I’ve just come upon a couple of obscure medical studies that claim new benefits for the now-famous Mediterranean Diet. We already know it can boost heart health and ward off some chronic diseases. But now it’s being hailed as an aid to avoiding muscle mass and hearing loss…
The (now) famous Mediterranean Diet en tableau. Now protects you
from even more health scourges associated with aging…
The Med diet has received a great deal of time and space in this blog olver the past two or three years. We’ve chronicled every new clinical test that supports its still-growing reputation as a means of avoiding some of the worst plagues of our time: heart disease, type 2 diabetes and chronic inflammation. Now, a pair of new studies have linked the Med Diet to helping maintain muscle mass as we age and to helping to ward off acquired hearing loss…
The muscle mass problem
My mother turns 95 this week, and she is nothing but skin and bones. But the doctor says that’s normal for older folks, especially the oldest, like Mom. As we got older, most of us become less active, and other changes combine to cause us to lose muscle mass. Now a team in Guangdong, China, has discovered that adhering to the Med Diet can help middle aged folks avoid muscle mass loss.
The study abstract says researchers at the Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Food, Nutrition, and Health studied, “2230 females and 1059 males aged 40-75 years in Guangzhou, China. General information and habitual dietary information were assessed in face-to-face interviews conducted during 2008-2010 and 3 years later.” Subjects who reported higher intakes of Whole Grains, Vegetables, Fruits, Legumes, Nuts and Fish, and lower Red Meat and moderate Alcohol consumption also had higher muscle mass readings than their peers who did not adhere to the Med Diet.
As my Mom will attest, the more muscle mass you lose, the harder it is to get around without help and accomplish life’s day-to-day activities – including getting into and out of the bathtub and even brushing your own hair. Muscle mass retention literally equates with higher quality of life for folks.
The hearing loss equation
Researchers in England have shown that following the Med Diet or the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) Diet can help older folks ward off acquired hearing loss – another condition that’s not at all rare in the elderly.
A team from Brigham and Women’s Hospital at Harvard data-mined information from the Nurses’ Health Study II Conservation of Hearing Study (CHEARS), examining three-year changes in hearing sensitivities and found that women whose eating patterns more closely adhered to commonly recommended healthful dietary patterns.
“A common perception is that hearing loss is an inevitable part of the aging process. However, our research focuses on identifying potentially modifiable risk factors – that is, things that we can change in our diet and lifestyle to prevent hearing loss or delay its progression,” said study Lead Author Dr. Sharon Curhan. “The benefits of adherence to healthful dietary patterns have been associated with numerous positive health outcomes and eating a healthy diet may also help reduce the risk of hearing loss.”
Is there anything the Med Diet Can’t help?
Probably lots. But the growing list of conditions it can help prevent or at least mitigate just shows how important it is to stick to a healthy diet. I just wish it wasn’t so hard (and so expensive), sometimes!
~ Maggie J.