vessels in your neck. If a diagnosis is made into your cause such as the examples above or high blood pressure then you will also be given help to treat it. Otherwise you may be offered advice into how best to manage it. This is often sound therapy or tinnitus retraining therapy (CBT).