Healthy living
Medicines and supplements
Folic acid may protect your hearing
Around 37 per cent of Britons aged 61 to 70 and 60 per cent of those aged 71 to 80 - 6.5m people - have age-related hearing loss. Now a new study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine says sufferers may benefit from taking supplements of the B vitamin, folic acid.
Researchers in the Netherlands focused on a group of 700 people between the ages of 50 and 70 over a period of three years. A randomly chosen group were given a daily dose of folic acid (800 micrograms) while the remaining volunteers received an inactive placebo. The research team then assessed the changes in hearing that occurred over the trial period.
They found that the group who had taken the folic acid supplement were significantly better at picking up low frequency sounds than the placebo group. However, there was no difference between the two when it came to picking up high frequency sounds.
The report concludes that folic acid supplements may be useful in slowing age-related hearing loss in older people. Previous reports have linked low levels of the B vitamin with poor hearing but there have never been conclusive studies to show whether supplements reverse the trend.
The researchers did note, however, that in the Netherlands at the time of the study food products were not fortified with folic acid. This means that the subjects' base levels of folate were much lower than in the UK, where vitamin fortification is commonplace.
Folic acid is an essential vitamin needed for for cell replication and growth. Folic acid helps form building blocks of DNA, the body's genetic information, and building blocks of RNA, needed to make protein in cells.
Folic acid helps to stop levels of homocysteine (an amino acid by-product) rising too high in the bloodstream. A growing body of evidence suggests that an elevated homocysteine level is a risk factor for heart disease and may also be linked to several other diseases.
There are also some studies suggesting that folic acid may prevent the development of colon cancer.
Before taking folic acid make sure your doctor or pharmacist knows:
- If you have epilepsy
- If you have ever had an allergic reaction to this or any other medicine
- If you are taking any other medicines, including those available to buy without a prescription, herbal or complementary medicines.
Information on this site is for interest only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. You should consult your own doctor about any specific health concerns.
