How Salty Is Your Diet? Should Tinnitus Sufferers Avoid Salt?

Hi everyone,

I saw an audiologist a few days ago and the first thing he asked me was how much salt do you eat. Apparently it has a lot to do with the level of tinnitus... and the lower the sodium the better and that anyone with ringing in their ears should see an improvement after cutting out salt.

I have started doing this as salt isn't really good for you anyway and I'll see if it works.

 

I've heard this myself and try to cut back if for no other reason than for my health (and hypertension). I can't say the little salt I use has much effect on my tinnitus but give me a pizza (which typically contains loads of salt) and my tinnitus will be through the roof.

 

Mine is not affected neither with salt nor sugar intake.
Unless you really have issues with high blood pressure or you know your diet is bad I don't think it will have any effect.

 

It can be a possible domino effect. More sodium can possibly lead to higher BP and that can possibly lead to louder tinnitus. Salt can possibly make the body retain more water and that is not all that healthy....

 

@basma

Everything in moderation. I once experimented with food, drink and other beverages to see if it made a difference to my tinnitus. No difference at all. I was miserable and life was a drag. After 5 weeks I couldn't take it any longer so returned to my normal eating and drinking regime and felt a lot better. My post in the link below explains in more detail.

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/food-drink-and-tinnitus.12063/

Michael

PS: Your situation maybe different, so by all means continue what you want to do but be aware, it can cause stress, if you don't see improvement the longer you continue, and this can affect the tinnitus.

 

The audiologist explained that the cochlea has sodium inside it and eating too much salt upsets the balance and that's why a low sodium diet helps people with tinnitus and Ménière's disease too

 

Potassium ^ the ear is full of Potassium. Salt pushes Potassium out of your cells (all of them) all us humans are supposed to eat a lot more potassium than we do. It's definitely one thing we can improve

 

My diet is salt-free.

 

I don't add salt to my food. I do, however, eat maybe 1/3 a bag of chips a day (not always, but most days, yes.) I have a sort of "limit" for my daily intake of sugar and salt. This isn't so much for my T or anything else (I'm perfectly healthy, the T aside,) though, since I've never experienced an increase or decrease because of it. Caffeine doesn't seem to affect my T either (but I limit the intake nonetheless.)

 

On another note an Australian hearing website claims 97% of people have some form of tinnitus... is this correct ?!

 

If they mean fleeting tinnitus then the number seems realistic/true. Everybody I have talked to about this has said they have had temporary ringing in their ears, mostly after a loud evening in clubs/parties/at parties.......well, my mother says she never had a ringing, but she has had temporary low white noise sound.

 

That’s great to know. I eat a ton of salt! I’m cutting back right away... Thanks for posting this this!

 

In my opinion it does not make sense to talk about salt intake without knowing the sodium blood level.

The same applies to potassium and magnesium.