What?...I Can't Hear You

Good Evening Everyone!

       You've probably heard wives complain about their husbands never hearing them, or being hard of hearing in general.  The joke is that the men have "selective hearing," and they choose to block out what they don't want to hear.  Well, I'm here this week in defense of those hearing challenged men out there.  According to a recent research article, most men may not have "selective hearing," but are actually loosing their hearing.  The best part about the article was that this may actually be prevented. 
       The article reported analgesic use to increase the risk of hearing loss in men.  Analgesic use includes aspirin, NSAIDS(all other pain reliever/anti-inflammatory), and acetaminophen.  The study tracked men who consumed those medications 2 times or more every week.  It also had different results for two different groups: men above 50 years and men below fifty years (the results may surprise you). 

The actual results for increased risk of hearing loss were as follows:


                                   Risk for above 50 years             Risk for below 50 years
Aspirin                                    12%                                            33%
NSAIDS                                 21%                                           61%
Acetaminophen                        22%                                           99%


* acetaminophen presented the greatest risk for both groups reporting a 22% increased risk of hearing loss in men above 50 years and a 99% increased risk of hearing loss in men below 50 years.  The others still presented risk that should be paid attention to.

       To prevent this from happening, we first have to realize that men are taking these drugs most commonly to help with chronic pain relief.  So here are some couple ways to help reduce pain without having side effects.  First, and my favorite is chiropractic care to help reduce & prevent pain.  Second is one that I have written about in the past, and that is taking high quality fish oil (which research has proven to be more effective in the long run vs. pain medications).


Yours in Health,

Dr. Jeff
Bruce Chiropractic Center
drjeff@brucechiropracticonline.com     

Source: 
Analgesic Use and the Risk of Hearing Loss in Men,  The American Journal of Medicine. March 2010; Vol. 123; No. 3; pp. 231-237.

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