Higher Folate Intake Can Battle Hearing Loss in Men

A paper presented at the American Academy of Oto-Rhinology – Head and Neck Surgery Foundation meeting confirmed the likely benefit of a high folic acid intake in preventing hearing loss in elderly men.  (An earlier study from the Netherlands had shown this was a possibility, but it was done before that country embarked on folic acid fortification of food, so the baseline blood folate levels were about half those seen in the USA.)

In the new study, 3,550 men with hearing loss were identified within the US Health Professionals Follow-up Study database.  They then evaluated the men’s nutritional information, and found that those over 60 who had maintained a high intake of dietary folate were 20% less likely to have developed hearing loss.  Looking at other possible food factors with an influence on the outcome, they found no benefit form vitamins C or E or beta-carotene.

The researchers believe this is the largest study to show as relationship between dietary intake and hearing loss.  High folate foods include leafy veggies, asparagus, beans and peas, fortified cereals, baker’s yeast, and liver.  Although the findings were obtained in men (in whom elderly deafness is more common than in women), the earlier Dutch study recruited men and women, so there’s no reason for women to feel they needn’t bother with the leafy veggies etc.