Does Sugar Make Anyone's Tinnitus Louder?

[Lizzie Grant]

For the past week almost I've drank nothing but water and have eaten fairly better but today I decided to treat myself and have a can of Coke and a piece of cheesecake and I noticed that I can hear my tinnitus again and it's been pretty quiet for a few days now.

 

[Owen]

I've heard a lot of other people say that certain foods make their tinnitus better or worse. I must admit, I have not found any links in my case, but I still believe there is a mechanical component to my hearing problems, so there wouldn't be.

The few studies that do exist have not found very strong relationships between diet and tinnitus, if any, but we are all subtly different, so it is possible.
Perhaps it was the caffeine in the coke? Again, this has no effect on me, but it is a stimulant and can therefore heighten awareness.

Unlikely to be relevant as you are asking about sugar, but phenylalanine is known to affect brain chemistry and this is present in diet coke - and lots of other things besides.

 

[I who love music]

Oh ya.
And coffee.

 

[Mike K]

I've never been 100% conscious of how sugar has made my T feel, but the ENT I visited said the 4 worst things for T is salt, alcohol, caffeine, and smoke (tobacco/nicotine/marijuana). Sugar is definitely not great for it either to my knowledge.

 

[Owen]

This is probably one of the more reliable sources for information on this topic:

http://www.tinnitus.org.uk/drugs-food-and-drink

 

[Dana]

I know Sailboardman said somewhere that sugar is his worst enemy. But he also said that red wine softens his T a bit. As I read that somewhere, I thought that alcohol is the highest form of processed sugar, which confuses me a bit, but whatever.

but today I decided to treat myself and have a can of Coke and a piece of cheesecake and I noticed that I can hear my T again

500 ml of regular Coke sent me directly to hell once, a horrible and long spike after that, so my answer to your question is "yes".
Also Coke may have other dangerous ingredients, so it may not be only from its sugar content.

 

[Sailboardman]

@Dana,

I think the alcohol, overrides the sugar effect in wine, after a few drinks. Also, there are different types of sugar and yes, I find refined sugar, not natural sugars, a real trigger. Much more than salt. Although, I rarely use salt on my food. if I do, it's sea salt.

 

[Dana]

I wonder if sugar increases T because it excites the neurons even more, or because it consumes a lot of water to get dissolved in the body and thus changes the volume of fluids in the body, and therefore in the inner ear of people whose inner ear mechanisms that maintain the volume and concentration of the endolymph constant, no matter what we eat, are damaged or lost.