An intriguing new study suggests that increasing your intake of fruits, dietary fiber, dairy, and caffeine could help mitigate tinnitus symptoms.
Researchers speculate that these benefits might stem from the diets’ protective effects on blood vessels and nerves, coupled with their anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. However, the evidence is preliminary, and further studies are needed to verify the relationship.
Tinnitus and Dietary Influences
Increased consumption of fruit, dietary fiber, dairy products, and caffeine may be associated with a reduced risk of tinnitus (ringing in the ears), suggests an analysis of the available evidence, published in the open access journal BMJ Open.
The researchers stress that their findings can’t establish a direct (causal) relationship and should be interpreted with care because of the low quality of the evidence. But they say possible reasons may involve the protective effects of these diets on blood vessels and nerves, as well as their anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties.
Understanding Tinnitus and Its Global Impact
Tinnitus is the perception of sound (ringing, buzzing, or clicking) when there’s no external source. Data suggests it affects around 14% of adults worldwide and is associated with depression, anxiety, stress, and in severe cases, suicide.
There is no cure, but treatments such as counseling, behavioral therapy, medications, and hearing aids can help to reduce symptoms.
Research Methodology and Key Findings
Diet can also have a significant impact on tinnitus. It’s thought that eating high-quality nutrients can have a positive effect on hearing by improving blood flow to the inner ear and reducing oxidative damage and inflammation. But previous studies show conflicting results and it’s still uncertain which specific foods worsen or relieve symptoms.
To explore this further, the researchers trawled research databases looking for studies linking tinnitus and diet in adults published up to May 2024.
They found eight observational studies involving 301,533 people that assessed 15 dietary factors using validated questionnaires that were of suitable quality to include in their analysis.
Analysis and Implications of Dietary Factors on Tinnitus
The dietary factors included carbohydrates, caffeine, eggs, fruits, fibers, fat, meat, protein, sugar, fish, vegetables and dairy.
The combined findings revealed that increased consumption of fruit, dietary fiber, dairy products, and caffeine was associated with a reduced occurrence of tinnitus. These reductions were 35% for fruit intake, 9% for dietary fiber, 17% for dairy products, and 10% for caffeine intake.
No associations were found between other dietary factors and tinnitus and results were consistent after further analyses, although the authors note that the association between caffeine intake and tinnitus remains contentious.
The authors acknowledge that due to the observational design of included studies, causality cannot be established, and the relatively small number of included studies may have led to certain conventionally accepted beneficial dietary factors (such as vegetables and eggs) not demonstrating significant differences.
However, they suggest that “the primary underlying mechanisms may involve the protective effects of these diets on blood vessels and nerves, as well as their anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties” and say further large-scale studies are needed “to complement and verify the relationship between dietary intake and tinnitus.”
Reference: “Association of 15 common dietary factors with tinnitus: a systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies” by Mengni Zhang, Xiaocui Wang, Shipeng Zhang, Xinyi He, Xi Chen, Lu Wang, Li Fu, Hanyu Wang, Qinwei Fu, Yanjie Jiang, Xinrong Li and Qinxiu Zhang, 1 March 2025, BMJ Open.
DOI: 10.1136/bmjopen-2024-091507
Funding: National Natural Science Foundation of China, The Sichuan Natural Science Foundation, Xinglin Scholars Scientific Research Promotion Plan of Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine Innovation team.
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7 Comments
This headline is misleading. According to this study, it can reduce the possibility of developing tinnitus, but does nothing for the people that already have it.
The researchers stress that their findings can’t establish a direct (causal) relationship and should be interpreted with care because of the low quality of the evidence.
Might sound crazy, but pork chops worked (for a short while) for me. I have numbness in my feet. I googled ‘what vitamins help your nerves?’ Answer: Vitamins B1, B6 & B12. Pork chops are high in all three of those. I bought some pork chops and had them two nights in a row. No noticable difference in my feet, but my tinnitus went away for two days. (The vitamins found in vitamin B supplements are often synthetic vitamins. Not the same thing as the vitamins found in actual food, so I don’t know if supplements would work.)
Try eating less salt and drinking more water.
Caffeine makes mine worse. So does stress. It’s so loud right now.
Yes caffeine and especially chocolate make mine worse. If I’m not careful the noise will be screaming in the middle of the night. Frightening at it’s worse otherwise I try to use it as a meditation ohm.
Sugary and salt and sugary and salty foods (cheese and dairy, pastas) make the ringing in my ears much worse. It’s a fluid imbalance. I drink more water, cut down on the salty foods and presto change-O. Ringing pretty much gone, I confess I do like sugary and salty foods, so I up my water intake. Also, I take milk thistle. Helps but more with the fatty foods – which aren’t that great for my liver, so I’ve noticed.