Hearing Loss appears to be prevented and treated with vitamin D

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By getting stronger ear bones

Brought my 98-year-old father-in-law to an audiologist yesterday (Oct 19, 2010) to try out some new hearing aids, and I realized that his hearing had improved recently. He has been taking 10,000 IU of vitamin D and co-factors by Jarrow of Calcium, Magnesium, vitamin K2, etc for the past 9 months.
Wondered if there was a correlation.

http://www.naturalnews.com/026834_hearing_loss_magnesium_Vitamin_D.html Prevent and Even Reverse Age-Related Hearing Loss with Good Nutrition Aug 2009, by Kerri Knox clip: When vitamin D deficiency causes osteopenia in the tiny bones of the ears, this can lead to hearing loss and even deafness. Strikingly, correcting the vitamin D deficiency often corrects hearing loss and even deafness in these specific cases.
She also describes Magnesium "Magnesium treatment has been repeatedly shown link building service to reduce the incidence of both temporary and permanent noise-induced hearing loss.”

http://www.innvista.com/health/ailments/earail/hearnutr.htm “Hearing and Nutrition” talks about many vitamins and minerals, and has this today about vitamin D. “As far as hearing is concerned, a deficiency in this vitamin has serious consequences and has been associated with otosclerosis (abnormal bone growth in the middle ear), unexplained and bilateral cochlear deafness, presbycusis, and sensorineural hearing loss. Researchers had to conclude that vitamin D deficiency is likely one of the causes, and supplementation should be considered in persons with hearing loss. Vitamin D can be inhibited if there is also a magnesium deficiency. If there is a magnesium deficiency, this will also affect calcium intake. As you can see, not just one nutrient can be isolated as a cause or cure. “

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0ISW/is_282/ai_n19170311/ Take control of your hearing loss before it's too late. Dr. Jonathan V. Wright wrote the extensive article of Jan 2007 in Townsend Letter for Doctors. Clip – – “Years ago, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published a brief article reporting that vitamin D supplementation slowed hearing loss. Since then, research findings have been conflicting, with some reporting significant vitamin D deficiency (1-2) and others not. (3) I've advised individuals with age-related hearing loss to use at least 3,000 to 4,000 IU daily, but the results have been mixed.”

http://www.ehow.com/how_2122698_reverse-hearing-loss-naturally.html How to Reverse Hearing Loss Naturally: clip – – Get enough vitamin D in your diet in order to reverse hearing loss naturally. If you don't have enough vitamin D in your system, this causes insufficient amounts of calcium in the inner ear's fluid. If you don't have enough calcium, the small bones of the inner ear become spongy. This spongy state interferes with sound transmission.

http://www.reeis.usda.gov/web/crisprojectpages/189531.html 2003 study at the Univ. of Georgia: VITAMIN D DEFICIENCY AND AUDITORY FUNCTION OF GENETICALLY DISORDERED MICE. An interesting study of vitamin D and Calcium for mice, pregnant mice, and offspring.

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Hypothesis: Lack of vitamin D is one of the causes of hearing loss with age as well as osteoporosis

One of the reasons for deafness with age is the lack of vitamin D weakening of all bones, including those in the ear. Unless an older person is getting many hours of sunshine daily or taking vitamin D supplements, the vitamin D levels are known to decline greatly. The skin produces less than 1/3 as much vitamin D per minute for an older person due to a lack of pre-vitamin D in the skin. So the lack of vitamin D, which weakens the bones and causes hip fractures, etc., also weakens the bones in the ear, which are vital for hearing.

It will be interesting to find out of other populations low on vitamin D also have problems with hearing loss.
From Criteria for vitamin D deficiency in VitaminDWiki

1. Overweight
2. Age -
3. Smoking - ties up vitamin D
4. Alcohol
5. Stress
6. Medical problems which reduce vitamin D - MS, kidney, gut, liver, kidney...
7. Dark skin -
8. Taking a drug that reduces vitamin D
9. Live far from the equator

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But, one report shows people with dark skin have LESS hearing loss with age.

Clip - The prevalence of self-reported hearing impairment not only varies by race but also by ethnicity. For example, the 1999 National Health Interview Survey (Pleis & Coles, 2003) found that adults of Asian and African descent were less likely to experience hearing problems (7.8% and 7.4%, respectively) than Whites or Native Americans (17.2 and 20.1, respectively). Whereas 15% of non-Hispanic White adults reported some form of hearing difficulty, 6% of non-Hispanic Black adults and 6% of Hispanic White adults reported hearing problems.

