You’re starving so you look in your fridge for a snack. Are you craving a salty treat… maybe some crackers? Oooo, chips! Hold up. Maybe this leftover slice of cheesecake.
Perhaps you should just opt for a banana on second thought. A banana is a healthier choice obviously.
Everything is interrelated in the human body. So the fact that what you eat can impact your ears shouldn’t come as a surprise. For example, high sodium intake can raise blood pressure and could make tinnitus symptoms more pronounced. Current research is suggesting that diet can have a direct impact on the development of tinnitus symptoms.
Your diet and tinnitus
The official journal 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 specific inner ear conditions, 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.
Vitamin B12 wasn’t the only nutrient that was connected with tinnitus symptoms. Consuming too much calcium, iron, or fat could increase your chances of developing tinnitus as well.
That’s not all. The researchers also reported that dietary patterns may also trigger tinnitus symptoms. For instance, your risk of developing tinnitus will be reduced by a diet high in protein. It also appeared 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 an extremely deficient diet in order for that to be the cause, so changing your diet alone probably won’t have a substantial effect. Your hearing is much more likely to be impacted by other things, like exposure to loud noise. That said, you should try to keep a healthy diet for your general health.
This research has revealed some practical and meaningful insights:
- 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 getting more vitamin B12 isn’t necessarily going to make your ears healthier. Getting too little or too much of these elements could be damaging to your hearing, so always talk to your doctor about any supplements you consume.
- Get your hearing tested professionally: Come in and get your hearing checked if you’re experiencing tinnitus or hearing loss. We will be able to help you determine (and correctly treat) any hearing loss.
- Nutrients are essential: Your diet is going to have an effect on the health of your hearing. It sure seems like an overall healthy diet will be good for your ears. 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 individuals aren’t taking in the nutrients, vitamins, and minerals that they need.
- Safeguarding your ears takes many approaches: As reported by this research, eating a good 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 reduce the risk of tinnitus even further, you’ll have to take an inclusive approach to protect your hearing. This may mean wearing earmuffs or earplugs to make sure volume levels stay safe.
Real life doesn’t always mirror 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. In order to validate and improve the scope of these results, more research will still need to be done. How much of this connection is causal and how much is correlational is still something that needs to be identified, for example.
So we’re not suggesting that tinnitus can be stopped by a B12 shot alone. It may mean using a multi-faceted approach in order to prevent tinnitus from the start. Diet can be one of those prongs, certainly (eat that banana). But it’s crucial to take steps to safeguard your hearing and don’t forget about established methods.
We can help, so if you’re experiencing hearing issues, 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
