One of the first things a hearing loss patient learns is that hearing loss is treatable but not reversible. But can you do things to help minimize your chance of hearing loss in the first place? Sure, you can protect your ears from loud environments, but age-related hearing loss has always been considered as an unavoidable fact of life.
We all know that our diets are the cornerstone of our health — the “you are what you eat”. As of late, some new studies are showing interesting results related to diet and the risks of hearing loss.
One 2019 study published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, found that women who ate healthier had lower rates of hearing loss than those who had a less-healthy diet.
In this study, the researchers measured the women’s hearing once and then again three years later. The results found that the women who reported eating some of the universally recognized healthy diets were 25 percent less likely to develop high-frequency hearing loss than those who had less healthy diets.
The team also found that “the odds of a decline in mid-frequency hearing sensitivities were almost 30 percent lower among those whose diets most closely resembled these healthful dietary patterns.”
These results echo a similar study from 2018, which also found a positive correlation between healthy diet and lower rates of hearing loss. This was the case even after researchers removed other variables like physical activity and cardiac health status.
The link between a healthy diet and hearing health also applies to supplementation. One study from 2007 found that older men who supplemented their diet with folic acid lowered their risk of hearing loss.
All this research may lead you to ask, when we say healthy eating, what exactly are we talking about? We’re talking not about the latest extreme diet, but rather healthy eating as it has been defined for a long period of time, with diets such as the Mediterranean Diet or the DASH diet.
Have you had an experience with changing your diet and improvement in your hearing health? We want to hear about it! Get in touch with us!
