Photo credit: Ben Dracup licensed under CC BY 2.0
by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition
Perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised when researchers try to develop a more complicated way of doing something that can already be done much more easily and much more cheaply. This article in The Hearing Journal reports research on chemicals that appear to prevent noise-induced hearing loss in an experimental animal model. The hope is that in the future chemicals can be developed that when taken by humans will prevent hearing loss after noise exposure.
Such a chemical might be helpful for those who can’t avoid loud noise, e.g., soldiers or police officers, or perhaps for those inadvertently exposed to loud noise.
For the rest of us, that may or may not ever come to fruition. But a much easier and cheaper way to prevent noise-induced hearing loss already exists. What is it? Simply this: Avoid exposure to loud noise, and if that can’t be done, use hearing protection like earplugs or earmuffs!
