We recently brought you the surprising news that airbags can cause deafness. But most people go deaf from a virus, an infection or loud noise. One place you hear a lot of loud noise is on the battlefield, which is why many of our soldiers are coming back from the Iraq war with hearing loss. Now there may be a pill they can take AHEAD OF TIME to prevent this!
Hearing specialist Jianxin Bao has found that two anti-epileptic drugs can prevent permanent hearing loss to a significant degree in mice exposed to loud noises. Bao says, “The military has a tremendous need for preventing noise-induced hearing loss, but others would also benefit. For example, many hunters have hearing loss on the side where they hold their gun, and pilots are especially prone to hearing loss because of the noise in airplane cabins. Protective equipment or earplugs aren’t always appropriate, and right now no drug on the market can prevent or treat noise-induced hearing loss.”
Bao and his colleagues found that if they exposed mice to loud sounds and then gave them one of two anticonvulsive medications that are used to treat epilepsy and found that they prevented a significant amount of permanent hearing loss.
Art credit: freeimages.co.uk
We can spend millions, even billions on fighting a futile war but we somehow can’t afford to do anything about global warming. Show the world you care.Good intentions are not enough!
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