Tinnitus and Food Allergies

Did you know that the foods you eat can have a major effect on your tinnitus? That's right, the ringing you are hearing in your ears right now is at least partly related to the foods you ate earlier today.

Yes, food allergies really can cause Tinnitus or make your existing symptoms worse. How can this be? Well, among other things, they can cause vasoconstriction and inflammation. Both of these conditions are known to have adverse effects on your ears and auditory system, in particular, triggering or worsening tinnitus symptoms.

So what can you do about this? Avoidance is usually the best approach. Frequently, when you stop eating foods that you are allergic to, the ringing in your ears subsides. Why would this be so? It is believed that many food allergies cause swelling and inflammation in the auditory canal. This inflammation can, and often does cause or worsen the ringing in your ears.

Other allergic reactions involve vasoconstriction, which is the narrowing of blood vessels. When this happens in the ears, the reduced blood flow can cause problems that lead directly or indirectly to tinnitus.

Clearly, dealing with any food allergies you might have is an important step to dealing with your tinnitus. But this is easier said than done, since often people with food allergies don’t even know it.

The following foods can often cause allergic reactions in those who eat them.
• Wheat Gluten
• Milk
• Eggs
• Peanuts
• Soy Products
• Cheese
• Chocolate
• Coffee or other heavily caffeinated beverages
• Over ripe Bananas
• Avocados
• Citrus fruits
• Seafood
• Fowl

Red Wine, Tonic water, Grain –based spirits and even Vinegar have been known to cause issues for persons with Tinnitus as well.

Caffeinated foods that stimulate nerve excitability and constrict your blood vessels, often make the ringing worse.

For some people, hot spices like Chili peppers and foods containing high levels of sugar can cause an increase in the volume of the ringing. Whether this is due to an allergic reaction or to other mechanisms isn't clear to me, but given how fast these can increase the ringing in your ears, I suspect it is some form of allergic reaction.