You go into the kitchen to find a snack. How about a salty treat… how about crackers? Chips sound good! There’s a leftover slice of cheesecake that would be yummy.
Perhaps you should just go with a banana on second thought. After all, a banana is a much better health option.
When it comes to the human body, everything is connected. So the fact that what you eat can affect your ears shouldn’t be surprising. If you consume a diet high in sodium, for instance, it can elevate your blood pressure which can increase your tinnitus symptoms. Research is adding weight to this notion, indicating that what you eat could have a strong influence on the manifestation of tinnitus symptoms.
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 individuals. The data suggests that what you eat may increase or diminish your susceptibility to certain inner ear conditions, tinnitus among them. And your chance of getting tinnitus increases, particularly when your diet is lacking vitamin B12.
Vitamin B12 wasn’t the only nutrient that was connected with tinnitus symptoms. Eating too much calcium, iron, or fat could increase your chances of developing tinnitus too.
And there’s more. This research also indicated that tinnitus symptoms can also be impacted by dietary patterns. For instance, your risk of developing tinnitus will be decreased by a diet high in protein. It also appeared that diets low in fat and high in fruits and veggies had a beneficial effect on your hearing.
Does this mean you need to change your diet?
You would have to have an extremely deficient diet in order for that to be the cause, so changing your diet alone probably won’t have a significant impact. Your hearing is far more likely to be affected by other factors, such as exposure to loud sound. But your general health depends on a healthy diet.
This research has discovered some practical and meaningful insights:
- Safeguarding your ears takes many strategies: The risk of tinnitus and other inner ear disorders can be lowered by eating a healthy diet, according to this research. That doesn’t mean you’re no longer at risk. It just gives you better odds of avoiding ear conditions. You’ll need a more extensive approach if you truly want to be protected from the chances of tinnitus. This will frequently mean safeguarding your hearing from loud noise by using earplugs or earmuffs
- Nutrients are important: Your diet is going to have an impact on the health of your hearing. It certainly seems like an overall healthy diet will be good for your ears. But more than that, we can definitely see how malnutrition could lead to problems like tinnitus. And with individuals who are lacking the vital vitamins, minerals, and nutrients they need, this is particularly true.
- Get your hearing tested professionally: If you’re suffering from hearing loss or tinnitus, get your hearing examined. We can help you figure out what type and degree of hearing loss you’re dealing with and how to best treat it.
- Quantities vary: Sure, you require a certain amount of vitamin B12 (for example) to keep your hearing healthy. Getting less than that could increase your susceptibility to tinnitus. But getting more vitamin B12 isn’t necessarily going to make your ears healthier. Always speak with your physician about any supplements you take because getting too little or too much of these nutrients can be bad for you.
Real life doesn’t always echo the research
And, finally, it’s significant to note that, while this research is impressive and fascinating, it’s not the last word on the topic. In order to confirm and sharpen 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 not implying that tinnitus can be stopped by a B12 shot alone. It might mean using a multi-faceted approach in order to avoid tinnitus from the start. Diet is one of those prongs, certainly (eat that banana). But it’s important that you don’t forget about proven strategies, and that you focus on safeguarding your ear health as much as you can.
We can help, so if you’re experiencing hearing problems, call us.
References
https://journals.lww.com/ear-hearing/Fulltext/2020/03000/Relationship_Between_Diet,_Tinnitus,_and_Hearing.8.aspx