Researchers found that the more caffeine women consumed, the less likely they were to have tinnitus.
The researchers, from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) in Boston, MA, write about their findings in The American Journal of Medicine.
According to the American Tinnitus Association, around 50 million people in the US experience some degree oftinnitus, which is often described as "ringing in the ears" although some people also hear hissing, buzzing, roaring, clicking or chirping. Of these, about 1 million are so badly affected they cannot function normally day to day.
For the study, the researchers analyzed data on over 65,000 women with and without tinnitus from theNurses' Health Study II.
The women were aged between 30 and 44 at the start of the study in 1991, when researchers collected a wealth of information on medical history, lifestyle and diet. At this point, the average caffeine intake was 242.3 mg per day - the equivalent of nearly two and a half 8-ounce cups of coffee. Most of the caffeine consumed came from coffee drinking.
In 2009, 18 years after they joined the study, the women were asked questions about tinnitus, including date of onset, where applicable. When a woman reported experiencing symptoms either daily or on a few days per week, the researchers counted it as a case. They identified a total of 5,289 cases of reported incident tinnitus.