Chocolate-Based Diet May Protect Middle-Aged People from Hearing Loss

Association of Chocolate Consumption with Hearing Loss and Tinnitus in Middle-Aged People Based on the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 2012⁻2013.

Abstract
Chocolate, which is produced from cocoa, exerts antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects that ameliorate neurodegenerative diseases.

We hypothesized that chocolate consumption would protect against hearing loss and tinnitus.

We evaluated the hearing and tinnitus data, as well as the chocolate consumption, of middle-aged participants (40⁻64 years of age) of the 2012⁻2013 Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey. All of the subjects underwent a medical interview, physical examination, audiological evaluation, tinnitus questionnaire, and nutrition examination. A total of 3575 subjects 40⁻64 years of age were enrolled. The rate of any hearing loss (unilateral or bilateral) in the subjects who consumed chocolate (26.78% (338/1262)) was significantly lower than that in those who did not (35.97% (832/2313)) (p < 0.001). Chocolate consumption was independently associated with low odds of any hearing loss (adjusted odds ratio = 0.83, 95% confidence interval = 0.70 to 0.98, p = 0.03). Moreover, the severity of hearing loss was inversely correlated with the frequency of chocolate consumption. In contrast to chocolate, there was no association between hearing loss and the consumption of sweet products without cocoa. Chocolate consumption was also not associated with tinnitus or tinnitus-related annoyance.

Our results suggest that a chocolate-based diet may protect middle-aged people from hearing loss.

 

Sorry but it's incredible to see all kinds of bullshit researchers are able to make up...

 

Maybe it is otoprotective? If things like NSAIDS are ototoxic then surely other things may be the opposite.

 

It may be otoprotective to a certain (not really relevant) degree but not enough for statistical relevance.

Smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol are separately and in combination also bad for your blood vessels and certainly ototoxic, but if they are statistically relevant reasons for tinnitus former Soviet Union could be renamed as "land of the ringing ears"

 

The flavanols in chocolate increase nitric oxide which improves blood flow.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3022066/

 

If chocolate protected one's hearing to any serious degree I would be able to hear a whisper at 1000 yards

 

You will see high level cocoa chocolate in many athlete diet plans, migraines can be triggered with its ingestion in some, showing it certainly has potent affects.
I am not a huge chocolate person but buy the black stuff every now and then for the kick.
Theobromine, derived from the latin "theobroma" genus of trees which translates as "food of the gods".

 

I have been adding cocoa powder to berries. I don't want to eat the sugar that comes with chocolate.

If this study is onto something, I screwed up. I suspected that cocoa powder gave me spikes, and so I stopped eating it for over a year. In any case, I am consuming it now, so let's hope the study is right.

 

How do you know that tinnitus is not more prevalent in the former USSR compared to places where people do less drinking and smoking?

 

It's gotta be very dark chocolate or cacao. Don't even think about milk chocolate, which isn't really even chocolate anyway - it's chocolate flavoured sugar. Gross.
Contains a lot of antioxs and is high in magnesium, which we all know is good for hearing.
I wouldn't eat anything lower than 75%. Cacao nibs are great too, but a bit funky.