Everyone has dealt with tinnitus at various points in their lives – the dull, incessant, inexplicable ringing in your ears with seemingly no source. Now, researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) have found a simple potential solution: A cup of coffee. Their research shows an association between caffeine intake and reduced instances of tinnitus.

“We observed a significant inverse association between caffeine intake and the incidence of tinnitus among these women,” said Gary Curhan, MD, ScD, senior author of the paper and a physician-researcher in the Channing Division of Network Medicine at BWH and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.

“The reason behind this observed association is unclear,” said Curhan. “We know that caffeine stimulates the central nervous system, and previous research has demonstrated that caffeine has a direct effect on the inner ear in both bench science and animal studies.”

In terms of how much caffeine makes the difference they found that incidents of self-reported tinnitus were 15% lower among women who consumed between 450-599 mg of caffeine per day, compared to women who consumes 150 mg or less. For reference, 150 mg is about 12 ounces of coffee, or 1.5 8 oz cups. 450 mg, then, would equate to about 4.5 8 oz cups. Depending on who you are, that may seem like a lot of coffee.

Tinnitus is most commonly caused by noise-induced hearing loss, such as prolonged exposure to loud music or mechanical equipment. As a medical phenomenon, it is entirely subjective and can’t be measured or quantified on any objective scale. There is no known medical treatment for subjective tinnitus.