Tinnitus affects 15% or around half a million people in the U.K. It is a painful ringing in the ears caused by damage to the cilia in the ear canal from loud noises or repeated exposure to noise. In some cases, it’s merely a distraction whereas serious cases can be extremely painful and debilitating as it disrupts life and diminishes the quality of living.

For a long time now, the common belief in the medical industry was that caffeine irritated the symptoms of tinnitus, leaving many practitioners advising tinnitus patient to limit or cease their caffeine consumption. Now, we might be finding out that this was useless advice.

It seems in a recent study funded by Deafness Research UK and published in the International Journal of Audiology, caffeine withdrawal does not seem to alleviate tinnitus symptoms; moreover, it may even increase symptoms and irritate the condition.

Participants were chosen that suffered from tinnitus and drank at least 150 mg of caffeine every day in either tea or coffee. The study was double-blinded so the participants did not know which days they would receive caffeine and which days they would not. They were asked to record their tinnitus symptoms at the beginning, middle (where caffeine withdrawal would be complete) and end.

Though this is a preliminary study and one that needs further evidence to support the theory that caffeine withdrawal is a poor treatment method for tinnitus, the importance of the study rings clear (pun intended).

If we’ve been advising 15% of the UK to quit drinking coffee or tea when 85% of them once enjoyed the beverage, we’re giving false advise that perhaps further diminishes their quality of life. If you really loved sky-diving and ended up with some strange itchy skin rash, and your doctor told you to quit sky-diving, you’d be a little upset to find out it was for no good reason when the rash didn’t clear.

For now, there is no cure for tinnitus and the best piece of advice is to wear earplugs to prevent tinnitus and keep it from getting worse. As well, many tinnitus patients find custom earphones and a personal music device to be quite soothing as complete silence often brings on painful tinnitus episodes as the brain searches for sound.