This Supplement Might Hold the Key to Saving Your Hearing

Natural hearing loss is often a part of growing older, along with increased worries about the effects of high cholesterol on the body. New research out of Argentina finds that specific cholesterol supplements might actually have the added effect of reducing natural hearing loss as we age. 

The scientists published their findings on the link between age-related hearing loss and reduced cholesterol levels in the inner ear in the PLOS Biology journal. Testing on mice, they found that phytosterol supplements were able to replace lost cholesterol in the ear and prevent sensory dysfunction. 

It all has to do with outer hair cells (OHCs) in the inner ear. As we get older, these cells lose their ability to receive and amplify sounds as well as they used to. Cholesterol is a key part of the ear's response to sound, so the team wanted to see if age-related brain cholesterol decrease might be related to a loss of cholesterol in OHCs. The mice in the study showed improved OHC function after taking dietary phytosterols for three weeks.

Related: U.S. Cholesterol Levels Dropping

Phytosterols are natural compounds found in plants that can help safely lower your cholesterol by acting in place of it, resulting in the body disposing the natural cholesterol as waste. They can be found in many over-the-counter supplements designed to help lower bad cholesterol in the body. 

It's a promising sign, but more work needs to be done to confirm the apparent additional benefits of phytosterols on natural hearing loss. In addition to testing on older mice, researchers will need to test the hypothesis on humans before coming to more definite conclusions. "The initial outcomes of our present research offer great promise as they establish the first evidence in favor of phytosterols supplementation as a potential therapeutic strategy in the prevention or treatment of hearing loss," the authors wrote. 

As if you needed another reason to keep your bad cholesterol low.