Painkillers cause deafness

It is safe to say that the most popular medications around the world are painkillers. However, for the ease with which they relieve pain, you can pay too high a price - “earn” hearing impairment.

As in other Western countries, analgesics are the most widely used class of drugs in the United States, with annual sales significantly outpacing all other drugs.

But according to researchers from the Brigham Women's Clinic in Boston, taking common analgesics such as ibuprofen and acetaminophen (paracetamol) by women significantly increases the risk of deafness in women. Fortunately, good old aspirin does not affect hearing.

The more often a woman uses these painkillers, the greater the risk of hearing loss. Women under 50 years of age are especially sensitive to this side effect of analgesics.

The study authors examined data on 62,261 women who took part in the experiment from 1995 to 2009. At the beginning of the study, the age of the participants ranged from 31-48 years. By the end of the study, a total of just over 10,000 women had reported hearing loss.

Compared with participants who took ibuprofen less than once a week, women who took this common painkiller 2-3 times a week had a 13% increased risk of hearing loss when taking ibuprofen 4-5 times a week. increased this risk by 21%, and those who relieved pain with ibuprofen 6 times or more during the week increased the risk of hearing loss by 24%.

Similar data were obtained for paracetamol.

“It is likely that hearing loss with these non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs was caused by the ability of these drugs to disrupt the blood supply to the cochlea,” said study co-author Sharon Kuran.

Source: health-ua.org