Experts Challenge Caffeine-Tinnitus Link

Experts Challenge Caffeine-Tinnitus Link
By Jane Collingwood

UK scientists have tackled the common belief that caffeine causes or exacerbates tinnitus, or ringing in the ears. They found that cutting out coffee, tea, cola and chocolate may make the symptoms worse.
For many years, it has been widely believed that caffeine aggravates tinnitus, with many doctors advising their patients to avoid its consumption. But as there is a lack of experimental evidence to support this theory, researchers from Bristol University, UK took a closer look.

Dr. Lindsay St. Claire and colleagues carried out a detailed analysis of the effects of caffeine withdrawal and abstinence on tinnitus symptoms, which can include rushing, roaring, banging, and whistling sounds.

The team recruited 66 volunteers with tinnitus, who usually consumed at least 150mg of caffeine per day from tea or coffee. For 30 days, they were either given their usual caffeine consumption followed by phased withdrawal, or phased withdrawal followed by reintroduction then usual caffeine consumption.

Participants were not told when they were given caffeine and when they were given placebo. A brief record of tinnitus symptoms and caffeine withdrawal symptoms was kept twice per day, and the Tinnitus Questionnaire was completed at three time points during the study: at the start, on day 15, and on day 30, in order to measure the effect of withdrawal. Results appear in the International Journal of Audiology.

“Caffeine had no effect on tinnitus severity,” the researchers state. They report that the mean difference between caffeinated and decaffeinated days was less than half a per cent on the Tinnitus Severity index.

While the participants had significant adverse symptoms from caffeine withdrawal, “no evidence was found to justify caffeine abstinence as a therapy to alleviate tinnitus,” they write. But the experts point out that acute effects of caffeine withdrawal might add to the burden of tinnitus.

This is the first study of its kind to look at the effect of caffeine consumption on tinnitus. Its aim was to provide evidence for therapeutic practice to the tinnitus community.

Dr. St. Claire says, “With almost 85 percent of adults in the world consuming caffeine daily, we wanted to challenge the claim that caffeine makes tinnitus worse. Many professionals support caffeine withdrawal as a tinnitus therapy, even though there is a lack of any relevant evidence, and, in fact, acute symptoms of caffeine withdrawal might even make tinnitus worse.

“Many other dietary restrictions are claimed to alleviate tinnitus without the support from controlled studies. Further work in this area would be of great benefit to people with tinnitus and their clinicians.”

The work was funded by a 55,000 UK pound ($90,000 U.S.) grant from the charity Deafness Research UK. On receiving the funding, Dr. St. Claire said, “We are delighted to have the opportunity to carry out a study that has the potential to be of help to so many people. We are particularly keen that people with tinnitus should only go through the trouble of withdrawing from caffeine, if it can be shown that this is of real benefit to them.”

Chief Executive, Vivienne Michael, said, “In the UK alone, we estimate that for over half a million people, tinnitus has a negative effect on their quality of life. For many years, there has been a commonly held belief that caffeine is a major aggravator of tinnitus symptoms although there is very little evidence to support this.

“This new paper reports on a detailed analysis of the effects of caffeine consumption, withdrawal, abstinence and the severity of tinnitus symptoms. It provides the first experimental evidence to challenge the theory that caffeine triggers or aggravates tinnitus.

“This is important research because knowing which chemicals can make tinnitus worse may provide vital clues to discovering drugs that could alleviate the symptoms.”

A 2007 study found that nearly 20 percent of adults between 55 and 65 years old report tinnitus symptoms on a general health questionnaire and 12 percent on more detailed tinnitus-specific questionnaires. Caffeine is consumed daily by approximately 85 percent of all adults around the world.

References
St. Claire, L. et al. Caffeine abstinence: an ineffective and potentially distressing tinnitus therapy. International Journal of Audiology, Vol. 49, January 2010, pp. 24-29.
www.deafnessresearch.org.uk
Demeester, K. et al. Prevalence of tinnitus and audiometric shape. B-ENT, Vol. 3, Supplement 7, 2007, pp.37-49.

