You’re feeling hungry so you go to your fridge for a little bite to eat. Are you craving a salty treat… how about crackers? Oooo, chips! Wait. Maybe this leftover slice of cheesecake.
Maybe you should just go with a banana on second thought. A banana is a healthier option after all.
With the human body, everything is interconnected. So it’s probably not a big surprise that your diet can impact your ears. If you eat a diet high in sodium, for instance, it can raise your blood pressure which can escalate your tinnitus symptoms. Research is adding weight to this idea, indicating that your diet could have a strong impact on the development of tinnitus.
Tinnitus and your diet
The official journal of the American Auditory Society, called Ear and Hearing, published a study that observed the diets of a wide variety of individuals. The data indicates that your diet could increase or diminish your susceptibility to some inner ear disorders, tinnitus among them. And your risk of developing tinnitus increases, especially when your diet is lacking vitamin B12.
Vitamin B12 wasn’t the only nutrient that was linked to tinnitus symptoms. Your risk of getting tinnitus also increases if your diet is too high in fat, calcium, and iron.
That isn’t all. The researchers also noted that dietary patterns may also cause tinnitus symptoms. In particular, 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 fairly good for your ears.
So should you make a change to your diet?
Diet alone isn’t likely to drastically change your hearing, and actually, you’d most likely have to have a pretty significant deficiency for this to be the cause. Your hearing is far more likely to be affected by other things, such as exposure to loud noise. But your general health depends on a healthy diet.
There are a couple of meaningful and useful insights that we can take from this research:
- Quantities vary: Sure, you need a certain amount of vitamin B12 (for example) to keep your ears healthy. You will be more vulnerable to tinnitus if you go below this level. But your ears won’t necessarily be healthy simply because you get enough B12. Getting too little or too much of these nutrients could be harmful to your hearing, so always speak with your doctor about any supplements you take.
- Nutrients are important: Your total hearing health will be impacted by what you eat. Clearly, your hearing will be benefited by a balanced diet. But beyond that, we can easily see how malnutrition can lead to problems like tinnitus. This can be particularly important to take note of when individuals aren’t taking in the nutrients, vitamins, and minerals that they require.
- 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 degree of hearing loss you’re dealing with and how to best address it.
- Protecting your ears takes many strategies: Based on this research, eating a healthy diet can help lower your susceptibility to tinnitus and other inner ear conditions. But that doesn’t mean the entire risk has disappeared. It just gives you better odds of preventing ear conditions. So if you want to lower the chance of tinnitus even further, you’ll have to take a comprehensive approach to safeguard your hearing. This may mean wearing earmuffs or earplugs to ensure noise levels stay safe.
Research is one thing, actual life is another
While this is inspiring research, it’s important to note that there’s more to be said on the matter. More research needs to be conducted on this topic to validate these results, or to improve them, or dispute them. We’re not sure, for example, how much of this relationship is causal or correlational.
So we’re far from claiming that a vitamin B12 shot will stop tinnitus. It could mean taking a multi-faceted approach in order to avoid tinnitus in the first place. Diet is one of those prongs, sure (eat that banana). But it’s crucial to take steps to protect your hearing and don’t forget about established strategies.
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
