Researchers at Israel’s Technion Institute of Technology have discovered that Vitamin E can help restore hearing for people who suffer from sudden, unexplained deafness.
"Sudden Hearing Loss (SHL) occurs quite frequently. It happens suddenly, you can wake up in the morning and feel a loss of hearing in one or both ears. Because of that suddenness, it's a very dramatic and stressful disease," Dr. Henry Z. Yoachims told Israel21c. Yoachims works in the Department of Otolaryngology and Head & Neck Surgery at Rambam Medical Center and is a member of the Faculty of Medicine at the Technion.
"In about two thirds of occurrences there's a spontaneous recovery, but with the other third, the hearing loss can continue indefinitely. Generally, these patients are hospitalized and given some kind of treatment. Every hospital has its own regiment, because no single treatment has been found to be effective. We're constantly seeking new solutions to the problem Because antioxidants are very popular right now for treatment of heart disease and other problems, we decided to see if it could be helpful with SHL."
The study examined 66 patients who experienced sudden hearing loss. All of the patients involved in the study had been admitted to hospital within the previous eight days for sudden hearing loss of an unknown cause.
The patients were given standard treatments, which include bed rest, steroid drugs and an oxygen mask. Half of the patients also received 400mg tablets of vitamin E, administered twice daily.
Although a similar number of patients in both groups experienced recovery, patients in the group that received vitamin E were more likely to have an improvement in their hearing of 75 percent or more by the time they were discharged from hospital, and had even greater improvement at later follow-up.
"Sudden Hearing Loss (SHL) occurs quite frequently. It happens suddenly, you can wake up in the morning and feel a loss of hearing in one or both ears. Because of that suddenness, it's a very dramatic and stressful disease," Dr. Henry Z. Yoachims told Israel21c. Yoachims works in the Department of Otolaryngology and Head & Neck Surgery at Rambam Medical Center and is a member of the Faculty of Medicine at the Technion.
"In about two thirds of occurrences there's a spontaneous recovery, but with the other third, the hearing loss can continue indefinitely. Generally, these patients are hospitalized and given some kind of treatment. Every hospital has its own regiment, because no single treatment has been found to be effective. We're constantly seeking new solutions to the problem Because antioxidants are very popular right now for treatment of heart disease and other problems, we decided to see if it could be helpful with SHL."
The study examined 66 patients who experienced sudden hearing loss. All of the patients involved in the study had been admitted to hospital within the previous eight days for sudden hearing loss of an unknown cause.
The patients were given standard treatments, which include bed rest, steroid drugs and an oxygen mask. Half of the patients also received 400mg tablets of vitamin E, administered twice daily.
Although a similar number of patients in both groups experienced recovery, patients in the group that received vitamin E were more likely to have an improvement in their hearing of 75 percent or more by the time they were discharged from hospital, and had even greater improvement at later follow-up.