Snap, Crackle and Pop in my Head

[PCknowitall]

I'm a 26 year old male and it seems when I am hungry, I get a noise in my head that sounds like a crackling or sand falling in an hourglass. It only occurs when I know I need to eat. It happens for 3 to 4 seconds at a time, once every 10 seconds or so. I have no pain, but I do feel an uneasiness until I eat something.

My wife says she gets it too and she can hear when my head does it. Any ideas would be welcome. I have been reading the forums and can't find anything exactly like I have, but some similarities.

Thanks

[lousean68]

I am 45 years old and have noticed this for years.  Only recently I made the association between this strange pop rocks/rice krispies sound and hunger, and now when I hear the sound it is in sync with my stomach growling.  The sound seems to emanate from my brain, but after reading the posts in this forum I have to agree that the source is within my sinuses.  I also agree with another poster that this is likely negative pressure from the stomach draining into the upper intestines, and the sound is probably the movement of fluid in the sinus as it gets sucked through due to this pressure change.  There is never any pain or discomfort involved.  I am also thinking this could be part of an evolutionary survival mechanism to ensure us humans get nourishment when we are hungry (mainly through the stomach growling which is certainly louder!), lest we die from starvation.  Like most of us, I always questioned whether the "sound" was really happening (or was it just in my imagination!) until one day I was lying in bed and wife asked me what the heck that cracking sound was...what a relief to know this was real!  I think it is funny that some have actually gotten MRI's done in response, my wife wanted me to see a neurologist because of it...but I just imagined any doctor thinking I was crazy.  Glad to see there is a community out there experiencing the same thing...I can go on with my life now! :) It is happening right now at 7am on a Saturday...and I know the cure...eggs & bacon :)

[sharecare]

I AM up in years but in mostly  great shape however ayear ago I have got tininitis in ear of which there is no cure except hearing aide but iam dealing right now without any aid.But lately I got crackling in upper neck especially looking down on this computer or maybe I am using the computer too much! Some of you said sinus and I say maybe! SO WHAT I AM GOING TO DO IS DRY UP MY SINUS WITH SOME MEDICATIONS and see if  that works  and then lay back and not use the computer so much and see if that works.I hope this helps good luck

[AwakeningSpirit]

i guess just post in response cuz it censors my email.

[AwakeningSpirit]

You are not alone. many in this posting are worried about sinus troubles, but i could tell immediately that u are experiencing the exact thing as I am. it seems as though what we are experiencing is so rare, and so difficult to comprehend for the understanding of others, that it gets lost in the translation of other symptoms of other disorders/problems (partly why it ***** sooo badly). What we are experiencing is like trickling sand-like sounds, trickling water-like sounds, squirting water-like sounds, static electricity-like sounds and comes with headaches as well.. am i right? they seem to arise when hunger strikes, and frankly keep me up at night, wakes me up in the morning, any other time i am laying down, but also when im at school, trying to study (seems to affect memory and brain function). for the past few years, to the present day Feb 2013, i have experienced these symptoms, thinking it had something to do with daily smoking of marijuana, and other drug use. now that im done with all of that, i realized its a more sever problem, and may even be damaging long term if not treated. my doctor is a family friend, but even he took my first few mentions of these symptoms as mal-nutrition symptoms (because of the correlation i had mentioned of the temporary relief of these symptoms to eating). Eating meat seemed to help for awhile, eating veges and fruit seemed to help, taking vitamins (especially Emergen-C), even just getting nutrition in general helped, but seem to fade more and more in there relief. as i have persisted to bug my doc about it, we finally got blood work done. he noticed very high levels of insulin...very high. what he believes it to be is an "insulin cyst" which is the result of some pancreas disease/disorder, and may be serious. insulin may be leaking into your abdomin and stomach. I learned in my general bio 1 class at university of colorado denver, and learned that insulin is important to digestion and use of proteins in the body. if we are experiencing this rare condition, no matter what the cause, it is impeding normal brain function, and is almost the exact opposite of diabetes. diabetics have too little insulin. we on the other hand, may have a major excess of insulin that will float around in your head (hence the feeling and sounds), which will cause the person to gain weight/lose weight rapidly, will cause unbearable hunger and head aches, and may ultimately require removal by surgery. also if eating protein foods help, its a good sign that you are matching up the insulin with the necessary proteins, a temporary fix, but you can never keep up. Please try a few things. eat MEAT, take vitamins, drink lots of water, and eat fruits and veges, and email me at bradley.***@**** if u notice temporary relief of these symptoms from these symptoms. if so, u should mention this all to a doctor, and request blood work and a CT scan of these areas, and dont let any doctor push u aside like ur crazy, cuz what ur experiencing is very real, just not common at all, and is painful, stupid, and shouldnt be stopping comfortable living. if ur doc wont, then request a specialist, or change doctors. good luck and i hope we can all figure this out.

[BKoski]

Thanks for all of the posts and information. I've been noticing this same problem over the last few years, but ONLY when I get a cold (and that is rare, maybe once a year). I'm male, 47 years old. Right now I've been fighting a cold and flu for the last 4 days. I'm seemingly now over the aches and shivers of the flu, but the cold is still both in my chest and sinuses. I'm drinking a lot of water, have continued to eat fairly regularly, have rested A LOT, slept as much as I can. But since the 3rd day of fighting this, I have a crackling at the base of my throat - it's like pop rocks in my head. And it only happens when I breathe. If I hold my breath, it stops. If I stand or sit up, it goes away sometimes. It can last 2 hours or more without letting up. I've tried chloraseptic, cough drops, cough syrup, water - none of those calm it down. It is bad enough that in the last 8 hours of trying to sleep, I only got about 2. Good luck to those of you with the more serious conditions, but for me this is only with a cold. Since I've been sitting here at the computer typing this, the crackling has gone away.

[PunkinA]

I feel the exact same way.... so nosey... I will soon be a paramedic.... I honestly believe that it is the chemical signally our brain to eat... I`m pretty sure that we are all healthy... I have no health issues but smoke.... I always called this my fast metabolism working because it happens often for me.... I forget to eat alot, always so busy non stop running around getting things done. I hope this helps, still curious.  Searching for answers still. ;)