 

this is really interesting, i think that the time was too short, my T fluctuates massively within a 30 period, i think 12 months would be much better period of time
i have meniere's so am on low salt no caffeine diet, and have been for well over a decade. Salt definitely affects the vertigo, not sure about caffeine, and nothing seems to affect the T, even the vertigo doesn't have a relationship with it, it has a life of its own.

 

Thank god they know how to spend more research money "wisely"!

 

What a f$$king joke . I'm sorry but either it has an effect of not or maybe . Who gives a rats behind? honestly this money was not well spent.

 

Jesus F'N christ are they serious. what a bunch of goofs.
you see THIS IS EXACTLY WHY THERE WONT EVER BE A BREAKTHROUGH NOR WILL THERE BE ANY REAL PROGRESS TOWARDS TINNITUS Treatments if we allow this crap to go on .
Between the Ents telling us to learn to live with it, and so called researchers getting off on doing stupid experiments like this, we are so screwed.. Unless we start fighting for a cure, and bringing MASS attention to our condition, this type of stuff wont stop.
I swear once my movement goes according to plan, this is the type of stuff im definitely going to try to cease.
I would rather them be like " we will not be doing nothing" rather than them doing this.

 

If it's not too direct to ask or too much of a private matter what do you mean by that?
Can we help?
I'm thinking it's t related!

 

Has there ever been a "challenge" for people with tinnitus? Like "the ice bucket" or other kinds of awareness? I'm from norway so I don't know how it is in other countries, but here it is never mentioned. Even the doctors just tells to "live it it" it's too "unknown".

 

I'm really wanting to have some kind of viral ice bucket thing for Tinnitus and (personally for me) Meniere's Disease. I think also given how the general public seem to like to think of service men and women as 'heroes' and that they too also suffer with Tinnitus, perhaps this could also be an avenue to encourage more awareness and financial support for the cause. I wonder how much 'help for heroes' spends on T research and how much it spends other things..

 

Help for heroes have lots of revenue ,wonder how they can be approached,see if there helping out service men / women now having T ,lots have it ,my ex service husband has .
Get him to ask around on his service site .Good point you raised ,same for other countries involved on that side of T .

 

Well i dont agree with that, i drank a coffee this morming and i felt it even stroNGer, a couple of days and it lowers dramatically but since i just started drinking coffee i dont care anymore, i doubt coffee got any effect on me at all, maybe just in my case, and the question still remains, WHO KNOWS!

 

the fact that this study demonstrated that t was worse for its participants when caffeine was withheld maybe an important pointer towards a potential cure.

 

Yes it is indeed T related . and yes you all can help. for right now if you have the time , just go on ANY POPULAR website that has a crap load of people on it and just SPREAD AWARENESS ABOUT Tinnitus And if someone happens to be curious, link them to a horror story about someone suffering from severe T.
Basically I want you all to get people whether in real life or on the web to atleast research what tinnitus is.

I will let everyone know when everything is set in motion but heres a quick rundown.
The goal is to get us the world wide exposure we need so that pharmaceutical companies, celebrities, politicians, scientists,, and all of the above have no choice but to help us.
Once we get the mass general public aware everything is going to work its self out.

More awareness =Mass Public Awareness= Businesses losing money due to paranoia Of Getting Chronic Tinnitus = businesses investing in pharmaceutical companies to curing our T.

ill keep you all posted soon.

 

It's important to note that this was published in 2010, the study will be from 2009 or earlier. It isn't new, the funding charity no longer exists as it has merged with Action on Hearing Loss.

I think there are far better things to spend money on for research, although at the time it was conducted pretty much every Doctor told their patients to cut caffeine. This study proved that to be the wrong advice, which could make your quality of life worse if followed.

