You’re starving so you go to your fridge for a snack. Will it be something salty… what about crackers? Potato chips sound good! Hold up. Maybe this leftover piece of cheesecake.
Actually, maybe you should just have a banana. After all, a banana is a much better health option.
Everything is interrelated in the human body. So the fact that your diet can affect your ears shouldn’t be surprising. For instance, too much sodium can increase blood pressure and could make tinnitus symptoms more pronounced. Research is adding weight to this notion, indicating that your diet could have a direct influence on the development of tinnitus.
Tinnitus and your diet
The official journal of the American Auditory Society, called Ear and Hearing, published research that looked at the diets of a wide variety of people. The data suggests that what you eat may increase or diminish your vulnerability to specific inner ear conditions, tinnitus among them. And, based on the research, a lack of vitamin B12, particularly, could increase your potential for getting tinnitus.
There were nutrients other than B12 that were connected with tinnitus symptoms. Eating too much calcium, iron, or fat could increase your risk of developing tinnitus too.
And there’s more. This research also indicated that tinnitus symptoms can also be affected by dietary patterns. Particularly, diets high in protein seemed to reduce the risk of developing tinnitus. Needless to say, low-fat diets that were high in fruits, vegetables, and meats also seemed pretty good for your ears.
So should you make a change to your diet?
You would need to have a seriously deficient diet in order for that to be the cause, so changing your diet alone likely won’t have a significant effect. Your hearing is far more likely to be affected by other things, like exposure to loud sound. But your overall health depends on a healthy diet.
There are a few meaningful and useful insights that we can get from this research:
- Protecting your ears takes many approaches: According to this study, eating a good diet can help reduce your vulnerability to tinnitus and other inner ear ailments. That doesn’t mean you’re no longer at risk. It just means that your ears are a little more robust. You’ll need a more extensive approach if you really want to be protected from the risk of tinnitus. This might mean wearing earmuffs or earplugs to make sure noise levels stay safe.
- Nutrients are important: Your overall hearing health will be effected by your diet. Obviously, your hearing will be helped by a healthy diet. But more than that, we can definitely see how malnutrition could lead to issues like tinnitus. And with individuals who are lacking the vital vitamins, minerals, and nutrients they need, this is especially true.
- Always get your hearing checked by a professional: If you’re suffering from hearing loss or tinnitus, get your hearing checked. We will be able to help you determine (and correctly address) any hearing loss.
- Quantities vary: Certainly, if you want to keep your hearing healthy you need a certain amount of B12 in your diet. You will be more susceptible to tinnitus if you go below this level. But your ears won’t necessarily be healthy just because you get enough B12. Getting too little or too much of these nutrients could be harmful to your hearing, so always speak to your doctor about any supplements you consume.
Real life doesn’t always mirror the research
And, lastly, it’s important to note that, while this research is exciting and interesting, it isn’t the final word on the topic. In order to confirm and improve the scope of these findings, more research will still need to be carried out. How much of this connection is causal and how much is correlational is still something that needs to be established, for instance.
So we’re not suggesting that tinnitus can be prevented by a B12 shot alone. It could mean taking a multi-faceted approach in order to prevent tinnitus in the first place. One of those facets can certainly be diet. But it’s essential to take measures to safeguard your hearing and don’t forget about established methods.
We can help, so if you’re suffering from 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
