What your ears wish you knew

Plus: Produce prescriptions for heart health

View this email online September 10, 2023 by Andrea Muraskin This week: Healthy foods are often not the most affordable options. Here’s what happened when thousands of Americans got prescriptions for free fruits and vegetables. Plus: Longevity secrets from some of the most beautiful places on earth. And: People of all ages are at risk for noise-induced hearing loss. We've got a guide to protecting your ears (for many more years of NPR listening)! Prescriptions for fresh fruits and vegetables help boost heart health RyanJLane/Getty Images "Being able to buy healthy food, I felt like a millionaire," says Joanne Erickson, who is 60 and has diabetes. Erickson received monthly $50 vouchers to purchase fruits and vegetables at grocery stores and farmers’ markets, as part of a study that looked at the health impacts of produce prescriptions on people with diet related diseases. The research included nearly 4,000 people in 12 states who struggle to afford healthy food, as NPR’s Allison Aubrey reports.  After six months on the program, Erickson’s doctor lowered her dose of blood pressure medication, and her blood sugar levels dropped too. Researchers reported improvements in blood pressure for people with hypertension and lower blood sugar across the study sample.  “Improvements in blood glucose can significantly reduce the risk of conditions like eye disease, kidney disease, and nerve disease," says Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, a cardiologist at Tufts University, where the research was conducted. He hopes that studies like this will eventually lead to food assistance programs getting covered by health insurance.  Find out more about the food-as-medicine approach to managing chronic conditions.  ​​​​​​​Plus: The U.S. diet is deadly. Here are 7 ideas to get Americans eating healthier Newsletter continues after sponsor message Want to live longer? Here's how the centenarians of the ‘blue zones’ do it David McLain/Dan Buettner Dan Buettner has a pretty sweet gig. The author and National Geographic fellow has spent decades traveling to the longest-lived communities on Earth – what he calls “blue zones” – which just so happen to be located in several desirable beach destinations. In his new Netflix documentary, Live to 100: Secrets of the Blue Zones, there's an evocative scene, set against the backdrop of the turquoise waters and sugar-sand beaches of Okinawa, a subtropical archipelago about 1,000 miles south of Tokyo. There, viewers meet centenarians who garden, cook, sing, laugh and play. Beuttner also takes his audience to Ikaria, an island off the coast of Greece in the Aegean Sea, and the mountain villages of Sardinia, off the coast of Italy. The people who live in these places live longer, healthier lives than the rest of us. Compared with Americans, people in Okinawa are about three times more likely to reach their 100th birthday, according to Buettner's research, for instance.  For most of us, as Allison Aubrey writes, it's not feasible to swap places with these island dwellers, many of whom maintain a centuries-old, eat-from-the-land existence in remote corners of the globe. But we can learn from their habits, including their diets and social lives; and my personal favorite, a tendency to take naps.  "People in blue zones, they're not thinking about their health or a diet or an exercise program. They're not doing anything except living their lives," Buettner says. Here's how to swap old habits for new ones, inspired by the blue zone revelations. Plus: Does sex get better with age? This senior sex therapist thinks so   You Make The NPR Network Possible.  Your financial support is the NPR Network's greatest strength. When you donate to the NPR Network, you help keep journalists on the ground. You lift up voices and stories too often ignored and help keep media independent from the influence of the powerful. Show your support today with a donation. It takes all of us. Help today.  Donate Now How to protect your ears and avoid hearing loss: An illustrated guide Kaz Fantone/NPR My editors and I are always very happy for your eyeballs on this newsletter, dear reader. But without ears, NPR would be out of business. So as a token of our gratitude, we bring you this guide to aural health, based on interviews with audiologists by our Life Kit team, and illustrated by Kaz Fantone. Hearing problems can be the result of noise exposure over time, or one very loud noise. Some people have trouble making out words or following a conversation in noisy places. Others develop sensitivity to certain sounds, or a ringing in the ears. Learn how to protect yourself from loud noises, when to see a doctor, and how to find affordable hearing aids if you need them. Also: how NOT to clean your ears. (I personally have been to urgent care more times than I’d like to admit for a clogged canal that was entirely my fault).  Check out the comic. For an audio version with more advice, you can listen at the top of the page, or find Life Kit on your podcast app.  Plus: What to know now that hearing aids are available over the counter   Before you go: De Agostini via Getty Images Listen: The Dementia Tax –  As the population ages, what’s the plan to address the staggering cost of memory care? Why beautiful sadness — in music, in art — evokes a special pleasure Superbugs catch a ride on air pollution particles. That could be bad news for humans Why oh why, reccuring UTI? New research offers clues We hope you enjoyed these stories. Find more of NPR's health journalism on Shots. Live long and prosper, Andrea Muraskin and your NPR Health editors Listen to your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to hear live radio from WUFT 89.1 (edit station). What do you think of today's email? 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