If you suffer from tinnitus or ringing in the ears, cutting down caffeine and giving up caffeinated beverages will significantly help your cause. Though a cure for tinnitus has not been found yet, many treatments can help relieve the symptoms.
By maintaining a healthy diet and cutting down the caffeine, you can control the ringing in your ears. Read more to understand the correlation between caffeine and tinnitus.
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What is Tinnitus?
Also popularly known as “ringing in the ears,” tinnitus or persistent head noise is a non-auditory internal sound that can be continuous or intermittent in one or both ears. Tinnitus happens when you consciously hear a noise that does not have a point of origin outside the body.
Though it is not considered a disease, it may be a symptom of any underlying health problem. The varying sounds heard by people experiencing tinnitus include chirping, whistling, screeching, hissing, roaring, static, and whooshing noises.
The most common form of sound experienced by many is a high-pitched, steady ringing. In most cases, the noise is subjective. However, in less than 1% of the cases, the noise tends to be objective.
So, what part does food play in causing increased suffering for tinnitus patients?
Link Between Caffeine and Tinnitus
Some people who experience tinnitus avoid candy and cake. Many others forego their morning coffee or switch it to decaf. So, what is the relationship between caffeine and tinnitus?
Consuming too much caffeine, in general, can cause high blood pressure, insomnia, headaches, and an upset stomach. Caffeine, often found in tea, coffee, energy drinks, soda, and other supplements, raises blood pressure and triggers tinnitus.
Often chronic tinnitus is poorly understood as there is little hard evidence to support the definitive connection between food and tinnitus. However, caffeine is a trigger food that has reportedly worsened the symptoms in many people.
If you have tinnitus and consume caffeine regularly, then you must cut back on it to analyze if the symptoms decrease over time.
Caffeine Increases Blood Pressure
Being a vasoconstrictor, Caffeine decreases the size of the blood vessels and can raise the blood pressure in one’s body. And, high blood pressure remains one of the leading causes of tinnitus.
High blood pressure causes the blood to move through your arteries and veins with more force. Changes in blood flow can cause tinnitus or worsen its symptoms if already present.
Caffeine Affects Sleep
Caffeine is a type of stimulant that promotes alertness in your body and can negatively affect your sleep. Many studies show that caffeine can delay the timing of your body clock.
Its effects can reduce your total sleep time, which in turn triggers tinnitus. Drinking caffeine late in the day in any form can ruin your sleep cycle. As the quality of your sleep worsens, the symptoms of tinnitus may start to flare up.
Caffeine Increases Stress
Even though caffeine feels good in the short term, too much intake can backfire at any time. As caffeine increases alertness, it also increases the production of cortisol, the stress hormone in your body. Increased stress levels and decreased sleep is a perfect recipe that can trigger tinnitus.
As caffeine and tinnitus do not go well together, you must try to cut down the coffee and caffeine intake over time. By doing this, you will be able to experience complete relief from tinnitus soon.