 In the United States, age-related hearing loss affects about a quarter of those in their 60s, more than half of those in their 70s, and 80% of those in their 80s. More than 95% of centenarians have been found to have severe hearing loss. Because of impaired communication, this may lead to social isolation, loneliness, and depression, and may even threaten one's life due to an associated increase in motor vehicle accidents. What can we do to prevent age-related hearing loss? It's said to be a natural part of the aging process, but that's what we used to think about pathological conditions like high blood pressure. The vast majority of people eventually develop hypertension, just like the vast majority of people eventually lose their hearing, so it must just be an inevitable consequence of growing old, right? But then it was discovered that there were rural populations living in Africa and Asia that ate and lived healthier that didn't experience an inexorable rise in blood pressure as they aged. So it appeared hypertension was more a lifestyle choice than an aging effect and the same may be true for hearing loss. The Muban tribe living in the Sudanese desert was found to retain their hearing into old age. Other studies on isolated native populations found that exposure to moderate civilization appeared to undercut their hearing advantages. What is it about our modern world that appears to be leading to a loss of hearing as we grow older? Age-related hearing loss is a result of the premature death of the sensory hair cells in our inner ear, which turns vibrations to electric signals to the brain. Once they're lost, they don't grow back, so prevention is critical. The question is, what's killing them? A study more than 2,000 twins found that the irritability of age-related hearing impairment was only 25%, so most of risk is due to non-genetic influences. Risk factors include repeat exposure to loud noises, smoking, and ototoxic or hearing-damaging medications. Noise exposure early in life appears to render the inner ear more vulnerable to aging. Animal studies suggest exposure to low-level but constant noise over 60 decibels may also be harmful. This has not been demonstrated in humans, but if you use a white noise generator to sleep, it can't hurt to check that it's under 50. Medications known to be ototoxic include immunoglycoside antibiotics like streptomycin, amicacin, neomycin, canamycin, which are among the highest-risk medications for hair cell toxicity, but NSAIDs, anti-inflammatory drugs like aspirin, ibuprofen, and naproxen, and loop diuretics, for example, ferrocemi, sold as Lasix, have also been linked to progressive hearing loss. However, the key to the preservation of old-age hearing of the Muban tribe may be their diet. The reason the Muban researchers concluded that their diet likely accounted for their lack of age-related hearing losses because they also appeared to lack something else, coronary artery disease. What kills more of us in the industrialized world than anything else doesn't appear to touch them at all. Their blood pressures are also perfect, their whole lives, at about 110 over 70 into their 70s, while we, on average, become hypertensive, exceeding 130 over 80, starting in our 40s. And no wonder, their diet is almost free of animal protein and centered around whole grains. So they suggested, in addition to the absence of loud noise, that atherosclerosis, clogging the small blood vessels, feeding their inner ears, may be the underlying cause of age-related hearing loss in most of the rest of the world. But you don't know until you put it to the test, which I'll cover next after dealing with a supplement shown to slow age-related hearing loss.