A new study has found that obesity may increase the chances of having tinnitus—a condition where people hear ringing or buzzing in their ears. The research was published online in the journal Cureus.
Tinnitus is a common problem, especially in older adults, and it can be annoying or even distressing for many people.
Scientists wanted to see if being overweight or obese could be linked to this hearing issue.
Researchers from Lahore General Hospital in Pakistan used data from a large U.S. health study called the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES).
They looked at information from two time periods—2015 to 2016 and 2017 to 2018. The final analysis included 5,452 adults aged 20 and older.
According to the results, about 17.2% of people in the study said they had tinnitus. The researchers noticed that tinnitus was more common in older adults, in men, and in people who were obese or had symptoms of depression.
When they compared people with obesity to those without, the difference was clear: 20.3% of people with obesity had tinnitus, compared to only 15.0% of people who were not obese.
Even after adjusting the data to account for age, gender, and other health conditions, the link between obesity and tinnitus remained strong. People with obesity were about 1.4 times more likely to have tinnitus than people without obesity.
The study’s authors say these results highlight the possible role that body weight and overall metabolic health play in the development or worsening of tinnitus. Since obesity is a growing problem around the world, understanding how it connects to other health issues like tinnitus is very important.
These findings suggest that managing body weight could be an important part of helping people who suffer from tinnitus. It may be useful for doctors to consider weight and other lifestyle factors as part of a complete plan to manage tinnitus symptoms.
Although more research is needed to understand exactly how obesity affects the ears and hearing, this study adds to the growing evidence that keeping a healthy weight supports many areas of health—including hearing.
If you care about weight loss, please read studies that hop extract could reduce belly fat in overweight people, and early time-restricted eating could help lose weight .
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