Some 28 million Americans have some hearing loss and about 30 percent of them lost hearing because of loud noises, according to the National Institute on Deafness and Communications Disorders.
However, soldiers and rock fans aren't the only ones at risk for hearing loss. Any sound above 85 decibels can damage hearing. That puts about 30 million Americans at risk of losing some hearing because they are frequently exposed to hazardous noise levels.
Those high noise levels come from many sources that include such things as hunting, riding snowmobiles and using machinery such as leaf blowers, lawnmowers and power tools, the Institute says.
The reason that antioxidants can help protect hearing is that within the past decade scientists discovered that part of the cause of noise-induced hearing loss is damage to the cell mitochondria in the ear. When loud sounds occur the ear responds by creating free radicals.
"Free radical formation bursts initially, then peaks again during the days after exposure," Colleen G. Le Prell, Ph.D., the study's lead author said in a statement released by Newswise on Wednesday.
Le Prell is a research investigator at the University of Michigan Kresge Hearing Research Institute.
She said that Vitamins A, C and E and magnesium "worked in synergy to prevent cell damage," by mopping up free radicals.
In the study Le Prell found that the vitamins worked best if taken before a noisy event, but also offered some protection if taken quickly after an event.
U-M researcher Josef M. Miller, Ph.D., the senior author of the study has another idea. He envisions developing a "candy bar" containing a specific mixture of the antioxidants that soldiers could consume daily on the battlefield.
"These agents have been used for many years, but not for hearing loss. We know they're safe, so that opens the door to push ahead with clinical trials with confidence we're not going to do any harm," says Miller.
Similar bars with other formulations are already given to soldiers to help them withstand hot weather and other war zone conditions, Science Daily reported Thursday.
