Say No to Hearing Loss with Folates

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We’ve all heard about the importance of good health. A healthy lifestyle contributes to a healthy heart (important), improved blood flow (very important), a lowered likelihood of heart attack or stroke (very, very important). We’ve all heard about the health value of: 

• a good diet
• regular exercise (cardio-vascular, in particular) 
• nutritional supplements 
• self-examinations
• regular visits to the doctor or dentist

Routinely, we hear in the news the results of the latest study on the use of alcohol, eat eggs, don’t eat eggs, eat eggs again, no potatoes, yes potatoes – it can all get a little confusing (maybe you’re not getting enough vitamin D), but the facts are pretty simple.

You should also listen to them – with your ears! That’s right, we’ve all heard about the importance of good health to longevity, to a healthy heart and strong bones, to a good, rich life. However, one thing you don’t hear a lot about: your ability to hear is related to a healthy diet.

Okay, so you’re thinking, “great, one more thing to worry about” but, the fact is, people who lead active, healthy lives, people who eat a well-balanced diet and take a walk around the block three times a week, hear better longer.

So the next time you plug in to your MP3 player for a dose of thrash metal, think about the following facts. Then, unplug as necessary.

Hearing Loss and Life’s Quality

Hearing los directly impacts quality of life

It is estimated over 30 million Americans experience hearing loss to some degree. That’s around 10% of us. And the simple fact is, hearing loss is preventable in most cases even though your ears are running 24/7/365. They never shut down – even when you hit the sheets.

Hearing loss can be caused by a long menu of problems: long-term exposure to noise (MP3 players, for example), genetics, medications, diseases and loud explosive sounds to name a few.

Our ears are always on, doing all kinds of things, many of which we don’t even notice, they’re such a part of everyday life. Ah, but when you experience hearing loss the things we enjoy through hearing have a noticeable impact on the quality of life.

First, there’s the ability to interact with others – mostly humans. The ability to hear is related to the ability to communicate which is related to the ability to interact with others. Humans are by nature, social creatures. We like being around and interacting with others. And your ability to hear (or lack of ability) has an obvious affect on your ability to interact with others.

Hearing is involved not only in our ability to learn to speak but also the formation of memories. So, hearing creates the ability to learn to speak, leading to the ability to communicate, the formation of memories and leading to the ability to interact with others.

That’s definitely a quality of life issue, no?

Second, hearing creates something called spatial orientation – our place in the space we occupy. Sounds place us and provide the brain the information to let us know where we stand…or walk, run, swim or simply move from room to room.

Sounds like footsteps tell us there’s someone behind us. The sound of a car tells us to pull to the right on a blind curve. The sounds of a warning bell or a honking horn tell us there’s danger nearby.

So, in addition to giving us the ability to communicate and share our lives with others, the ability to hear creates spatial orientation – letting us know where we are in relation to other people and things.

Third, how about hearing things like music or the tweeting of the birds in spring. These “intangibles" bring richness and fullness to life. Yet, most of us take these things for granted. Because the ability to hear is such a part of everyday life, we don’t recognize how important hearing is to life’s quality. Just ask someone who experiences severe hearing loss how important the ability to hear is.

Like the song says, “You don’t know what you got ‘til it’s gone.” With hearing, that goes double – one for each ear.

Healthy Hearing and Healthy Diet

Your hearing mechanism, located deep inside the skull, is very delicate and complicated, and if any part of that mechanism – from ear drum to cochlea – is damaged, the result is hearing loss. That’s why hearing professionals recommend wearing ear protection when exposed to loud noise and to unplug the MP3 player once in awhile to allow for some quiet time.

Hearing loss is a fairly standard part of the aging process. The hearing mechanism wears out as we age. But here’s the thing: if we live a healthier lifestyle today, we’ll hear better tomorrow and could potentially slow the effects from aging down. Specifically, if we eat a better diet and live a heart healthy lifestyle, we’ll hear better longer. And it’s not that hard to do.

When the ears are exposed to loud noise – especially loud noise over a long time – the inner ear begins to produce little molecules called free radicals. These corrosive, little molecules have been tied to everything from the aging process itself to hearing loss.

