With age, the sensory organs deteriorate. Decreasing sight, hearing, touch, taste and smell are clear symptoms of aging. However, these, like dementia, are not fatefully pre-programmed, but can be influenced.
Age-related hearing loss affects over 80% of people over 80.Β Β
In addition to the loss of vision, which can occur as early as the age of 40, the loss of hearing is an age-related change that can also be observed in the middle of life. In age-related hearing loss, the hearing ability is gradually and symmetrically lost – i.e. simultaneously on both sides.
Age-related hearing loss is caused by the physiological aging of the cochlea, which is accelerated by various factors.
About 30% of adults aged 61 to 70 and over 80% of those over 80 are affected. Symmetrical hearing loss leads to social, cognitive, and physical impairments that can severely impair the quality of life of those affected.
Keeping the triggers of hearing loss under control
Not only genetic factors are decisive for the development of age-related hearing loss. Environmental influences and metabolic processes also play a decisive role, but we can influence them.
The first goal to counteract hearing loss should therefore be the reduction of external disturbances. These include above all the avoidance of noise sources, the reduction of drugs that damage hearing, such as antibiotics, and the avoidance of harmful foreign substances such as solvents and heavy metals.
In addition, an appropriate supply of minerals and vitamins is essential. In this context, researchers from the Seoul University Hospital in South Korea examined the results of 1,910 participants in the national South Korean health and nutrition study. They concentrated on the age group between 50 and 80 years.
They found that the intake of vitamins (particularly effective are A, B, C, and E) in the form of dietary supplements has a positive effect on the hearing ability of older people. This confirmed findings that had already been obtained in animal experiments.
Another risk factor for the symmetrical loss of hearing is the decrease in blood flow in the capillaries of the cochlea and the resulting reduction in nutrient supply. The resulting metabolic changes could, in addition to oxidative stress, trigger hearing loss.
Well examined plant and mineral substances offer an effective way to counteract hearing loss.
The combination of antioxidative micronutrients, such as vitamin C, E, A, the omega-3 fatty acids, the mineral magnesium and the sun hormone vitamin D can – in addition to a plant-rich diet – actually slow down and at best even prevent aging processes in the cochlea. In addition, the intake of magnesium and the polyphenolic pine bark extract pycnogenol can greatly reduce the symptoms of tinnitus.
