My patients have been talking a lot about a hearing-aid hustle that’s been going on.
So-called “hearing specialists” are making the rounds of 55-plus senior communities in Florida and luring customers to their “practices” by promising them free gifts.
Next comes the offer of a free hearing test. Those tests almost always end with the recommendation to buy an expensive hearing aid — which the specialists’ businesses just happened to sell.
One of these scam artists sold the devices at more than five times their regular retail prices — and often to people who didn’t need them in the first place.
This “specialist” didn’t even have the legally required hearing aid specialist license.
His scam came to an abrupt end after he tried to work his hustle on an undercover investigator from the Department of Health’s Unlicensed Activity Unit.
He was promptly charged with selling the devices without a license, improper testing and fitting, as well as defrauding hundreds of seniors out of many thousands of dollars.
If you suffer from hearing problems, it’s easy to understand why some people will do — and pay — almost anything to restore the ability of this vital sense.
What most hearing loss specialists won’t tell you is that hearing loss can be prevented, improved and even reversed by diet
Losing your hearing can have a devastating effect on the quality of your life and relationships with loved ones, friends and the world around you.
That’s why scams that prey on the hard of hearing are all too common.
But sadly, the hearing aid scam is far bigger than the schemes of unethical vendors. Hearing aids are also one of the biggest rip-offs in the health care system.
They’re often not included in medical plans and insurance coverage, and the prices have skyrocketed.
Price Increase or Decrease Over 10 Years for Selected Products
While the prices of other electronics dropped significantly between 2014 and 2024, the price of hearing aids rose nearly 75%. They now cost, on average, between $1,500 and $3,500 per unit.
Double that if you need one for each ear.
While there’s no doubt that some people benefit from them, most people waste thousands of dollars and endless hours of frustration — on devices that end up in dresser drawers because they don’t work.
I hear complaints about them all the time from patients who visit the Sears Institute for Anti-Aging Medicine. The most common include:
Steep prices
Most models just don’t work right or aren’t fitted correctly
Money-back guarantee periods are way too short
Confusion over which hearing aid is needed
My patients’ biggest complaint about them is that they’re sick and tired of hearing — when they can hear that their aids just need yet “another little adjustment.”
The truth is, most people don’t need hearing aids.
What most doctors don’t know — and no one in the hearing aid industry will admit — is that hearing loss can be prevented, improved and, in some cases, even reversed by diet.
Today, you’ll learn how the right nutrients can help you avoid spending thousands of dollars on devices that almost never live up to their promises.
But first, let’s take a quick look at the problem itself...
What’s Going on in Your Ears
Your ear is a highly complex organ and it does a deceptively simple job. It transforms the energy from soundwaves into nerve signals that your brain interprets and responds to.
Hearing loss is not just a “problem of old age.” Most hearing loss begins between the ages of 19 and 44.
Soundwaves enter your outer ear and travel down the auditory canal until they strike your eardrum, causing it to vibrate very slightly. Tiny bones in your middle ear — called the hammer, anvil and stirrup — work as a lever system to amplify and transmit these vibrations into your inner ear, or cochlea.
Your cochlea is filled with fluid and lined with special nerve cells called hair cells. These are your ears’ sensory receptors. When the fluid in your cochlea moves in response to pressure from the bones in your middle ear, the hair cells generate electrical impulses that travel up your auditory nerve to your brain’s sound-processing areas.
This is how you hear and make sense of sounds around you. Most of the time, the system works perfectly — but like any collection of moving parts, there can be wear and tear, disruptions and damage over time...
The Real Causes of Hearing Loss
Mainstream medicine and the hearing-aid industry will tell you that hearing loss begins at around 50 and only gets worse as you age — and that an expensive hearing aid is your only option.
In fact, just take a look at the chart above and you’ll see that you can start to experience hearing loss at any age.
Hearing loss impacts around 48 million people in the U.S. alone — that’s around 20% of all Americans. And according to the World Health Organization, more than 360 million people globally suffer from moderate to profound hearing impairment.1
Higher-pitched tones may become muffled to you. Or it may become difficult for you to pick out words against background noise.
This can be caused by multiple factors:
Aging can cause wear and tear to the hair cells in your cochlea.
Noise exposure can also damage your sensory hair cells.
Infections in the middle or inner ear. The sooner these are treated, the less likely you’ll suffer permanent hearing loss.
