Does coffee really cause tinnitus, or ringing in the ears? Now UK scientists have tackled this common belief. And they've discovered that going cold turkey on your three-a-day mochaccino habit may make the ringing worse.
Researchers at Bristol University's Centre for Hearing and Balance Studies put a dent in the longstanding belief that caffeine consumption aggravates tinnitus, which usually manifests in its sufferers as a phantom, infernal ringing in the ears. Research head Dr. Lindsay St. Clare dismissed this correlation in ScienceDaily:
"With almost 85 per cent of adults in the world consuming caffeine daily, we wanted to challenge the claim that caffeine makes tinnitus worse. Many professionals support caffeine withdrawal as a tinnitus therapy, even though there is a lack of any relevant evidence, and, in fact, acute symptoms of caffeine withdrawal might even make tinnitus worse."
Thanks to science, you can head over to the office pot and raise a glass of bean juice to your health. Just keep the volume down on your headphones from now on, capiche?
[lead photo via KittyGenius.com]