You walk into the kitchen and you look for a snack. Do you want something salty… what about crackers? Chips sound good! There’s a leftover piece of cheesecake that would be delightful.

Maybe you should just opt for a banana on second thought. A banana is a healthier choice after all.

With the human body, everything is interconnected. So maybe it’s not a big surprise that what you eat can affect your ears. For instance, too much sodium can raise blood pressure and could make tinnitus symptoms more pronounced. Research is adding weight to this notion, indicating that what you eat could have a direct impact on the development of tinnitus.

Tinnitus and your diet

The official publication of the American Auditory Society, called Ear and Hearing, published a study that looked at the diets of a wide variety of people. Your danger of certain inner ear conditions, including tinnitus, increases or diminishes depending on what you eat. And your risk of developing tinnitus increases, particularly 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 revealed that tinnitus symptoms can also be influenced by dietary patterns. In particular, diets high in protein appeared to decrease the likelihood of developing tinnitus. Needless to say, low-fat diets that were high in fruits, vegetables, and meats also appeared pretty good for your ears.

Does this mean you need to change your diet?

Diet alone isn’t likely to dramatically change your hearing, and in fact, you’d most likely have to have a fairly significant deficiency for this to be the cause. Other issues, like exposure to loud noise, are much more likely to affect your hearing. That said, you should attempt to maintain a healthy diet for your general health.

There are a few meaningful and practical insights that we can take from this research:

• Quantities vary: Certainly, if you want to keep your hearing healthy you need a certain amount of B12 in your diet. Getting less than that could increase your vulnerability to tinnitus. But your ears won’t necessarily be healthy just because you get enough B12. Always consult your physician about any supplements you use because getting too little or too much of these elements can be unhealthy.
• Nutrients are essential: Your overall hearing health will be impacted by what you eat. Naturally, your hearing will be benefited by a balanced diet. So it’s not hard to see how issues like tinnitus can be an outcome of poor nutrition. This can be particularly important to note when people aren’t taking in the nutrients, vitamins, and minerals that they need.
• Always get your hearing checked by a professional: If you’re dealing with hearing loss or tinnitus, get your hearing checked. We can help you determine what type and degree of hearing loss you’re dealing with and how to best manage it.
• Protecting your ears takes many approaches: As reported by 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 simply gives you better odds of preventing ear conditions. So if you want to decrease the chance of tinnitus even more, you’ll have to take a comprehensive approach to protect your hearing. This will often mean protecting your ears from loud noise by wearing earplugs or earmuffs

Research is one thing, real life is another

And, lastly, it’s important to note that, while this research is exciting and fascinating, it isn’t the final word 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 instance, how much of this relationship is causal or correlational.

So we’re a long way from claiming that a vitamin B12 shot will stop tinnitus. It may mean taking a multi-faceted approach in order to prevent tinnitus in the first place. Diet can be one of those facets, certainly (eat that banana). But it’s essential to take steps to safeguard your hearing and don’t forget about proven methods.

If you’re suffering from tinnitus, give us a call. We can help.

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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