You’re feeling hungry so you look in your fridge for a little bite to eat. Will it be something salty… how about crackers? Oooo, chips! Wait. Maybe this leftover slice of cheesecake.
Perhaps you should just go with a banana on second thought. After all, a banana is a much healthier choice.
Everything is interconnected in the human body. 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 your diet could have a direct influence on the development of tinnitus.
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 took a close look at their diets. Your danger of specific inner ear conditions, including tinnitus, increases or diminishes depending on what you eat. And, based on the research, a deficiency of vitamin B12, particularly, could increase your potential for getting tinnitus.
There were nutrients other than B12 that were connected with tinnitus symptoms. Consuming too much calcium, iron, or fat could increase your risk of getting tinnitus too.
And there’s more. This research also revealed that tinnitus symptoms can also be affected by dietary patterns. For instance, your likelihood of developing tinnitus will be decreased by a diet high in protein. Not surprisingly, low-fat diets that were high in fruits, vegetables, and meats also seemed 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 actually, you’d most likely have to have a fairly severe deficiency for this to be the cause. Other problems, like exposure to loud sound, are much more likely to impact your hearing. But your general health depends on a healthy diet.
This research has discovered some practical and meaningful insights:
- Quantities vary: Sure, you require a certain amount of vitamin B12 (for example) to keep your ears healthy. You will be more vulnerable to tinnitus if you get less than this. But your ears won’t necessarily be healthy just because you get enough B12. Getting too little or too much of these elements could be detrimental to your hearing, so always talk to your doctor about any supplements you consume.
- Nutrients are essential: Your overall hearing health will be impacted by your diet. It certainly seems as if an overall healthy diet will be good for your ears. So it isn’t hard to see how problems such as 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.
- Protecting your ears takes many approaches: The risk of tinnitus and other inner ear disorders can be decreased by eating a healthy diet, according to this study. But that doesn’t mean the overall risk has disappeared. It simply means that your ears are a little more resilient. So if you want to lower the chance of tinnitus even more, you’ll have to take a comprehensive approach to safeguard your ears. This may mean using earmuffs or earplugs to guarantee volume levels stay safe.
- Always get your hearing checked by a professional: Come in and get your hearing tested if you’re experiencing hearing loss or tinnitus. We will be able to help you determine (and properly manage) any hearing loss.
Research is one thing, real life is another
While this is inspiring research, it’s significant to note that there’s more to be said on the subject. In order to confirm and improve the scope of these findings, more research will still need to be carried out. How much of this relationship is causal and how much is correlational is still something that needs to be determined, for example.
So we’re a long way from saying a vitamin B12 shot will prevent tinnitus. Keeping that ringing in your ears from appearing from the start may mean taking a multi-faceted approach. One of those facets can definitely be diet. But it’s essential that you take steps to protect your hearing and don’t forget about proven strategies.
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