Ear damage caused by leisure noise.

Noise is a health risk. Recent findings suggest that leisure noise is a substantial danger especially to children, teenagers and young adults. Epidemiological studies of teenagers with no occupational noise exposure show an increasing number with a substantial and measurable irreversible inner ear damage.

[Hearing loss caused by leisure noise].

Although noise in general can induce hearing loss, environmental noise represents an important risk for children, teenagers and young adults. Epidemiological investigations now support the occurrence of an increasing number of irreversible hearing losses in these groups. Major causes of hearing loss are toys (guns), explosives and electroacoustically amplified music delivered by head sets or heard in discotheques and open air concerts.

Improvement in inner ear blood flow by nitric oxide following experimentally induced cochlear thrombosis in anesthetized guinea pigs.

The nitric oxide (NO) donor sodium nitropruside (SNP) applied to the round window membrane has recently been found to increase cochlear blood flow (CoBF) in normal guinea pigs and in normal and presbyacusic mice. This study examined the effect of topical applications of SNP on experimentally impaired CoBF in anesthetized guinea pigs. Small (3 microliters) portions of 3% SNP were applied to the round window niche of both normal and thrombosed cochleas.

Oral magnesium intake reduces permanent hearing loss induced by noise exposure.

Introduction: Following animal experiments where correlations were observed between serum magnesium level and noise-induced permanent hearing threshold shifts (NIPTS), we tested the prophylactic effect of magnesium in human subjects exposed to hazardous noise.

Methods: Subjects were 300 young, healthy, and normal-hearing recruits who underwent 2 months of basic military training. This training necessarily included repeated exposures to high levels of impulse noises while using ear plugs.

Oral magnesium supplementation as prophylaxis for noise-induced hearing loss: results of a double blind field study.

The effect of oral Mg-supplementation as prophylaxis against noise-induced hearing loss was tested in a placebo-controlled double blind study involving 320 voluntary subjects during a 2-month period of military training. The hearing thresholds of all subjects were checked and only persons with normal hearing were accepted. Before and after the 2-month training, blood samples were collected and Mg was analysed in serum, erythrocytes and lymphocytes.