Now, free radicals are always floating around the body so don’t expect to go radical clear. These molecules occur naturally, usually when the body is damaged or stressed. A cut or a nicked finger, for example, produces free radicals. So does loud music. That’s one reason your ears ring when you leave a rock concert. Too much noise. Too much volume. Too many free radicals.

These free radicals damage the delicate hearing mechanism, and you lose your ability to hear over time. In most cases, hearing loss is so gradual that you don’t even notice it, but there’s less and less hearing going on every day.

Anti-Oxidants, Folates and Free Radicals

Eat your folates for healthy hearing

Free radicals are bad for your health. Simple.

So, how do you fight these naturally-occurring molecules that damage the body at the cellular level? One thing doctors recommend is to eat foods high in anti-oxidants – especially foods rich in folates. What’s a folate?

It’s a nutrient found in some of the foods we eat. Specifically, folate is a water-soluble member of the B vitamin family. If you take a vitamin supplement, you might see the ingredient, folic acid, on the ingredients label. Folic acid is the synthetic version of folate and, as far as the body is concerned, it doesn’t know the difference between folic acid and organic or natural folate. Both put up a daily fight against the free radicals produced by stress on the body.

In other words, free radicals damage the body bit by bit over a lifetime. Anti-oxidants, like folate, fight free radicals. So, the better your diet, the more folate you consume. In turn, more folate is available to fight those free radicals that are responsible for the aging process and, yes, hearing loss.

A recent study presented at the 2009 American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation (AAO-HNSF) Annual Meeting found that there was no beneficial association with increased intakes of antioxidant vitamins such as C, E, and beta carotene. However, the authors did find that men over the age of 60 who have a high intake of foods and supplement high in folates have a 20 percent decrease in risk of developing hearing loss. 20 percent! That is a significant finding and the authors report this is the largest study to examine the beneficial relationship between folates and hearing loss.

Good Foods and Nutritional Supplements For the Ears

If you take a nutritional supplement – a vitamin pill – each day, check the label. Look for the ingredient folic acid. If the supplement provides 100% of the minimum daily requirement (MDR) of folic acid, you’re covered. But that doesn’t mean that you should count on your vitamin each day to keep you healthy. A healthy diet also provides folates to fight off free radicals damaging your hearing.

So what foods are high in folates? There are lots and at least some of them are foods you like to eat:

Other foods that are rich in folates: broccoli, beans and peas, beef liver, eggs – you know, the good stuff, the stuff you know you should eat for overall good health.

A healthy diet not only improves overall good health at the cellular level, it improves quality of life at the daily level. Foods high in folates, or vitamin supplements that provide 100% of your MDR of folic acid, will go a long way to ensure that you go a long way.

Think of it as a quality of life issue that you never think about. You hear fine. You hear the slightest sound – the faint cry of your baby three rooms away. Good for you. Want to keep it that way?

We all do. Our bodies produce free radicals that damage cells – the body’s building blocks. Anti-oxidants – especially folates – are the first line of defense in fending off the damage caused by free radicals. You can take a vitamin supplement that provides 100% of your MDR of folic acid, but eat some of the foods on the list above. There must be something on that list that you like, and hopefully, you like them all.

No, it’s not just about heart health, though there’s no doubt a healthy heart is critical to good health (and actually for healthy hearing). But so is the ability to hear. Your ability to hear enables you to interact with others. Your ears provide spatial orientation – your place in the space you occupy, whether it’s a crowded elevator or the quiet of the woods in winter. Your ears, your ability to hear, enable you to orient yourself in whatever space you occupy at the moment. Spatial orientation also keeps you safe from danger – like a speeding car.

And then, there are the little things – the ability to enjoy music and dancing, the ability to enjoy the sounds of summer twittering in the trees, the ability to hear directions on the job – all of these contribute to a richer, fuller, more meaningful life.

So eat better for all the right reasons. Sure, it’s about a healthy heart, strong bones and muscles, but it’s also about your ability to hear better longer.

It’s true: you are what you eat. That’s a fact.

It’s also a fact that you hear what you eat. So, the better you eat, the better your diet, the better chance (20% better chance) you’ll be able to hear in the years ahead.

Just one more reason to make a few lifestyle changes and enjoy life to the fullest. Like mom always said, “Eat your folates!”

Good advice. Take it.