You walk into the kitchen to look for a bite to eat. Are you craving a salty treat… maybe some crackers? Potato chips sound good! Wait. Maybe this leftover piece of cheesecake.
Actually, maybe you should just have a banana. A banana is a healthier option obviously.
With the human body, everything is interconnected. So the fact that what you eat can impact your ears shouldn’t come as a surprise. If you consume a diet high in sodium, for instance, it can raise your blood pressure which can escalate your tinnitus symptoms. Research is verifying this notion, suggesting that your diet could have a strong influence on the manifestation of tinnitus symptoms.
Your diet and tinnitus
Research published in Ear and Hearing, the official journal of the American Auditory Society, sampled a wide variety of people and looked closely at their diets. The data indicates that what you eat might increase or diminish your vulnerability to certain inner ear disorders, tinnitus among them. And your risk of getting tinnitus increases, especially when your diet is lacking vitamin B12.
Vitamin B12 wasn’t the only nutrient that was associated with tinnitus symptoms. Consuming too much calcium, iron, or fat could raise your risk of developing tinnitus as well.
That’s not all. This research also showed that tinnitus symptoms can also be influenced by dietary patterns. Particularly, diets high in protein appeared to reduce the likelihood of developing tinnitus. Not surprisingly, low-fat diets that were high in fruits, vegetables, and meats also appeared pretty good for your ears.
So should you make a change to your diet?
Diet by itself isn’t likely to dramatically change your hearing, and in fact, you’d probably have to have a fairly severe deficiency for this to be the cause. Your hearing is much more likely to be affected by other factors, like exposure to loud noise. Having said that, you should try to sustain a healthy diet for your overall health.
This research has revealed some practical and meaningful insights:
- Nutrients are important: Your diet is going to have an effect on your hearing health. Clearly, your hearing will be helped by a healthy diet. So it’s not hard to see how issues like tinnitus can be an outcome of poor nutrition. And with individuals who are lacking the vital vitamins, minerals, and nutrients they need, this is especially true.
- Get your hearing tested professionally: If you’re dealing with hearing loss or tinnitus, have your hearing examined. We can help you figure out (and properly treat) any hearing loss.
- Safeguarding your ears takes many strategies: The risk of tinnitus and other inner ear conditions can be lowered by eating a healthy diet, according to this research. That doesn’t mean you’re not still at risk. It simply gives you better odds of preventing ear conditions. You’ll need a more comprehensive approach if you truly want to be protected from the risk of tinnitus. This will often mean protecting your hearing from loud noise by wearing earplugs or earmuffs
- Quantities vary: Sure, you need a certain amount of vitamin B12 (for example) to keep your hearing healthy. You will be more susceptible to tinnitus if you go below this level. But your ears won’t necessarily be healthy just because you get enough B12. Always consult your doctor about any supplements you use because getting too little or too much of these elements can be unhealthy.
Research is one thing, actual life is another
While this is inspiring research, it’s significant to mention that there’s more to be said on the subject. In order to validate and improve the scope of these conclusions, more research will still need to be carried out. We don’t know, for example, how much of this relationship is causal or correlational.
So we’re not suggesting that tinnitus can be prevented by a B12 shot alone. Keeping that ringing in your ears from surfacing in the first place will probably mean taking a multi-faceted approach. One of those facets can definitely be diet. But it’s crucial to take steps to safeguard your hearing and don’t forget about proven methods.
We can help, so if you’re experiencing hearing problems, call us.
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
