people in the United States alone -- from troops returning from war to
students with music blasting through headphones -- are suffering from
impairing noise-induced hearing loss.
The rising trend is something that researchers and physicians at the
University of Michigan Kresge Hearing Research Institute
(khri.med.umich.edu) are hoping to reverse, with a cocktail of
vitamins and the mineral magnesium that has shown promise as a possible way
to prevent hearing loss caused by loud noises. The nutrients were
successful in laboratory tests, and now researchers are testing whether
humans will benefit as well.
"The prevention of noise induced hearing loss is key," says Glenn E.
Green, M.D.
(www2.med.umich.edu/healthcenters/provider_profile.cfm?individual_id =112086), assistant professor of otolaryngology at the U-M Health System
and director of the U-M Children's Hearing Laboratory.
"When we can't prevent noise-induced hearing loss through screening
programs and use of hearing protection, then we really need to come up with
some way of protecting people who are still going to have noise exposure.
My hope is that this medication will give people a richer, fuller life."
The combination of vitamins A, C and E, plus magnesium, is given in
pill form to patients who are participating in the research. Developed at
the U-M Kresge Hearing Research Institute, the medication, called
AuraQuell, is designed to be taken before a person is exposed to loud
noises. In earlier testing at U-M on guinea pigs, the combination of the
four micronutrients blocked about 80 percent of the noise-induced hearing
impairment.
Now, AuraQuell is being tested in a set of four multinational human
clinical trials: military trials in Sweden and Spain, an industrial trial
in Spain, and a trial involving students at the University of Florida who
listen to music at high volumes on their iPods and other PDAs, funded by
the National Institutes of Health (NIH). This is the first NIH-funded
clinical trial involving the prevention of noise-induced hearing loss.
"If we can even see 50 percent of the effectiveness in humans that we
saw in our animal trials, we will have an effective treatment that will
very significantly reduce noise-induced hearing impairment in humans. That
would be a remarkable dream," says co-lead researcher Josef M. Miller,
Ph.D. (khri.med.umich.edu/faculty/miller.php ), the Lynn and
Ruth Townsend Professor of Communication Disorders and director of the
Center for Hearing Disorders at the U-M Department of Otolaryngology's
Kresge Hearing Research Institute. Miller is leading the research along
with colleagues at Karolinska Institute, where Miller also has an
appointment; the University of Florida; and the University Castille de La
Mancha.
Until a decade ago, it was thought that noise damaged hearing by
intense mechanical vibrations that destroyed the delicate structures of the
inner ear. There was no intervention to protect the inner ear other than
reducing then intensity of sound reaching it, such as ear plugs, which are
not always effective. It was then discovered that noise caused intense
metabolic activity in the inner ear and the production of molecules that
damage the inner ear cells; and that allowed the discovery of an
intervention to prevent these effects.
The laboratory research that led to a new understanding of the
mechanisms underlying noise induce hearing loss was funded by the NIH; the
preclinical translational research that led to the formulation of AuraQuell
as an effective preventative was funded by General Motors and the United
Auto Workers.
Miller notes that the military tests in the new study could be of
particular importance because of the high number of soldiers who develop
hearing loss in the line of duty, due to improvised explosive devices
(IEDs) and other noises.
Last year, he says, the Department of Defense spent approximately $1.5
billion in compensation for hearing impairment, and Veterans Affairs
hospitals spent close to $1 billion for clinical care and treatment of
hearing impairment. The most recent figures in a report by the Institute of
Medicine (iom.edu/CMS/3795/20024/29957.aspx) indicated that
one-third of returning soldiers fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq cannot be
redeployed specifically because of hearing impairment.
"Not only is it an enormous factor in quality of life for the
individual affected, in cost to society for health care and compensation,"
Miller says, "but it fundamentally compromises the effectiveness of our
military at this time." Miller has launched a U-M startup company called
OtoMedicine (otomedicine), which holds the license to
developed the vitamin-and-magnesium pill for human application.
Hearing loss commonly occurs, Green says, when loud noises trigger the
formation of molecules inside the ear and these molecules cause damage to
the hair cells of the inner ear. The cells then shut down and scar, and
they cannot grow back.
The U-M researchers discovered that this new combination of vitamins,
when mixed with magnesium, can prevent noise-induced damage to the ears by
blocking some of these complex cellular reactions. Read more about the
science of hearing loss, free radicals in hearing loss, and the science
behind the effectiveness of these nutrients, in this press release
(med.umich.edu/opm/newspage/2007/hearingloss.htm).
Disclosure: If and when revenues are generated by the vitamin and
magnesium formulation developed at U-M, the University and the developers
could benefit financially.
For more information, visit these Web sites:
Results of the U-M laboratory studies on noise-induced hearing loss:
www2.med.umich.edu/prmc/media/newsroom/details.cfm?ID=611
The Kresge Hearing Research Institute at the University of Michigan:
khri.med.umich.edu/about.php
Ear, nose and throat services at the University of Michigan:
www2.med.umich.edu/healthcenters/dsp_cliniclist_oto.cfm
What is noise-induced hearing loss?
nidcd.nih/health/hearing/noise.asp
University of Michigan Health System
med.umich.edu
Links to our partners:
• Buy Hydrochlorothiazide Without Prescription
• Buy Ortho Tri-Cyclen Without Prescription
• Buy Armour Without Prescription
No hay comentarios:
Publicar un comentario