Hearing Loss Cures
OK, the first thing I want to say is that there really
isn’t any such thing as a hearing loss "cure" – at least not
right now. But scientists are working on it, and there are some
promising developments along the way. There are also some unusual
approaches that you might find interesting. We’ll report on the
"cures" here, and try to distinguish between those that sound
like legitimate science and those that don’t.
The best things currently available are hearing
aids, assistive listening devices,
and cochlear
implants.
One promising new technology is hair
cell regeneration, which is the growing of new cochlear cells to
replace damaged or missing hair cells that cause hearing loss. One
technique for initiating this regeneration is stem
cell therapy.
There are also promising advances being made in the development
of pharmaceuticals to prevent and/or treat some types of hearing loss.
March 2001 – The vast majority of hearing problems are caused by a
cochlea that’s not working as it should. More specifically, the problem
is generally caused by missing or damaged hair cells that don’t properly
transmit the acoustic information to the acoustic nerve. One possibility
to address this situation is the development of an artificial
cochlea.
December 2000 – Injected Antioxidants Show Promise in Reversing Hearing Loss
January 2001 – Antiviral Drug Helps Reverse Sudden Hearing Loss
March 2001 – Patient Regains Some Hearing Through Blood Filtering
April 2001 – Embryo Cells Contribute to Hearing Restoration
October 2002 – Chinese Doctor Claims
Sensorineural Deafness Cure
October 2003 – What about acupuncture as a
hearing loss treatment. Read our readers’ experiences
here!
October 2004 – We’re getting closer and closer to
understanding how sound vibrations cause an electrical signal to be sent
over the auditory nerve. The folks at Harvard Medical
recently reported a major discovery, the TRPA1 molecule. Here’s their
press release.
February 2005 – I’ve heard
discussions of artificial cochlea for several years. Now the folks at
the University of Michigan have come up with one!
August 2005 – Researchers at the
University of Iowa have discovered how to prevent the expression of a
gene that causes hereditary deafness in mice!
October 2005 – Steroids have been the treatment of
choice for sudden hearing loss for some time now. That treatment works
in some cases, but not in others. Scientists at the
University of Michigan may have figured out why that is, and figured out
how to predict who will benefit and who won’t.
January 2006 – Pop! Skier regains
hearing at 7,000 ft
May 2006 – Aspirin Can
Prevent Hearing Loss from Ototoxic Medication
August 2006 – Protein Tied to Usher
Syndrome May Be Hearing’s "Missing Link"
September 2006 – Intratympanic
Steroids for Treatment of Sudden Hearing Loss
February 2007 – Genetic Hearing Loss
May Be Reversible Without Gene Therapy
March 2007 – Santa
Cruz Doctor Fights Surfer’s Ear With New Technique
March
2007 – Nutrients May
Prevent Noise Induced Hearing Loss
May 2007 – Auditory Nerve
Implant Next Big Hearing Loss Breakthrough?
May 2007 – Quest for a Cure: Recent
findings advance scientists’ understanding of hearing loss
August 2008 – Cochlea "Reprogramming"
and Artificial Cochlea Under Investigation
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
December 2000
You may know that free radicals have been implicated as one of the
causes of signs of aging. They are highly reactive molecules that
disrupt the structure of normal cellular components. One of the
activities of free radicals is to destroy cochlear hair cells, which
transmit acoustic information to the auditory nerve. Recent
investigations demonstrate that loud noises and certain chemicals cause
the production of free radicals within the ear.
As you might expect, there are lots of loud noises in the military,
and the resulting free radical production degrades the hearing of an
estimated ten percent of active duty servicemen and costs the various
military agencies over a billion dollars a year. So, military
researchers are very interested in understanding this phenomenon and
doing something about it.
They have recently come up with a promising treatment. Scientists at
the Naval Medical Center in San Diego have developed a tiny catheter
that they insert between the middle ear and the inner ear. The catheter
releases antioxidants, which neutralize the free radicals and prevent
damage to the hair cells. Initial tests have successfully restored
hearing and balance in some individuals; larger tests are planned.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
January 2001
One of the most perplexing things about some cases of sudden hearing
loss is the inability of doctors to determine the cause or specify a
successful treatment. I’ve met many people who suffered sudden hearing
loss and never learned the cause. Some were given steroids; sometimes
these helped and sometimes they didn’t.
A recent article from WebMD (http://onhealth.webmd.com/conditions/briefs/wire/item,101561.asp)
reports that combining an antiviral drug with the normal steroid
treatment successfully reverses sudden hearing loss caused by an upper
respiratory viral infection in 83 percent of the cases tested. If
current studies confirm these results, the combined treatment may soon
become the treatment of choice in these cases.
Dr. George Gates of the University of Washington in Seattle estimates
that about 10,000 such cases occur annually in the United States. The
precise cause of the hearing loss is still not known, but it may be
related to swelling and inflammation in the ears.
