by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition
This study shows that a healthy diet can help women protect their hearing.
It has long been known that high blood pressure, diabetes, and smoking were associated with hearing loss, probably because they cause atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), and anything that affects blood flow to the inner ear (cochlea) might cause damage, or make the cochlea less able to recover from noise damage. A healthy diet can reduce or prevent atherosclerosis. So that is probably the explanation for this finding, done using nurses as subjects.
So would I suggest that women adopt a healthy diet to protect their hearing? Of course! But whether a woman (or a man) eats a healthy diet or not, avoiding noise exposure will definitely prevent hearing loss.
Remember: If it sounds too loud, it is too loud!
