Poll: Has Changing Diet Improved Your Tinnitus? What Other Things Improve or Worsen Your Tinnitus?

[Björn Andersson]

I have been struggling with tinnitus for almost 1.5 years now. Cause unknown, but possibly related to my slight hearing loss in higher frequencies (those frequencies are now my tinnitus sound).

I am trying to find causes that improves and worsens my tinnitus. So far this is what I can say:

Worsens:
*Driving my car for a long time (>45 minutes). Depending on time in car it might worsen tinnitus for up to a few days.
*Noisy environments (even if I use ear protection), for example using the lawn mover. Worsens tinnitus in same degree as above.
*Hard physical activity/working out (temporary, up to 1-2 hours after finishing activity)
*Bad sleep (not sure, sometimes this doesn't worsen tinnitus)

Improves:
*Good sleep (not sure, sometimes this doesn't improve tinnitus)
*Hard physical activity (after initial temporary spike, it sometimes might feel a bit better than usually)

How is it for you guys?

The next two things I am thinking of trying out is:

1) Start with a healthier diet. My diet is not very good with a lot of fast food, Coca Cola etc. I have heard people here that have improved their tinnitus when cutting down on sugar/fat. I am still a bit skeptical that this actually would help tinnitus, why would it. Still no harm to test. I have set up a poll to see what you guys feel about this question.

2) Try out hearing aids. Not that my hearing loss really would require hearing aids. I believe the most logical explanation of my tinnitus is that my brain is "overcompensating" the frequencies I have hearing loss in causing the ringing in my head. By using hearing aids maybe you could reverse this and learn the brain to stop overcompensating and make tinnitus decrease. I have heard it has helped some people. Any experience from you guys?

 

[Frédéric]

Relationship Between Diet, Tinnitus, and Hearing Difficulties

Dawes, Piers1,2; Cruickshanks, Karen J.3; Marsden, Antonia4; Moore, David R.1,2,5; Munro, Kevin J.1,2

https://journals.lww.com/ear-hearin...px?Ppt=Article|ear-hearing:9000:00000:98777||

or full text in the pdf.

Objectives: Diet may affect susceptibility of the inner ear to noise and age-related effects that lead to tinnitus and hearing loss. This study used complementary single nutrient and dietary pattern analysis based on statistical grouping of usual dietary intake in a cross-sectional analysis of tinnitus and hearing difficulties in a large population study sample.

Design: The research was conducted using the UK Biobank resource. Tinnitus was based on report of ringing or buzzing in one or both ears that lasts more than five minutes at a time and is currently experienced at least some of the time. Identification of a hearing problem was based on self-reported difficulties with hearing. Usual dietary intake and dietary patterns (involving statistical grouping of intake to account for how foods are combined in real-life diets) were estimated based on between two and five administrations of the Oxford Web-Q 24-hour dietary recall questionnaire over the course of a year for 34,576 UK adult participants aged 40 to 69.

Results: In a multivariate model, higher intake of vitamin B12 was associated with reduced odds of tinnitus, while higher intakes of calcium, iron, and fat were associated with increased odds (B12, odds ratio [OR] 0.85, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.75 to 0.97; Calcium, OR 1.20, 95% CI 1.08 to 1.34; Iron, OR 1.20, 95% CI 1.05 to 1.37; Fat, OR 1.33, 95% CI 1.09 to 1.62, respectively, for quintile 5 versus quintile 1). A dietary pattern characterised by high protein intake was associated with reduced odds of tinnitus (OR 0.90, 95% CI 0.82 to 0.99 for quintile 5 versus quintile 1). Higher vitamin D intake was associated with reduced odds of hearing difficulties (OR 0.90, 95% CI 0.81 to 1.00 for quintile 5 versus quintile 1), as were dietary patterns high in fruit and vegetables and meat and low in fat (Prudent diet: OR 0.89, 95% CI 0.83 to 0.96; High protein: OR 0.88, 95% CI 0.82 to 0.95; High fat: OR 1.16, 95% CI 1.08 to 1.24, respectively, for quintile 5 versus quintile 1).

Conclusions: There were associations between both single nutrients and dietary patterns with tinnitus and hearing difficulties. Although the size of the associations was small, universal exposure for dietary factors indicates that there may be a substantial impact of diet on levels of tinnitus and hearing difficulties in the population. This study showed that dietary factors might be important for hearing health.

 

[Tex]

I gave up salt for a while, no help. I gave up alcohol for a while, no help. Coffee or not, no difference. Spent a lot on supplements, no help.

 

[linearb]

I eat what I like, drink what I like, smoke what I like.