Tinnitus flare ups are rarely constant; they seem to appear and disappear, often for no discernible reason at all. Maybe you're getting into bed one night and, evidently out of the blue, your ears start ringing badly. As you lie in bed, you consider your day, and there are no clear causes for this episode: no loud music, no shrieking fire alarms, nothing that could explain why your tinnitus chose 9 PM to mount a flare-up.

So maybe it's the something you ate. We don't typically think about the connection between hearing and food, but there's a bit of research and evidence to suggest that some foods can make tinnitus worse. In order to steer clear of those foods, it's important to know what they are.

Some Foods Which Trigger Tinnitus

Let's just cut right to the chase, shall we? You want to identify which foods you should stay away from so you can be sure you never have to go through one of those food-generated tinnitus episodes again. Certain foods to avoid might include:

Alcoholic Drinks

Alcohol and tobacco should be high on the list of things to avoid. Alright, okay, "tobacco" isn't necessarily food, but if you want to minimize tinnitus episodes (and the intensity of those episodes), you'll stay away from drinking and smoking as much as you can.

Your general health can be substantially impacted by alcohol and tobacco particularly your blood pressure. Your tinnitus is progressively more likely to flare up the more you drink and smoke.

Sodium

Your blood pressure is one of the leading predictors of tinnitus episodes. When your blood pressure goes up, your tinnitus gets worse. That's the reason why when you set your list of foods to stay away from, sodium needs to be at the top. Whether you love french fries or just put salt on everything, you'll want to ease up a lot.

There are some foods that are remarkably high in sodium, too, like ice cream (which you don't usually think of as tasting very salty). You'll need to keep close track of sodium levels in anything you eat to prevent a surprise tinnitus event.

Fast Food

It shouldn't be shocking that you should avoid fast food if you are avoiding sodium. Even fast food places that say they are a more healthy option serve food that is really high in fat and sodium. And, again, that's going to have a big influence on your blood pressure and, consequently, your tinnitus. Fast food restaurants also normally serve shockingly large drinks, and those drinks are very high in sugar. Yes you guessed it, sugar is next on this list.

Sweets And Sugars

Candy is something that we all love. Well, maybe not everybody, but the majority of us. From time to time, you'll encounter someone who actually prefers veggies over candy. We try not to pass judgment.

Sadly, sugar can completely throw off the stability of glucose in your body. And a tiny disturbance of your glucose balance can cause you to have a difficult time trying to sleep. In the silence of the night, while you lie there awake, it becomes much easier to begin to hear that ringing.

Caffeine

There is an apparent reason why we saved this one for last. Giving this one up is a hard pill to swallow. But having caffeine late in the day, whether from soda, tea, or coffee, can really wreck your sleep cycle. And the worse your quality of sleep, the more likely your tinnitus is to flare up.

It's actually the lack of sleep, not the caffeine that's the problem. Have your coffee or tea in the morning, and switch to a non-caffeinated beverage before dinner.

Learn What Works Best For You

This is absolutely not an exhaustive list. Your hearing expert is the best place to begin concerning the dietary modifications you need to make. Let's not forget that dietary changes affect everyone in a different way, so it could even be worth maintaining a food journal where you can track what affects you and by how much.

Understanding which foods can cause a tinnitus flare up can help you make smarter decisions going forward. When you begin monitoring how your ears react to different foods, the explanation for your tinnitus might become less mysterious.

If you decide on that evening of coffee, at least you know what you're in for.