A healthy diet can lower the risk of moderate to severe hearing loss by 30 percent or more, conclude researchers from Harvard Medical School’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Studying the diets of 33,000 women for 22 years, they found that hearing was better retained among those that ate closer to the Mediterranean Diet—with more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, fish and virgin olive oil. The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet, high in fruits and vegetables and low-fat dairy, as well as low in sodium, also was associated with better hearing.

This article appears in the November 2018 issue of Natural Awakenings.