News

A new NIOSH study estimates that more than one-half of noise-exposed workers did not use hearing protection “always” or “usually” when exposed to hazardous occupational noise. A Hearing protection device (HPD) non-use was only measured in workers who reported exposure to noise on the job. The study was published online October 1, 2021 in the American Journal […]

A recent study investigated the relationship between occupational noise-induced hearing loss and blood pressure. The authors conclude that chronic noise exposure increases the risk of hypertension. According to the new paper, globally, more than 600 million people have jobs that expose them to hazardous noise levels. This high number makes noise exposure one of the […]

People with tinnitus may experience a worsening of the condition if they are being treated with selective-serotonin reuptake inhibitors, a common class of antidepressants. This is the conclusion of a new study recently published in the journal Cell Reports. Tinnitus is the intermittent or constant sensation of hearing sounds when no such sounds are present. Although tinnitus is often […]

Their new study finds intermittent broadband sound played over an extended period of time preserved sensory cells in the ear, while also rewiring some of the central auditory system in the brain, helping preserve the ability to sense the timing of sounds. “By showing that the detection of sound is being preserved in the brain, we’re saying […]

A gene called GAS2 plays a key role in normal hearing, and its absence causes severe hearing loss, according to a study led by researchers in Penn’s Perelman School of Medicine. The researchers, whose findings are published online in Developmental Cell, discovered that the protein encoded by GAS2 is crucial for maintaining the structural stiffness of support cells in the inner […]

Some viruses, such as measles, mumps and meningitis, can cause hearing difficulties, but what about SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19? In the first few months of the pandemic, a rapid systematic review of COVID-19 and hearing difficulties revealed a possible link between COVID-19 and audio-vestibular symptoms (hearing loss, tinnitus and vertigo). However, both the quantity and quality […]

A chemotherapy drug known to cause hearing loss in children is more likely to do so the earlier in life children receive it, new UBC research has found. Cisplatin is a life-saving treatment for many children with cancer, but the study published today in Cancer shows that the hearing of very young children is impacted early during […]

A combination of sound and silence may be a key in helping slow the progression of permanent hearing loss. Researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center found intermittent broadband sound played over an extended period of time preserved sensory cells in the ear, while also rewiring some of the central auditory system in the […]

An independent association may exist between migraine with subjective hearing loss (HL) and tinnitus, while otologic migraine—defined as the effects of migraine on the ear—may be partly responsible for the association between HL, tinnitus, neck pain and migraine. Results of the cross-sectional analysis of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) were published in Otology & Neurotology. […]

Although hearing loss is a very common sensory loss — affecting one-third of all American adults between the ages of 65 and 74 and nearly half of those older than 75 — solutions to hearing problems have been slow to materialize. Until recently, hearing aids only made things louder, not necessarily clearer. And scientists have yet to discover a […]