It may seem as if the roots of noise-induced hearing loss are functionally well-understood. After all, the name itself suggests a fairly straightforward cause-and-effect relationship. The universal understanding is simply that loud noises damage the hearing mechanisms in the ear, resulting in long-term and permanent hearing loss.
And while that’s accurate, the mechanisms underpinning that cause have not always been so well established. That’s improving, thanks to new research into the role of zinc management after exposure to loud sounds. Hearing loss and zinc regulation have a significant connection according to this research.
What is zinc? And how does it impact hearing loss?
Zinc is a mineral required for executing necessary bodily functions and most individuals have plenty of it. Zinc helps your brain translate chemical signals and is linked to immune system functions. In most instances, a person’s diet supplies enough zinc.
The connection between zinc and hearing loss might, at first sight, be difficult to recognize. After all, it’s not immediately obvious what role zinc plays in your hearing. However, a novel experiment has shed some light on what’s happening.
Researchers exposed mice to loud sounds and conducted a few analyses afterward. When exposed to loud noises, the same thing happens to mice as happens to humans: the sensitive parts of the ear are damaged. In humans, this may first be experienced as a temporary muffling of sound. As an individual is continually exposed to loud noise, this damage will become more extreme and lasting. This damage can’t be cured in either humans or mice.
Researchers also took blood samples from the mice and noticed some fascinating results in terms of free-floating zinc.
Is hearing loss caused or helped by zinc?
Because of this result, scientists now have a better understanding of how noise-related hearing loss symptoms happen. Usually, when zinc is in the body, it’s bound molecularly. Researchers detected zinc in free-floating form when the experiment’s mice were exposed to loud noise. Zinc most likely behaves the same way in humans.
This zinc de-regulation ends up doing cellular damage to the inner ear, specifically to the parts of the inner ear in control of clear hearing. This is the mechanism that scientists now think results in the kind of damage that causes noise-induced hearing loss.
How to manage hearing loss
In the future, this sort of understanding may help scientists stop noise-induced hearing loss from ever happening, even in those people who are frequently subjected to loud noises. Regrettably, these developments are likely still some ways off. But that doesn’t mean your ears are defenseless.
So, how can you protect yourself from noise-related hearing loss?
There are several strategies you can use to safeguard your ears:
- Routinely check in with your hearing specialist: Detecting damage as early as possible can help reduce long-term damage, and coming in to see us for a routine hearing test is the best way to do that.
- Use ear protection: If there are noisy environments you want to be in, or simply can’t avoid, ear plugs and ear muffs can help lessen the damage. If you attend that concert, for example, use a pair of ear plugs to ensure you can still hear, but that your ears don’t become irreversibly damaged as a consequence.
- Limit your exposure to loud sounds: This clearly includes noises like jet engines, concerts, or sporting events. But there are some more commonplace noises that can cause hearing loss that might be surprising, and that includes things like a leaf blower, traffic, or people talking loudly in a busy office.
Protect your ears by understanding causes
Can you cure noise-induced hearing loss? Unfortunately not. This form of hearing loss and tinnitus can’t be cured, though it can be managed very effectively. Strategies developed to keep your hearing safe will be more effective the better you understand the mechanisms behind hearing loss.
Although this research is promising, we still have a ways to go. But every bit helps. Your direct role is to get your hearing evaluated and use ear protection.