For me the problem is that it feels there are too many small and random studies like this. If it was part of a wider brief, with all funding being on the same wavelength, then fair enough. For example if several teams were assessing the effects of different stimulants, working towards the production of a particular therapy or treatment, it would have much greater validity. Small studies like this can be referenced in a larger project in this way, the problem is that we never really get to see if and how they do.

 

I developed my T long, long before I developed an addiction to a good Long Black - my T doesn't alter one way or another and I'm not going to give up one of my real pleasures while I have to put up with a howling head. I have good T days when I drink heaps of coffee and have bad days when I drink heaps of coffee (which is every day in both cases!!!) - so what the hell.... where's that grinder??...lol

 

I drink black coffee and I also love the cream & sugar, but I try to avoid them for health reasons. Decaffeinated coffee is just never going to happen in my house because I'm paranoid about the solvents, methylene chloride and ethyl acetate. Ethyl acetate is found in nail polish remover. Ethyl acetate is known to cause serious reactions with the eyes, skin, central nervous system, and the respiratory system. If you need to have that coffee taste without caffeine then at least pay a little extra for a nice decaffeinated organic brand done by a water process.

For those people that like to read.. Let's dive right into the deep-end of the swimming pool!
http://www.noiseandhealth.org/artic...ssue=32;spage=114;epage=133;aulast=Hodgkinson

Groups of workers in the paint and lacquer industry were studied to assess the risk and incidence of hearing loss as a result of exposure to organic solvents whose main components were xylene and ethyl acetate. Levels of exposure depended on individual work posts. PTA results were compared with those of workers exposed to noise above the threshold limit value and a group exposed to neither noise nor solvents. Hearing loss was found in 30% of workers exposed to solvents, 20% in noise-exposed subjects and 6% in the nonexposed group. The highest PTA thresholds were found in the solvent-exposed group, lower in the noise-exposed group and lowest in the nonexposed group. The relative risk of hearing impairment was also greater in the solvent-exposed group. [81] These findings were confirmed in a larger study of 731 workers in the dockyard, paint and lacquer industries. [81] The study comprised four groups: exposed to 'organic solvents alone (the main component being styrene),' 'organic solvents + noise>80 dBA,' 'noise only >80 dBA' and one group exposed to neither noise nor organic solvents. The highest incidence of hearing loss was found in workers exposed to organic solvents (48%), followed by workers exposed to 'organic solvents + noise (42%),' noise-exposed group (26%) and the control group (17%). The range of frequencies affected in the solvent and 'solvent + noise' group ranged from 3-8 kHz. The frequency affected by noise alone was 4 kHz.​

That sounds scary with hearing loss in 30%, although they are talking about high levels of exposure, we can't rule out low levels and years of consumption. So here is some more reading on methylene chloride..
http://www.emla.hu/prtr/chems/tfacts14.html

Exposure to lower levels of methylene chloride in air can lead to slightly impaired hearing and vision. Many people can smell methylene chloride at these lower levels. However, people differ in their ability to smell methylene chloride, so odors may not help you avoid an unwanted exposure.

In humans, direct skin contact with methylene chloride causes intense burning and mild redness of the skin. Direct contact with the eyes can burn the cornea. In animals that have been exposed to vapors or directly to methylene chloride, the cornea was damaged. The damage healed within a few days after the exposure ended.​

Don't you just love a steaming hot cup of hearing impaired methylene chloride with a hint of ethyl acetate.

Does anyone else notice a difference in the sources of caffeine, Tea vs Soda vs Coffee. The caffeine they put into soda is the byproduct removed from the making of decaffeinated coffee. So I would imagine soda and coffee would have the same affect. Tea gives me more anxiety than coffee, even when they say it has less caffeine. I speculate this is because of the sugar and the times of the day we consume these beverages with meals.

Most people will agree, that a persons state of well-being has an effect on Tinnitus. So if that means drinking or not drinking caffeinated beverages helps, then do what you feel makes life better, rather than living in fear and avoidance.

