How Exercising Prevents Age-Related Hearing Loss

You could write an entire book on the health benefits of exercising. Physical exercise helps us to manage our weight, minimize our risk of heart disease, improve our mood, elevate our energy, and promote better sleep, just to describe a few examples.

But what about our hearing? Can exercise additionally protect against age-related hearing loss?

According to a new study by the University of Florida, we can add better hearing to the list of the benefits of exercise. Here’s what they found.

The Study

Researchers at the University of Florida started by arranging the mice into two groups. The first group of mice had access to a running wheel and the second group did not. The researchers then calculated how far each of the mice ran individually on the running wheel.

On average, the group of exercising mice ran 7.6 miles per day at 6 months (25 human years) and 2.5 miles per day at 24 months (60 human years). Researchers then contrasted this group of exercising mice with the control group of non-exercising mice.

The Results

Researchers contrasted the indicators of inflammation in the group of exercising mice with the sedentary mice. The exercising group was able to hold most indicators of inflammation to about half the levels of the inactive group.

Why is this significant? Researchers believe that age-associated inflammation impairs the structures of the inner ear (strial capillaries and hair cells). In fact, the non-exercising mice with increased inflammation lost the structures of the inner ear at a much faster rate than the exercising group.

This caused a 20 percent hearing loss in sedentary mice compared to a 5 percent hearing loss in the active mice.

The Implications

For people, this means that age-related inflammation can injure the structures of the inner ear, bringing about age-related hearing loss. By exercising, however, inflammation can be decreased and the structures of the inner ear—along with hearing—can be preserved.

Additional studies are ongoing, but researchers believe that regular exercise suppresses inflammation and produces growth factors that assist with blood flow and oxygenation of the inner ear. If that’s correct, then physical exercise may be one of the best ways to prevent hearing loss into old age.

Nearly two-thirds of those age 70 and older have age-related hearing loss. Pinpointing the factors that bring about hearing loss and the prevention of deterioration to the inner ear has the potential to help millions of people.

Stay tuned for additional findings in 2017.