A person who has a higher caffeine intake could endure a lower rate of tinnitus, a new study in America claims.
The study, which analysed more than 65,000 women in the Nurses’ Health Study II, saw researchers tracking elements regarding the lifestyle and medical history of the women, who were all aged 30-44 and without tinnitus in 1991.
Questionnaires distributed to participants asking for information on self-reported tinnitus and date of onset were returned back to the administrators of the study in 2009, and women who reported symptoms of tinnitus “a few days/week” or “daily” were defined as cases of tinnitus. After 18 years of follow-up, researchers found more than 5,200 cases of reported incident tinnitus.
Researchers reported that when compared with women with a caffeine intake of less than 150 milligrams/day, the frequency of reported tinnitus was 15 per cent lower amongst women who consumed from 450 to 599 mg of caffeine per day.
Gary Curhan, Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and senior author of the paper at the Channing Division of Network Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said: “We observed a significant inverse association between caffeine intake and the incidence of tinnitus among these women.
“The reason behind this observed association is unclear.”
The majority of the caffeine consumed by the participants in the study was coffee and there were no variations in the results when researchers looked at their differing age.
“We know that caffeine stimulates the central nervous system, and previous research has demonstrated that caffeine has a direct effect on the inner ear in both bench science and animal studies,” Curhan continued.
“Researchers note that further evidence is needed to make any recommendations about whether the addition of caffeine would improve tinnitus symptoms.”
The study is published in the American Journal of Medicine.