The point I was trying to make is that we are told to avoid caffeine for tinnitus, but I feel this is more of a general broad spectrum dietary avoidance rather than a specific single target. Caffeine impairs insulin action but not glucose levels in young, healthy adults, but people with type 2 diabetes may experience a small rise particularly after meals.

You want more reading? That's Great!
http://www.naturalnews.com/039930_caffeine_blood_sugar_type_2_diabetes.html#

The researchers found that while caffeine did not affect fasting levels of glucose or insulin response, it did worsen diabetic symptoms after the meal compared with the placebo. When taken with food, caffeine increased blood levels of insulin by 48 percent and increased blood sugar by 21 percent relative to the placebo...

...Lane noted that the increase in blood sugar seen from caffeine was equivalent to the decrease gained from diabetes drugs - suggesting that drinking caffeine might actually cancel out the effect of diabetes medication. "... For people with diabetes, drinking coffee or consuming caffeine in other beverages may make it harder for them to control their glucose," he said.

In a seeming contradiction, some studies have actually shown that high coffee consumption may decrease a person's risk of diabetes. According to diabetes researcher Rob van Dam, this is due to other chemicals that naturally occur in coffee; unfortunately, the beneficial effect of these compounds seems to be canceled out by caffeine.
​

The last part is of particular interest with the decrease in diabetes but the cancellation of beneficial effects that he says seems to by the caffeine. Hmmm.. I suspect the other additives..

And you know that means, yes.. more reading! lol
http://www.livestrong.com/article/505381-blood-sugar-ringing-in-the-ears/

A study published in the September 2009 issue of the "Brazilian Journal of Otorhinolaryngology" discovered that 87.7 percent of the study's participants with peripheral vestibular disorder also possessed blood sugar and impaired insulin metabolism. About 61.7 percent of the people studied had hypoglycemia, while only 27.2 percent had hyperglycemia. In a study published in the 1984 issue of "Acta Oto-Laryngologica", about 41 percent of the participants had blood sugar levels that were high or low. This suggests that regulating blood sugar levels helps reduce your risk of developing hearing problems such as tinnitus.
​

Anyway, life is short, enjoy the ride.

 

I agree, withholding caffeine is the key to this study in regards to Tinnitus. If only it was so simple to make a cure knowing this information. The complicated part is that caffeine is a psychoactive drug, that has a profound effect on the body acting on the central nervous system, by blocking adenosine receptors. It increases the release of dopamine, glutamate, acetylcholine, norepinephrine, epinephrine, serotonin and cortisol. In short, caffeine changes the neurochemical activity in the brain that leads to the physiological changes in the whole body.

Perhaps what we really need here is another study that actively checks the dopamine, glutamate, acetylcholine, norepinephrine, epinephrine, serotonin and cortisol levels of people living with Tinnitus.

 

Does caffeine affect my T? Yes. Do I drink coffee yes. Need my fix! At almost 66 what the heck!

 

What about caffeine in an 85% chocolate bar?

 

Caffeine makes my tinnitus L O U D and high pitched. No thanks.

 

Ditto. The only evidence that matters is everyone's individual experience.

Also, another facet of caffeine as far as T goes is how it impacts sleep-patterns. The more sleep deprived the harder to deal with the T regardless of its actual level.

But caffeine is similar to an amphetamine. It creates more alertness and jitteriness and that hyperactivity seems to be what makes the nerves that generate the T song literally sizzle (or at least the nerves that perceive it).

It's really important to ask why one drinks coffee or tea in the first place and assess whether it confers any benefits. Like any stimulant, there's no free ride. You are more energized part of the day followed by a crash later. So for me, I've learned it's a zero-sum game. I do drink lots of tea...all of it herbal, for the comforting aspects and for the antioxidants and possible snake-oil/placebo effects.

 

Not really if certain parts of the day are more important than others

 

It becomes a net loss if you aren't able to properly recharge your batteries overnight. Then you move progressively towards burnout, as I did a few times. Note I work in IT which is notorious for burnout.