March 20, 2018.
Smoking could cause hearing damage, according to a study by a team from the National Center for Global Health and Medicine in Japan.
A negative impact on hearing
The damage tobacco does to health are numerous. We think in particular of cardiovascular diseases and cancers but also of pulmonary embolism. We learn today, in a study published in the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research, than tobacco could also affect hearing. To reach this conclusion, the researchers followed more than 50,000 people for several years.
These volunteers aged 20 to 64 were tested for hearing and this is how they observed that there was a link between smoking and hearing loss. More precisely, a smoker increases his risk of hearing loss by 1.2 to 1.6. This risk is 1.4 times greater for those who smoke one to 10 cigarettes per day, 1.5 times greater for 11 to 20 cigarettes and is multiplied by 1.6 for heavy smokers.
The vasoconstrictor effect of nicotine?
However, researchers at the National Center for Global Health and Medicine have yet to understand how smoking can damage hearing. According to one of their hypotheses, it could be that the cochlea, the central organ of hearing, is less oxygenated in smokers because of the vasoconstrictor effect of nicotine on the blood vessels. But that remains to be confirmed.
On the other hand, they are able to say that stopping smoking allows you to gradually regain your hearing. ” The risk of hearing loss associated with smoking appears to decrease within five years of stopping smoking », They explain. So that’s another good reason to quit smoking right away. Researchers will continue their work and focus on the impact of electronic cigarettes on hearing.
Marine Tertrais
Read also: Smoking (Smoking cessation)
