Before you order Audifort: the medicine check, the legitimacy check and the page check
The last part of any file I worked on was the exclusions: the situations where the policy didn't apply, written in small print near the back. Supplements have those too, except nobody prints them in a list. So I made one for Audifort, using the label and the government's own herb fact sheets.
None of this means the product is risky for most people. It means that a 22-ingredient blend is bound to include a few things that matter if you take certain prescriptions, and you should know which ones before the box arrives, not after.
The medicine check
I went down the label and flagged every ingredient that a government fact sheet or a published trial connects to a common prescription. Several ingredients land in more than one group.
Count of Audifort ingredients connected to each concern. Chromium is listed outside the blend.
| If you take | Ingredients to mention |
|---|---|
| Diabetes or blood sugar medicine | 3 |
| Blood pressure or heart medicine | 2 |
| Stimulants or caffeine-sensitive | 2 |
| Blood thinners | 1 |
| Antidepressants | 1 |
Source: Audifort label; NCCIH herb fact sheets; Yuan and colleagues, Annals of Internal Medicine, 2004.
Here is the detail behind each count.
| If you take | Ingredients to mention | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Diabetes or blood sugar medicine | Panax ginseng, gymnema, chromium | All three are taken for blood sugar. Together with your medicine they could push it lower than expected |
| Blood pressure or heart medicine | Licorice compound (glycyrrhizinate), green tea | Glycyrrhizin can raise blood pressure; green tea lowered levels of the heart drug nadolol in a study |
| Stimulants, or you're sensitive to caffeine | Guarana, green tea | Both carry caffeine, and the label doesn't give a total |
| Blood thinners such as warfarin | Ginseng | A related ginseng weakened warfarin's effect in a controlled trial |
| Antidepressants | L-tryptophan | Tryptophan is a building block for serotonin, which many antidepressants also act on |
The licorice line is the one I'd underline twice. The NCCIH fact sheet on licorice root says glycyrrhizin can cause serious problems like an irregular heartbeat, especially in large amounts, and that even small amounts have been linked to severe effects in people with high blood pressure or heart or kidney conditions. The amount in one dropper of Audifort is surely small, since 22 ingredients share 200 mg, but "surely small" isn't something I'd guess at with a heart condition. Ask.
On ginseng, the NCCIH page on Asian ginseng says it might lower blood sugar and might interact with certain medicines. The warfarin finding comes from a randomized trial of American ginseng in 20 healthy volunteers, which found it reduced warfarin's effect on blood clotting. Audifort uses Panax, the Asian species, so it's a related plant rather than the same one. That's still enough for me to tell anyone on a blood thinner to check.
And on green tea, the NCCIH green tea page notes the caffeine and the nadolol interaction.
The easiest way to do all this is what pharmacists call a brown-bag check. Put your prescriptions and the Audifort label in a bag, take it to the pharmacy counter, and ask. It takes five minutes and costs nothing. The NCCIH's guide to using supplements wisely recommends the same thing.
A broader list of possible side effects and who should skip it covers pregnancy, surgery and a few situations I haven't listed here.
What to ask the pharmacist, word for word
Pharmacists are busy, so I go in with the question written down. Mine reads something like this: "I'm thinking of taking a liquid hearing supplement once a day. It has ginseng, gymnema, chromium, a licorice compound called glycyrrhizinate, green tea, guarana and L-tryptophan in a 200 mg blend. Is any of that a problem with what I take?" Then I hand over the label and my medicine list.
You'll get one of three answers. It's fine. It's fine but take it at a different time of day from one of your medicines. Or don't take it. All three are useful, and the third one saves you $207.
The ear check
There's one more exclusion that has nothing to do with pills. If your hearing dropped suddenly, if you have ringing in only one ear, or if you hear a whooshing in time with your heartbeat, see a doctor first. Sudden hearing loss in particular is treated with steroids, and the sooner the better. No supplement belongs in that picture.
The legitimacy check
Friends usually ask me some version of "is this real?" Here's what I look for in any online supplement, and how Audifort did.
| What I check | Audifort |
|---|---|
| Who runs the checkout | ClickBank, a long-standing online retailer |
| Is the price the same on the last screen | Yes, in my walk-through |
| Subscription or autoship | None |
| Written refund policy | Yes, 90 days from purchase |
| Physical returns address | Yes, Largo, Florida |
| Phone and email support | Yes, printed on the site |
| Full ingredient list | Yes, every ingredient named, amounts in a blend |
| Published trial of the product itself | No |
Seven of eight is a good result for this category. The missing one, a trial of the finished product, is missing for nearly every supplement sold this way. If you want someone else's work on the same question, the write-up on is Audifort legit goes through the company details and the checkout in more depth.
The page check
This is the newest kind of fine print. When I searched for Audifort I found pages calling themselves "official" on web addresses that had nothing to do with the product, some with different prices. I can't tell you who runs them. I can tell you how to make sure you're on the real order page:
- The prices should be $79, $69 and $49 per bottle for the 2-, 3- and 6-bottle packs. Different numbers mean a different seller.
- The payment screen should be ClickBank's, and your receipt email should come from ClickBank.
- There should be no monthly plan and no "trial" price.
- If anything looks off, close the tab and come back through a site you trust rather than through an ad.
Who it suits
After all of the above, I'm comfortable with Audifort for an adult who isn't on the medicines in that table, or who has checked with a pharmacist, and who wants an easy daily supplement as part of looking after their ears. That means alongside a hearing test and protecting your ears from noise, not instead of them. Order the 3-bottle pack from the official page, put the refund date on the calendar, and keep a simple note of how you feel each week.
If you are on two or more of those medicines, I'd skip the guesswork entirely and let your doctor decide. I'd say the same about any 22-ingredient blend, whoever made it.