You go into the kitchen and you find a bite to eat. Do you want something salty… what about crackers? Oooo, potato chips! Wait. Maybe this leftover piece of cheesecake.
Perhaps you should just go with a banana on second thought. After all, a banana is a much healthier choice.
Everything is interrelated in the human body. So the fact that your diet can impact your ears shouldn’t be surprising. For instance, too much sodium can elevate blood pressure and could make tinnitus symptoms more noticeable. Research is adding weight to this notion, suggesting that what you eat could have a direct impact on the development of tinnitus.
Tinnitus and your diet
Research published in Ear and Hearing, the official journal of the American Auditory Society, observed a wide variety of people and looked closely at their diets. Your risk of specific inner ear disorders, including tinnitus, increases or diminishes based on what you eat. And your chance of getting tinnitus increases, especially when your diet is lacking vitamin B12.
There were other nutrients besides B12 that were connected with tinnitus symptoms. Eating too much calcium, iron, or fat could raise your risk of developing tinnitus too.
And there’s more. The researchers also noted that dietary patterns could also bring about tinnitus symptoms. In particular, diets high in protein seemed to decrease the risk of developing tinnitus. It also seemed that diets low in fat and high in fruits and veggies had a positive effect on your hearing.
Does this mean you need to change your diet?
You would need to have a seriously deficient diet in order for that to be the cause, so changing your diet alone likely won’t have a substantial effect. Other issues, such as exposure to loud noise, are far more likely to affect your hearing. Having said that, you should try to sustain a healthy diet for your overall health.
There are some substantive and practical insights that we can get from this research:
- Get your hearing tested professionally: Come in and get your hearing checked if you’re experiencing hearing loss or tinnitus. We will be able to help you determine (and correctly address) any hearing loss.
- Quantities vary: Sure, you require a certain amount of vitamin B12 (for instance) to keep your hearing healthy. Getting less than that could increase your susceptibility to tinnitus. But getting more vitamin B12 won’t necessarily make your ears healthier. Always consult your physician about any supplements you take because getting too little or too much of these nutrients can be unhealthy.
- Protecting your ears takes many strategies: The danger of tinnitus and other inner ear disorders can be lowered by eating a healthy diet, according to this study. But that doesn’t mean the overall risk has gone away. It just means that your ears are a little more resilient. You’ll need a more extensive approach if you truly want to be protected from the risk of tinnitus. This might mean wearing earmuffs or earplugs to ensure noise levels stay safe.
- Nutrients are essential: Your diet will have an impact on your hearing health. Clearly, your hearing will be helped by a healthy diet. But more than that, we can easily see how malnutrition could lead to problems such as tinnitus. And with individuals who are lacking the vital vitamins, minerals, and nutrients they need, this is especially true.
Real life doesn’t always echo the research
And, lastly, it’s important to note that, while this research is impressive and interesting, it isn’t the last word on the subject. More research must be carried out on this topic to confirm these findings, or to improve them, or dispute them. How much of this connection is causal and how much is correlational is still something that needs to be determined, for example.
So we’re far from saying a vitamin B12 shot will stop tinnitus. Keeping that ringing in your ears from surfacing from the start will probably mean taking a multi-faceted approach. One of those facets can certainly be diet. But it’s crucial to take steps to protect your hearing and don’t forget about proven methods.
If you’re suffering from tinnitus, contact us. We can help.
References
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/tinnitus/symptoms-causes
https://journals.lww.com/ear-hearing/Fulltext/2020/03000/Relationship_Between_Diet,_Tinnitus,_and_Hearing.8.aspx