The study found a 13% to 23% reduced risk of chronic tinnitus in patients who consumed seafood and white-fleshed fish once or twice a week.
By Lucien Brenet, published on November 4, 2024
This scallop season, a study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, led by Dr. Sharon Curhan, a physician and epidemiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School, links the consumption of seafood and white-fleshed fish with a reduction in the risk of chronic tinnitus. Darker-fleshed fish and fish oil could, on the contrary, increase the risk of chronic tinnitus.
Hearing and dietary recommendations
To arrive at this conclusion, the study relied on a cohort of more than 73,000 women followed over several decades and whose information on diet was detailed and regularly updated. It appears that people consuming the foods mentioned above at least once a week have a 13% lower risk of developing persistent tinnitus. This proportion rises to 23% for those consuming two servings per week.
Consumption of dark-fleshed fish, such as tuna, mackerel or salmon, is on the contrary associated with a 12% increased risk of developing tinnitus. Researchers believe that in the future, audiologists and health professionals could recommend the consumption of certain foods to prevent certain hearing risks.
