Soldiers Try New Medicine for Hearing Loss

Scientists, for years, have been studying lab animals in order to accumulate evidence that a pill could be able to lessen the damage to your hearing caused by noise. Now, they count on the Marines. In a couple of months ahead, the Marines at California's Camp Pendleton, all 600 of them will venture into rifle training drinking something that tastes a lot like wild berry herbal tea while ear plugs are jammed in their ear canals.

They will be gulping this drink down to the last drop during every meal, during the two weeks of training which is known to erode the hearing ability of the trainees from about 10 percent. A substance dissolved in the concoction might be said to make a difference and this shall be proved in the hearing tests if all goes as hoped. It's the latest wrinkle in research toward finding a pill that will help protect and even treat hearing loss from exposure to loud noise. While such an effort cannot be called new, the past years saw it to pick up steam, says the experts.

Exposure to intolerable noise resulting to loss of hearing is said to be in the top when it came to the most common occupational health disorders and it comes in second as the most self reported occupational malady based on the federal government's report. To date, permanent hearing loss affects around 10 million people in the US alone, and these can be from instances such as long term exposure to loud, noisy environments or sudden loud bangs. Approximately 30 million people are thought to be exposed to hazardous degrees of working noise like the sectors of mining, construction, agriculture and manufacturing.

Even professional musicians are advised to take care. It was not too long ago, during a big band style performance, a man forgot to put on ear protection so when the trumpet behind him began to play, he found himself ducking and putting his hands over his ears. Hobbies like recreational shooting, motorcycling and snowmobiling pose a risk, too.

Earplugs and special ear muffs specifically to deaden sound can help but they are not enough at most cases. They can be overwhelmed by some sounds. A lot of individuals today just refuse to wear such things even when they know they have to while others are simply susceptible to hearing loss. Even as you wear protective ear muffs, your hearing can be damaged when levels of sound reach up to the skull.

That is since brute force by loud noise may not be the only thing that damages the delicate inner ear all the time. For in some cases, it simply makes the inner ear produce oxygen molecules that pose serious health threats and these are known as free radicals. Antioxidants perform effectively in removing free radicals found in the body as the ear is found to naturally possesses defenses of these kinds. However, the ear's antioxidants get disturbed with enough noise.

In this scene, free radicals create damage that leads to the demise of the receptors of sound found inside the ear. Sense comes out in the equation of fortifying the natural defense of the ear through its antioxidants as a preventive means then using it as a fast cure for any problems incurred after the exposure to unhealthy levels of noise. The promise of prevention by way of animal experimentation excites a lot of people especially those that need this as they deal with a frequently noisy environment.

One pioneer in the field of antioxidants for hearing says he's seen some effect in people. He obtained a patent on the nutritional supplement that he recommends to many of his patients that require help from hearing loss problems out of causes such as aging and high levels of noise in their surroundings. The patients have noticed an improvement in their hearing or a slowing in the progression of their hearing loss. People that clearly suffer from moderate to severe levels of hearing loss may not be swayed into leaving their hearing aids in the trash bins but then this sufficed in making these people remove their aids momentarily and shifting to a mode seen to be less forceful or perhaps even smaller.

The man heading the test with the Marines, along with scientists into the same field were able to encouraging outcome from a variety of antioxidant compounds done on animals. NAC or N acetylcysteine is where he has set his eye on, and it is the same substance that is approved by the federal authorities to reverse the damaging effects of a famous painkiller. NAC boosts the ear's own antioxidant defense by neutralizing the free radicals. The animal work showed that if NAC was administered after or before loud noise exposure, hearing loss would get minimized. The significance for people is that the effect dictates whether one still needs to have a hearing aid, or not anymore.

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