Earwax can block the auditory canal and prevent sound waves getting through. This problem can be resolved by earwax removal.
When doctors tell you that you have “age-related” hearing loss, they’re really talking about the destruction of the hair cells in your cochlea, spread over your lifetime.
Infections and exposure to occupational noise from machinery, power tools and firearms, for example — also damage your sensory hair cells.
The same is true with chronic recreational noise, like the use of personal audio devices at high volumes, as well as regular attendance at concerts, nightclubs, bars and sporting events.
You see, loud noises cause your sensory hair cells to work harder, generating bursts of metabolic activity. This triggers damaging reactive oxygen and nitrogen species in your ear, which cause inflammation.2,3,4,5
When it occurs in your ear, the result is a reduction of blood flow to your cochlea and a cycle of destruction in tissue and hair cells.
When you lose your hair cells, you lose your hearing.6
Mainstream Doctors Are Wrong About Tinnitus
Mainstream medicine still believes tinnitus — the constant ringing, thundering, whooshing or whistling in your ears — is just another form of age-related hearing loss.
This condition is aggravating and nerve-racking. It robs you of sleep. It shatters your focus and concentration. And it drowns out your hearing because of all the background noise in your head.
But tinnitus is not a disease. It’s a symptom of some other underlying health condition.
The mainstream solution is usually a prescription for antidepressants to numb your mind. Or they might recommend a hearing aid that masks the uncomfortable sounds.
But tinnitus is rooted not only in the ear and the auditory nerve that connects the inner ear to the brain, but in the brain itself.
Mainstream medicine also ignores the fact that tinnitus can often be prevented and reversed with the right nutrients — which I’ll tell you about in a minute.
Tinnitus has many causes — and not all of them are properly understood.
It results at least in part from the stimulus of the neurotransmitter glutamate. Too much glutamate causes the hair cells in your ears to produce electrical signals long after the original stimulus has gone.
Excess glutamate can be caused by loud noises, and also by over the counter and prescription pain relievers (NSAIDs), some cholesterol-lowering and cancer drugs, and antibiotics. Check out the table below for a partial list.
Chronic ear infections, smoking, food, allergies and aspartame, the most common sweetener in diet soda, can also cause the disorder, which impacts more than 30% of adults over age 65.7,8
If you already have tinnitus, you have an elevated level of electrical activity in the brain, and more electrical activity is the last thing you need.
Whatever the cause, your tinnitus is a degenerative process that’s characterized by chronic inflammation and misfiring sensory hair cells.
The good news is that tinnitus can be prevented and even reversed...
4 Natural Ways to Reverse Hearing Loss
Fortunately, by adding a few important nutrients to your diet, you can protect your ears and, in many cases, reverse hearing loss and tinnitus.
Here’s what I recommend to my patients:
Make Sure You Get Enough Omega-3. The Blue Mountains Hearing Study followed some 3,000 people for eight years. It found that people with the highest intake of omega-3 fatty acids had a 42% lower risk of developing tinnitus and age-related hearing loss.9
You see, omega-3 fatty acids protect your sensory hair cells from damage.
Good food sources include cold-water, high-fat fish like mackerel, wild salmon, lake trout and herring. Grass-fed beef is another excellent source. Also, you can eat plenty of raw nuts and seeds. Walnuts, almonds and pumpkin seeds are some of my favorites.
But to get what you need, you’ll have to supplement. I recommend taking at least 600 mg of a unique omega-3 called DHA. But I don’t recommend supplementing with fish oil. Most fish oil supplements come from polluted waters that contain chemicals like PCBs and heavy metals like mercury.
Look for a combination of calamari and krill oils. Krill are shrimp-like animals that don’t live long enough to absorb large amounts of toxins — so they don’t get contaminated. And their omega-3s are stored in phospholipid form instead of triglyceride. This helps it pass through cell membranes better.
Make sure your calamari oil comes from squid that live off the coast of South America in the pure waters of the South Pacific (illex argentinus).B Vitamins Are Crucial Hearing Vitamins. In a key study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, people with hearing loss had 38% lower levels of vitamin B12, and 31% lower levels of folate (vitamin B9).10
That’s because B vitamins have been shown to support nerve, brain and hearing functions — and can also act as powerful antioxidants.
