Your Morning Coffee Could Be Quietly Causing Hearing Loss, Study Reveals

The more coffee you drink, the greater your risk of hearing loss.
The more coffee you drink, the greater your risk of hearing loss.

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Turns out, coffee isn’t just keeping you up; it might also be making it harder to hear your alarm.

We all know drinking too much coffee is bad for our nerves, blood pressure, and stomach. But a recent study using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) reveals it can also hurt our hearing.

The study found that the more coffee you drink each day, the higher your risk of speech-frequency and high-frequency hearing loss.

Here’s a closer look at the study’s findings and what they might mean for your daily coffee habit:

What the Study Reveals About Coffee and Hearing Loss

Researchers from Guangdong Pharmaceutical University took a deep dive into the coffee habits and hearing health of 1,894 adults aged 20 and older.

To do this, they divided the participants into five groups based on how much coffee they drank. Then, they conducted audiometric tests to see if there was a link between coffee drinking and hearing loss.

Here’s what they found:

Participant GroupSFHLHFHL
None (no coffee consumption)23.32%32.73%
≤1 cup/day26.58%40.51%
1 cup/day45.05%63.94%
2–3 cups/day46.43%66.27%
≥4 cups/day48.18%67.15%​​.

Speech-frequency hearing loss (SFHL) affects your ability to understand conversations. High-frequency hearing loss (HFHL) impacts hearing higher-pitched sounds like alarms or birds chirping.

The trend is clear: more coffee seems to go hand in hand with a higher chance of hearing problems.

Graph of the relationship between coffee consumption and the prevalence of SFHL and HFHL. (From: Guangdong Pharmaceutical University)
Graph of the relationship between coffee consumption and the prevalence of SFHL and HFHL. (From: Guangdong Pharmaceutical University)

But, what’s more concerning is that this held true even for those who weren’t exposed to high noise levels, which is another common cause of hearing loss. Meaning, caffeine alone, without any additional stressors, can still play a huge role in hearing damage.

The Science Behind Coffee and Hearing Damage

Before you throw out your coffee maker, let’s break down what’s really going on here.

It’s not that coffee is directly damaging your ears. Instead, it’s all about how caffeine affects your body’s ability to bounce back from everyday noise exposure.

Caffeine, a primary component of coffee, is known to act as a non-selective adenosine receptor antagonist.

Years of research has found how caffeine can prevent adenosine from doing its job. (From: StongerByScience)
Years of research has found how caffeine can prevent adenosine from doing its job. (From: StongerByScience)

This chemical improves blood flow and reduces oxidative stress in the cochlea (A.K.A.) the part of your ear that detects sound. So, when caffeine blocks adenosine, it becomes harder for your ears to recover from daily noise exposure.

Over time, this damage can build up, leading to permanent hearing loss.

It’s not just that, though.

Caffeine has also been linked to an increase in oxidative stress. Basically, this creates an imbalance between harmful free radicals and the body’s ability to neutralize them.

As a result, it can speed up the breakdown of cells in your inner ear, especially affecting how well you hear higher sounds.

High-Risk Groups for Coffee-Related Hearing Loss

Study findings divided by gender. (From: (From: Guangdong Pharmaceutical University)
Study findings divided by gender. (From: Guangdong Pharmaceutical University)

While the study suggests all coffee drinkers should be mindful, some groups seem to be more vulnerable to caffeine’s effects on hearing.

These are:

  • People ages 20-64: Surprisingly, younger coffee drinkers showed a stronger link between drinking lots of coffee and hearing loss. This is especially worrying because many young people might not notice hearing problems right away, which could lead to bigger issues down the road.
  • Men: While both men and women were affected, the link between coffee and hearing loss was stronger in men. The exact reasons are still being studied, but it could be due to differences in how men’s auditory systems respond to factors like noise and caffeine.
  • Non-Hispanic White participants: This group had the highest rate of speech-frequency hearing loss when drinking four or more cups of coffee daily. In fact, they had nearly twice the hearing loss compared to people who didn’t drink coffee.

So, what’s the takeaway? We’re not saying you should stop drinking coffee completely. But, you might want to think about how much you drink, especially if you’re in one of these higher-risk groups.

Moderation is key, and your ears will thank you for it in the long run.

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