Dietary Prevention of Hearing Loss

Abstract

Many epidemiological studies around the world have demonstrated that in populations where the incidence of coronary heart disease is high the blood cholesterol levels tend to be high, and the intake of saturated fats is also usually high. This hypothesis was tested for a period of 5 years in Finland, on two populations aged 40–59 years, in two mental hospitals in which the usual high saturated fat diet was continued in one hospital and a substitution of polyunsaturated fats was markedly increased in the other. At the end of this time the incidence of coronary changes was significantly less in the latter hospital. The hearing was significantly better in all frequencies. At the end of the 5 year period the diets in the two hospitals were reversed. Four years after the diet reversal the hearing in the now low-fat hospital was improved and the hearing in the now high-fat hospital was deteriorating. The incidence of coronary heart disease followed the same pattern. The Finnish investigators concluded that an important factor in the prevention of coronary heart disease may well be a low saturated fat diet. Our audiological findings similarly indicate that such a diet may well arrest, if not reverse, hearing loss.