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An observational study suggests that people with primary subjective tinnitus were more likely to have low levels of vitamin D than individuals without tinnitus. The findings were published in Frontiers in Neurology in January 2026.
The study compared 350 patients with primary subjective tinnitus against 347 participants without tinnitus. All participants underwent an ear, nose, and throat examination, audiological testing, and blood testing that measured 25-hydroxyvitamin D3, the main circulating form of vitamin D.
The prevalence of low vitamin D levels was higher in the tinnitus group, at about 53 percent, compared with about 32 percent in the control group. The researchers reported that deficiency seemed connected with greater tinnitus severity and chronicity. They did not find a significant correlation between vitamin D levels and how loud the tinnitus was or which ear was affected.
Several caveats apply. This is an observational study and does not that low vitamin D causes tinnitus, only that the two were associated in this group. The authors and independent commentators note that vitamin D supplementation cannot be recommended as a tinnitus treatment based on current evidence.
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