By Ana Mantica, "Hard of Hearing? Eat This.,"January/February
2011 Are you often asking others to repeat themselves and speak
up(!)? Research suggests that a healthy dose of two
nutrients—folate and omega-3 fatty acids—may help prevent age-
related hearing loss. New findings published in the Journal of
Nutrition suggest that low levels of the B-vitamin folate (found
in spinach, black-eyed peas and other leafy greens and beans)
are associated with a 35 percent higher risk of hearing loss in
people 50 and over. Researchers looked at nearly 3,000 people in
the Australia-based Blue Mountains Hearing Study and found that
a folate deficiency causes homocysteine levels to increase (a
known risk factor for heart disease), which in turn could
restrict blood flow to the cochlea—the part of the ear that
converts sound energy into electrical signals that travel to the
brain. In a separate study of the same participants, the authors
found that those who ate two or more servings of fish a week
were less likely to develop ag