Antioxidants for ‘airport ears’

Do you live near to an airport or are you often exposed to loud noise on a regular basis? Are you suffering from hearing loss because of it? If so, you may be interested to hear of some new research, at present only being carried out on guinea pigs, that seems to show that having a good level of antioxidants might just make all the difference. The University of Michigan Hearing Research Institute carried out the study and they gave the guinea pigs a mix of antioxidants: vitamins A, C, and E, and magnesium one hour before they were exposed to the equivalent decibel level comparable to a jet engine taking off. The guinea pigs continued to be given the same amount of the antioxidant mix for a further five days after that single event. A test group were also exposed to the same decibel level, but with no antioxidants given.

When they compared the hearing levels of the two groups at the end of the five-day period, the group that had taken antioxidants experienced a significantly lower loss of hearing. So could it help us too? I will pass on information on phase two of the research, where the Michigan researchers are testing the same antioxidants on soldiers who are exposed to high decibel levels during training, and indeed often very frequently afterwards.