You’re starving so you look in your fridge for a little bite to eat. How about a salty treat… how about crackers? Oooo, chips! There’s a leftover piece of cheesecake that would be delicious.
Perhaps you should just go with a banana on second thought. A banana is a healthier choice after all.
With the human body, everything is connected. So it’s probably not a big surprise that your diet can impact your ears. For example, too much sodium can increase blood pressure and could make tinnitus symptoms more pronounced. Research is adding weight to this idea, indicating that what you eat could have a direct influence on the development of tinnitus.
Your diet and tinnitus
The official journal of the American Auditory Society, called Ear and Hearing, published research that looked at the diets of a wide variety of people. Your risk of specific inner ear disorders, including tinnitus, increases or diminishes depending on what you eat. And your chance of developing tinnitus increases, particularly when your diet is lacking vitamin B12.
There were other nutrients besides B12 that were linked to tinnitus symptoms. Eating too much calcium, iron, or fat could raise your risk of developing tinnitus too.
And there’s more. This research also revealed that tinnitus symptoms can also be affected by dietary patterns. Particularly, diets high in protein seemed to reduce the likelihood of developing tinnitus. Needless to say, low-fat diets that were high in fruits, vegetables, and meats also seemed fairly good for your ears.
Does this suggest 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 probably won’t have a substantial effect. Other issues, such as exposure to loud sound, are far more likely to impact your hearing. That said, you should try to keep a healthy diet for your general health.
This research has uncovered some practical and meaningful insights:
- Nutrients are essential: Your overall hearing health will be effected by your diet. It certainly seems as if an overall healthy diet will be good for your ears. So it isn’t difficult to see how issues such as tinnitus can be an outcome of poor nutrition. And with people who are lacking the essential vitamins, minerals, and nutrients they need, this is especially true.
- Safeguarding your ears takes many approaches: According to this study, eating a healthy diet can help reduce your susceptibility to tinnitus and other inner ear ailments. That doesn’t mean you’re not still at risk. It just gives you better odds of preventing ear conditions. So if you want to decrease the risk of tinnitus even further, you’ll have to take a comprehensive approach to protect your ears. This might mean wearing earmuffs or earplugs to ensure noise levels remain safe.
- Quantities vary: Sure, you need a certain amount of vitamin B12 (for example) to keep your hearing healthy. Going below that could increase your susceptibility to tinnitus. But getting more vitamin B12 won’t necessarily make your ears healthier. Always consult your doctor about any supplements you use because getting too little or too much of these nutrients can be unhealthy.
- Get your hearing tested professionally: If you’re dealing with hearing loss or tinnitus, get your hearing tested. We can help you determine what type and level of hearing loss you’re coping with and how to best address it.
Real life doesn’t always mirror the research
And, finally, it’s significant to note that, while this research is exciting and fascinating, it isn’t the last word on the topic. In order to validate and improve the scope of these results, more research will still have to be carried out. We’re not sure, for instance, how much of this connection is causal or correlational.
So we’re a long way from saying a vitamin B12 shot will stop tinnitus. Keeping that ringing in your ears from surfacing in the first place will probably mean taking a multi-faceted approach. Diet can be one of those prongs, certainly (eat that banana). But it’s essential that you take steps to safeguard your hearing and don’t forget about proven methods.
If you’re experiencing tinnitus, give us a call. 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
