My name is Laura Dennison and I own Audiology Associates of Georgia.  I have been an audiologist for thirty years but decided about three years ago to get my doctorate degree in audiology.  One of my classes was very interesting and scary at the same

time and I wanted to share some of what I learned with you. The class was Pharmacology and Ototoxicity.  Ototoxicity is anything that is damaging to your ears. There are three types of ototoxicity.  The three areas are tinnitus(ringing in the ears), hearing loss, and balance and dizziness problems.

Did You Know?

There are 921 ototoxic drugs, herbs, and chemicals available today. That is 921 seperate substances that can damage your ears. Some of these drugs may not be so bad on their own but if you are exposed to noise while you are taking them the effects can be compounded. Currently, ototoxicity is only monitored with any kind of regularity on patients being treated with certain chemotherapy drugs and some high-powered antibiotics. That leaves hundreds of other substances that aren’t being monitored and whose effects may not even be considered when they are prescribed. As patients we don’t typically question the prescriptions we are given, don’t read the fine print on our prescriptions or over-the-counter medications and don’t mention known or suspected hearing loss to our doctors. And many times when tinnitus starts we don’t necessarily connect it to the medication we are taking.

We Are Unique

As we age we become more individual because we age differently and at our own individual pace. People will very often be on multiple medications from different doctors. Even if you have been on them for years with no problems that may change as you get older because the function of many of our organs change which can affect how the drugs affect us.

Be Kind to Your Kidneys and Liver

The two most important organs involved with how we process medications are our kidneys and liver. They filter everything that enters our system and affect how we metabolize food and medicine. It has been reported that a person may lose 33% of kidney function between the ages of 30 and 90 - this means that it takes longer for a medication to get out of our system and so we may need less than we once did. So read the fine print and talk with your doctor about all your medications.

 Did You Know....?

That high cholesterol can make you more susceptible to noise induced hearing loss?
That there is a relationship between cardiovascular disease and hearing loss?
That a low-fat diet can be used to reverse some of that loss? It does make me wonder if those cholesterol lowering drugs so many of us are taking may prevent some hearing loss.