Hypothersis Article

The problem we know so far is that early research suggests that there may be a

link between age-related hearing loss and blood levels of folic acid, a B vitamin. The link

is not proven and has never really been tested in older adults. The hypothesis in this

article is that folic acid pills slows age-related hearing loss in older adults. Researchers studied 728 adults from the Netherlands from ages 50 to 70 years to prove their hypothesis (Verhoef and Schouten, 2007).

Researchers performed a hearing test on each participant at the beginning of the study. They then assigned each participant at random to take folic acid or placebo pills every day for 3 years. They performed the hearing tests again at the end of the study and compared the hearing of the participants taking folic acid with the hearing of those taking placebo (Verhoef and Schouten, 2007).

They found that the participants taking folic acid had less hearing loss than participants taking placebo (Verhoef and Schouten, 2007).

There were limitations to this study. The difference in hearing loss between the 2 groups was small. People would have to take folic acid for many years to notice an effect at the hearing frequencies tested in the study. Also, the study was conducted in the Netherlands, where folic acid levels are about half of those in other countries, such as the United States. The findings might not apply to the United States and other countries here food is already fortified with folic acid (Verhoef and Schouten, 2007).

The implications were that Folic acid supplementation seemed to reduce hearing loss in older adults. The findings need to be confirmed over a longer time and in countries where food is fortified with folic acid before folic acid pills can be recommended as a way to reduce hearing loss in older people (Verheof and Schouten, 2007).

In this article, the hypothesis is true that folic acid does reduce hearing loss in older adults.

Reference

Verhoef, Durga J., and Schouten, Anteunis L. J. C., (2007). "Annals of Internal Medicine". Retrieved on February 17, 2007 from University of Phoenix online website EBSCO.