listen carefully

Age-related hearing loss a ects roughly 70 percent of individuals age 70 and older. Data, which was published in the Journal of Neuroscience, states that researchers believe age-related inflammation damages cells and capillaries that relate to hearing. Exercise may provide protection against such inflammation. So University of Florida researchers tested a group of mice, finding that the sedentary mice lost structures that are important to the auditory system at a much higher rate than their exercising counterparts. The sedentary mice su ered a 20 percent hearing loss opposed to a 5 percent hearing loss in active mice. The cochlear organ—responsible for processing sound—needs a huge amount of energy molecules, as well as a high source of oxygen to do its job. Did you hear that?