Smoking and Hearing Loss

[NGHearing]

Loss of Hearing is a condition that has become more and more prevalent as the years pass. It has been connected with other conditions such as diabetes and high blood pressure. In this article, New Generation discusses the different studies, which have been done over the years, finding a connection between hearing damage and smoking cigarettes.

In 1998, the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), conducted a study with 3,753 adults between the ages of 48 and 92 years. The study considered the participants’ smoking history. The results concluded smokers were 1.69 times as likely to have hearing loss as nonsmokers. The study also confirmed that individuals who lived with smokers were more likely to have hearing loss.

In 2003, the National Center for Biotechnology Information (NCBI) did a study on the “combined effect of smoking and occupational exposure to noise on hearing loss in steel factory workers.” The results concluded that smoking led to increased possibilities of developing high frequency hearing loss. Individuals exposed to smoke had a 2.56 probability as compared to individuals with no exposure who had a 1.77 probability.

Finally, in 2008, Antwerp University in Belgium conducted a research involving 4,000 people, between the ages of 53 and 67. The participants were given a hearing test. The lead researcher Dr. Erik Fransen explained that “the ability to pick out high frequency sounds was damaged in smokers and the obese.” He also explained how “The hearing loss is proportional to how much you smoke and your body mass index (BMI).”

In conclusion, hearing health is affected negatively by smoking cigarettes, and as the years pass new studies will come out to confirm these results.

[Kadougan]

I wonder how much this relates to the actual smoking and how much relates to overall health quality. I would personnally expect that any person who does not take care of themselves by eating properly, ensuring adequate hydration, appropriate BMI, exercising regularly etc. etc. etc. would have a higher incidence of hearing loss.

“The hearing loss is proportional to how much you smoke and your body mass index (BMI).” I suppose my question is sort of like "the chicken and the egg". Tough to determine but I wonder if there is a physiological reason that the chemicals in a cigarette affect hearing or is it simply the overall affect on the quality of health in the body (and specifically the respiratory system) that results in the hearing deficit.

[Kadougan]

Above does not expect to be answered : Rhetorical questions.

[Um bongo]

I wonder how much this relates to the actual smoking and how much relates to overall health quality. I would personnally expect that any person who does not take care of themselves by eating properly, ensuring adequate hydration, appropriate BMI, exercising regularly etc. etc. etc. would have a higher incidence of hearing loss.

“The hearing loss is proportional to how much you smoke and your body mass index (BMI).” I suppose my question is sort of like "the chicken and the egg". Tough to determine but I wonder if there is a physiological reason that the chemicals in a cigarette affect hearing or is it simply the overall affect on the quality of health in the body (and specifically the respiratory system) that results in the hearing deficit.

Isn't it the particular aspects of smoking namely constriction of smaller arteries and the tying up of red blood cells which reduce the oxygen and nutrient supply to the very smallest structures on the body (like cochlear hair cells).

There are other causes of Ototoxicity for sure and everyone doesn't eat and drink what their doctor tells them to, but smoking surely fits into one of the 'preventable' brackets, like noise induced loss.

[Hask12]

1.69 times more likely? How much of our money did they waste on this survey? Does this prove that smoking causes hearing loss? No, actually it proves nothing. We already know smoking is bad for a person's health. If death won't scare you from smoking I'm sure hearing loss won't even make people blink.

[Walter]

Everything we put in or breath into our body's affects almost every cell in our body. Some things affect some cells faster and more significantly than others. As others have mentioned, if death won't stop a person from smoking, a slightly more prevalent hearing loss (http://www.hearsource.com/index.html)will do little to dissuade most smokers.

[Jolly Roger]

it (smoking) isn't necessarily directly affecting your hearing. It affects your overall health, which in turn affects your hearing. Putting some toxin in your lungs isn't going to make you go deaf. But the illness it might cause can.

[Rocket]

1.69 times more likely? How much of our money did they waste on this survey? Does this prove that smoking causes hearing loss? No, actually it proves nothing. We already know smoking is bad for a person's health. If death won't scare you from smoking I'm sure hearing loss won't even make people blink.

Thank you Hask12. Amazing that such logic is thrown out the window when it comes to the government's obsession with spending money.

[Jolly Roger]

You are right about the money spending. Its crazy how much debt we have as a nation but that doesn't stop it. Maybe for good reason, but I don't see it.

[bergie]

This is just another reason to stop smoking and ban that stuff forever.

[ruby.yeager]

Yet another reason not to smoke.

[iceman0486]

I just wanted to point out that 1.69 times more likely is the same thing as 69% more likely to experience hearing loss. While I agree that with most people if the threat of cancer and death (not to mention stinking to high heaven) is insufficent to warn them off smoking, the thought of hearing loss is WAY more nebulous to those who have no idea what it means.

I deal with young people all the time who nod when I tell them that listening to their iPod on max volume WILL result in hearing loss. The say it makes sense. Then they never change their habits. So, I am fitting a 21 year old lady next week with hearing aids because of NIHL. This isn't "Seventy percent more likely" this is "Going To Happen," but until it does, it isn't real.

As for the reasoning behind the study, it allows the insurance companies to charge smokers even more, because they cost so much more to cover.