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Folic Acid Slowed Hearing Loss

Folic Acid Slowed Hearing Loss In Special Elderly Population

In a three-year study in Holland and the United States, 728 older men and women with high blood homocysteine (an amino acid in the blood) levels and no hearing loss were given either daily oral folic acid or a placebo supplement. Daily folic acid supplementation slowed decline in hearing of low frequencies by 0.7dB after three years. Folic acid did not affect hearing thresholds of the high frequencies.

Participants in the study who lived in the Netherlands had baseline folate levels about half those found in the U.S. study population. This great disparity was due to the fact that Holland did not allow folic acid fortification of food at the time of the study . The study authors concluded that if folate was added to the diets of older adults as a matter of public policy, the public health burden of hearing loss in those countries would be greatly diminished.