As people age, many lose some of their hearing. Experts say that, of those over the age of 75, about half have hearing loss. Not being able to hear well can make it hard to communicate. That can affect relationships with loved ones, friends, and coworkers. A new study shows that there is a link between a woman’s diet and hearing loss. Specifically, women who have a pattern of healthy eating have a lower risk of hearing loss than women who don’t eat well. A healthy eating pattern includes lots of vegetables, fruits, and whole grains. It limits sugar, salt, and animal fat.
The Study Linking a Woman’s Diet and Hearing Loss
The study took place between 1991 and 2013. The women who took part in the study were all professional nurses. Every four years, the researchers asked the women to recall what they had eaten over the past year. About 71,000 women responded to the questionnaires.
The research team also asked the women whether they had noticed a hearing problem. During the study, more than 2,000 women said they had developed moderate or worse hearing loss.
The team used the reports of food intake to group the women by diet patterns. They compared women with the healthiest patterns to those with the least healthy patterns. The women with the healthiest diets were less likely to have a hearing problem.
“Interestingly, we observed that those following an overall healthy diet had a lower risk of moderate or worse hearing loss,” says researcher Dr. Sharon G. Curhan at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. “Eating well contributes to overall good health, and it may also help to reduce the risk of hearing loss.”
Source NIH: News in Health
July 2018
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