About 42.1 million American adults smoke cigarettes, with 16 million U.S. residents already suffering from diseases caused by smoking - cardiovascular, pulmonary, etc..
A new study by University of Manchester employees in the UK added deafness to an extensive list of smokers' health problems, according to Pannochka, an online publication for girls and women aged 14 to 35.. net The research team led by Dr. Piers Dawes of the Center for the Study of Human Communication and Deafness recently published the results of their research in the special edition of the Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology.
In the course of their work, scientists analyzed 164,770 Britons aged 40 to 69 years. All participants were included in the UK Biobank study, a major medical project involving more than half a million people.. Participants tested their hearing between 2007 and 2010.
Researchers estimate that active smokers are 15.1% more likely to experience complete or partial deafness compared to passive smokers and non-smokers (combined). At the same time, passive smokers suffer from hearing impairment by 28% more often than those who do not expose themselves to tobacco smoke at all.
The team also found that the more packs a person smokes per week and the longer he smokes, the higher the risk of hearing loss in the future. Former smokers appear to have a slightly increased risk of hearing loss.. Researchers say that their "
How smoking can affect hearing?
Researchers cannot yet determine the exact cause of hearing loss with active and passive smoking.. The only thing that allows them to be connected is vascular diseases, which can lead to hearing impairment..
“We are not sure whether tobacco toxins directly affect hearing toxins or whether hearing loss is associated with microvascular changes.”. Maybe this is due to both the one and the other, ”said Dr. Daves.
Explaining why smokers are more likely to lose their hearing, the researchers noted that in their work they compared passive smokers only to non-smokers, and active smokers to passive smokers and non-smokers at the same time.. Thus, the risk of hearing loss in smokers “may even be underestimated”.
36 million adults in the United States suffer from some form of hearing loss. Most of them are elderly people, as well as those who have been exposed to loud sounds throughout their lives (mainly in production).
Dr. Ralph Holme, Head of Biomedical Research at Action on Hearing Loss (UK), assisted Manchester researchers. He believes the latest work convincingly proves the delayed effects of smoking on hearing..
Dr. Holm said: “Hearing loss is often seen as an inevitable consequence of aging, but a study published today shows that old age is far from always the cause..
Quitting smoking and protecting against loud sounds are two practical methods that will help people maintain their hearing in the future. ”.
By the way, this is not the only study in which scientists associated smoking with hearing loss.. In 2011, scientists from the Langone Medical Center in New York found that passive smokers and children with hearing problems develop more often than their peers who do not have to breathe cigarette smoke.
medbe. ru.