The research was conducted by Hesham Zagloul and Mohamed Ghonim of
Mansoura University in Mansoura, Egypt. They reported that patients who
get treatment within a day of losing their hearing do much better than
those who wait.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
March 2001
Every so often, we stumble on a bizarre hearing loss "cure"
that we like to share with our readers. Some of them are probably bogus,
while others may be surprisingly effective. The Kansas City Star
recently reported the case of a man named Will Standley, whose hearing
was partially restored through blood filtering.
Mr. Standley woke up one night with his head spinning and unable to
hear in his right ear. The standard treatments for sudden hearing loss
(including steroids and anti-viral drugs) failed to restore his hearing.
In the course of researching hearing loss on the internet, Mr. Standley
learned that cholesterol filtering has been found by German researchers
to restore hearing in some patients with sudden hearing loss. At a loss
for other treatment, Mr. Standley drove to the University of Kansas
Medical Center for the experimental procedure.
It seems to have worked!
The filtering process was originally developed to treat people whose
high cholesterol cannot be handled using standard techniques. The
technique filters the LDL (bad cholesterol) from the blood.
When doctors performed the procedure on Mr. Standley, he noticed a
reduction in tinnitus before the procedure was even complete. Standard
hearing tests conducted before and after the filtering showed a dramatic
increase in his hearing following the procedure.
Doctors speculate on reasons that blood filtering restores (partial)
hearing in some cases, but they really don’t know why it works.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
April 2001
The "Irish Independent" recently reported on a new therapy
for treating hearing loss – implanting cells from embryos into the ear.
Researchers at Bristol University Medical School have removed
immature cells from the ears of ten-day-old mouse embryos and injected
them into the ears of deaf mice, where they stimulated the damaged
hearing nerve to grow and begin to function.
The researchers are now ready to begin human trials. Professor
Matthew Holley, who has performed much of this research, predicts these
efforts will result in a new cellular treatment for deafness within five
years. Professor Holley believes human treatment will initially involve
people with existing cochlear implants, but his long term goal is to
develop cells that can result in the elimination of the cochlear
implant.
Professor Holley also said that his research would not require a
continuous supply of human embryos, because cells can be repeatedly
grown from an initial sample.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
October 2002
Editor: Every so often we read about a "miracle cure" for
deafness. The latest is from a Chinese doctor named Dr. Wang Jiazheng,
who claims to have a successful treatment for sensorineural deafness. We
advise you to take this information with a grain of salt! BTW, the
website is sporadic, so if you can’t connect on your first attempt, try
again later. Here’s the information, as it appeared in bhNEWS.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
For long time the medical circle holds that once the aural nerve cell
is destroyed, it could not be revived. During more than 20 years’
research and medical practice, Wang found a set of methods to cure the
sensorineural deafness and brought thousands of deaf men to hearing. He
broke the conclusion and established his theory about sensorineural
deafness. Then by many experiments he proved that the destroyed aural
cells could be revived and regenerated.
He is the first man in the world who put forth the sensorineural cell
regenerative theory. In 1994 the theory was tested and passed the
national level appraisal of China. It is recognized in the medical field
as "regenerable theory".
http://www.jilin.gov.cn/en/wsyl/wjz.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
January 2006
At 72,
being profoundly deaf had become an unfortunate, but inevitable, part of
life for former soldier Derek Glover. Until a skiing holiday with his
daughter in the Italian Dolomites. At 7,000 ft, Mr Glover was travelling
on a ski lift when he heard a loud pop, and his hearing had returned.
Full
Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
March
2007
A
Santa Cruz doctor has developed a new technique to give surfers relief
from surfer’s ear, which can lead to painful infections and possibly
hearing loss, NBC11’s Marianne Favro reported. After surfing for 34
years, Randy Marty has developed surfer’s ear. As a result, he’s lost
significant hearing in his right ear, and his left ear was even worse.
"The last four and a half months, I went completely deaf. (I) could
hear nothing at all," Marty said. Marty went to the Santa Cruz
Medical Clinic, where Dr. Douglas Hetzler performed a new procedure he
helped develop to remove bone growths that had built up in Marty’s ear
canals. "(Surfer’s ear) occurs as a result of cold water exposure
in the ear canal over thousands of hours, which causes new bone to form
causing ear infections and reversible hearing loss," said Dr.
Douglas Hetzler of the Santa Cruz Medical Clinic. Full
Story
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
May 2008
(NIDCD) and the Scripps Research Institute in La
Jolla, CA, reported the discovery of two proteins that pair up to form
"tip links," the fine filaments that connect the bristlelike structures,
called stereocilia, that sit atop hair cells in the inner ear. Tip links
are believed to be responsible for opening and closing channels on the
surface of the stereocilia, allowing sound energy to be converted into
electrical signals interpreted by the brain. While there is no surgical
remedy or curative elixir yet in sight, most scientists no longer doubt
that a treatment for sensorineural hearing loss will be discovered
someday. The question is "When?" Many researchers say it will take 10 to
20 years to develop a cure, if not longer.
Full Story