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Presbycusis clips from Wikipedia

age-related hearing loss is the cumulative effect of aging on hearing. Also known as presbyacusis, it is defined as a progressive bilateral symmetrical age-related sensorineural hearing loss.
Factors responsible for presbycusis include: (no mention of vitamin D)

• Heredity: Features like early aging of the cochlea and susceptibility of the cochlea to drug insults are genetically determined.
• Atherosclerosis: This may diminish the vascularity of the cochlea, thereby reducing its oxygen supply.
• Dietary habits: Increased saturated fat intake may accelerate atherosclerotic changes in old age.
• Diabetes: This may cause vasculitis and endothelial proliferation in the blood vessels of the cochlea, thereby reducing its blood supply.
• Noise trauma: Exposure to loud noise/music on a continuing basis stresses the already hypoxic cochlea, hastening the presbycusis.
• Smoking: Is postulated to accentuate atherosclerotic changes in blood vessels aggravating presbycusis.
• Hypertension: Causes potent vascular changes, like reduced blood supply to the cochlea, thereby aggravating presbycusis.
• Ototoxic drugs: Ingestion of ototoxic drugs like aspirin may hasten the process of presbycusis.

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Search for ototoxic "vitamin D" in Google and got 197,000 hits

Search for hearing-loss osteoporosis on Google got 498,000 hits

Osteoporosis and Conductive Hearing Loss: A Novel Model of Clinical Correlation, which did find a correlation in Jan 2009

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Search for age-related hearing loss" and "vitamin D" in Google got only 3,300 hits."

Hearing loss risk spikes 34 percent without key vitamin Folic acid
Age-Related Hearing Loss does NOT have to be Part of Getting Old Kerri Knox again; unknown date

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Update April 2012

My father-in-law is almost 100 and is doing very well.
His hearing continues to be much better than a few years ago.
He continues to take 10,000 IU of vitamin D daily along with 3 Bone-Up co-factor pills by Jarrow.
   Note: The increased Magnesium in the co-factors could have also helped. Magnesium is known to help hearing.
CLICK HERE to see low-cost ways to help seniors with poor vision
His vision may be improving as well - vitamin D and astaxanthin (anti-oxidant)

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Handbook of Clinical Nutrition and Aging (2004) has the following

Vitamin D deficiency may cause disruption of the calcium concentration in the essential fluids, hair cells, and nervous tissue of the inner ear.
Calcium-binding proteins, such as parvalbumin and calbindin. Are present in auditory nervous tissue.
The endolymph. Perilymph and industrial fluids of the cochlea each have a unique ionic composition that must be maintained for proper auditory function (51).
The intracellular concentration of free calcium (Ca*2) modulates inner ear and hair cell function.
Inner ear Ca*2 concentration influences pH. Protein phosphorylation, cell volume regulation, and neurotransmitter release; thus, alterations in intracellular Ca*2 concentrations may disrupt the inner ear and might be associated with otologic damage in many inner ear disorders (43,46.51).
Alterations in intracellular Ca*2 concentrations could damage the inner ear because excess Ca*2 is linked to excessive free radical production and membrane damage. DNA fragmentation and, ultimately, Ca*2-mediated cell death (51). With increasing age. The central auditory system may have altered calcium homeostasis (44). Dietary factors, such as vitamin D deficiency, have been associated with cochlear dysfunction and disruption in calcium homeostasis in the cochlea of rats (45).

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Vertigo treated by Vitamin D - many studies show Vertigo is strongly associated with hearing loss.

Update May 2014

• Dietary vitamin intake correlates with hearing thresholds in the older population: the Korean National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey May 2014
  adults between 50 and 80 y of age
  'serum concentrations of vitamin D were associated with WORSE hearing at mid and high (4000 and 6000 Hz) '
  
  'VitaminDWiki suspects this was due to excess Calcium from high levels of vitamin D ''clogging' up the ear BONES

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See also VitaminDWiki

• Ear category listing has 17 items

Items in both categories Ear and Seniors:

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17,000 hits for "hearing loss" and "vitamin D" in Google Scholar - April 2025

Google Scholar