I recommend a daily intake of 800 mcg of vitamin B9 per day. Folate-rich foods include asparagus, spinach, avocado, broccoli, beans and sunflower seeds. You can also take a folate supplement.
The only natural source of vitamin B12 is animal meat. Grass-fed calf’s liver has the most, followed by sardines, snapper and venison. I recommend 800 mcg of B12 every day.Melatonin Doesn’t Just Help You Sleep. Melatonin is the neurohormone that’s best known for controlling your internal body clock — but it affects your body in many important ways. It’s known to balance out environmental disturbances on your body, including oxidative stress from reactive oxygen species.11
And studies with melatonin reveal its potency to reduce inner ear damage and prevent hair cell loss.12,13
It has also been shown to be highly effective at reducing the disturbances of tinnitus, as well as the sleep disruptions it causes.
Studies show that 3 mg per day of a melatonin supplement can reduce the effects of tinnitus by 40%.14CoQ10 Is a Powerful Antioxidant for Your Ears: I’ve been recommending the vital anti- aging nutrient and antioxidant Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) to my heart patients for years. But study after study shows it is essential for all your organs and body functions — especially as you get older.
A British study found that tinnitus sufferers with low levels of CoQ10 benefited significantly from CoQ10 supplements.15
And a recent Korean study revealed that CoQ10 can be highly therapeutic for patients with sudden hearing loss, thanks to its potent antioxidant impact.16 CoQ10 also helps maintain circulation to the ears and supports energy production in the critical sensory hair cells.
If you have tinnitus or hearing loss, I recommend 50 mg of CoQ10 daily. Be sure to take your CoQ10 supplement with food or a teaspoon full of healthy fat like coconut oil to maximize absorption.
To Your Good Health,
References:
“Deafness and hearing loss.” World Health Organization: Fact Sheet.
Zuo H, et al. “Changes in Guinea pig cochlear hair cells after sound conditioning and noise exposure.” J Occup Health. 2008;50(5):373-9.
Reiss M, Reiss G. “Presbyacusis: pathogenesis and treatment.” Med Monatsschr Pharm. 2009 Jun;32(6):221-5.
Clifford RE, Rogers RA. “Impulse noise: theoretical solutions to the quandary of cochlear protection.” Ann Otol Rhinol Laryngol. 2009 Jun;118(6):417-27.
Rutkowski R, et al. “Reactive oxygen and nitrogen species in inflammatory process.” Pol Merkur Lekarski. 2007 Aug;23(134):131-6.
Abi-Hachem RN, et al. “The injured cochlea as a target for inflammatory processes, initiation of cell death pathways and application of related otoprotectives strategies.” Recent Pat CNS Drug Discov. 2010 Jun;5(2):147-63.
Langguth B, et al. “Tinnitus: causes and clinical management.” Lancet. Sep 2013. 920-30.
Pisarik P, Kai D. “Vestibulocochlear toxicity in a pair of siblings 15 years apart secondary to aspartame: two case reports.” Cases J. 2009 Sep 15;2:9237.
Gopinath B, et al, “Consumption of omega-3 fatty acids and fish and risk of age-related hearing loss.” Am J Clin Nutr. August 2010; 92( 2): 416-421
Houston DK, et al, “Age-related hearing loss, vitamin B12 and folate...” Am J Clin Nutr. March 1999; 69(3): 564-571.
Pirodda A, et al. “Exploring the reasons why melatonin can improve tinnitus.” Med Hypotheses. 2010 Aug;75(2):190-1.
Karlidag T, et al. “The role of free oxygen radicals in noise induced hearing loss: effects of melatonin and methylprednisolone.” Auris Nasus Larynx. 2002 Apr;29(2):147-52.
Bas E, et al. “An experimental comparative study of dexamethasone, melatonin and tacrolimus in noise-induced hearing loss.” Acta Otolaryngol. 2009 Apr;129(4):385-9.
Hurtuk A, et al. “Melatonin: can it stop the ringing?” Ann Otol Rhinol Laryngol. 2011 Jul;120(7):433-40.
Khan M, et al. “A pilot clinical trial of the effectiveness of coenzyme Q10 on chronic tinnitus aurium.” Otolaryngology Head Neck Surg. Jan 2007; 136(1):72-7.
Cardoni G, et al. “Coenzyme Q 10 and cardiovascular risk factors in idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss patients.” Otol Neurotol. 2007 Oct;28(7):878-83.