Effects of folic acid supplementation on hearing in older adults: a randomized, controlled trial.

Background: Age-related hearing loss is a common chronic condition of elderly persons. Low folate status has been associated with poor hearing.

Objective: To determine whether folic acid supplementation slows age-related hearing loss.

A microbial world within us.

The microbial world within us includes a vast array of gastrointestinal (GI) tract communities that play an important role in health and disease. Significant progress has been made in recent years in describing the intestinal microbial composition based on the application of 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA)-based approaches. These were not only instrumental in providing a phylogenetic framework of the more than 1000 different intestinal species but also illustrated the temporal and spatial diversity of the microbial GI tract composition that is host-specific and affected by the genotype.