Australian scientists are developing a new treatment that can possibly restore hearing for the millions of Australians who lost it. Although one in six Australians suffer from hearing loss, there is no drug treatment currently available.
Stanford Medicine physician-scientists are making developments in the diagnosis and treatment of hearing loss. The National Institutes of Health stated, "Approximately one in three people between the ages of 65 and 74 has hearing loss, and nearly half of those older than 75 have difficulty hearing," reported Stanford.
The Answers to Hearing Loss
Scientists are currently pursuing the first medicines as hearing loss treatments. Nowadays, principal treatments, which are hearing aids and electronic devices identified as cochlear implants, aid numerous people who have experienced damage to their ears. Such damages were the aftermath of aging, genetics, noise, or drugs. However, neither of such treatments serves as a cure or counters the biological root causes of hearing loss.
Help is potentially on the horizon for one in six Australians who experience hearing loss in the course of their lifetime. Melbourne scientists progress over a potentially life-changing treatment that can restore the challenging common medical condition, reported 7 News.
"You can buy pills that reduce pain, help stomach and help you sleep, but there are no drugs or medications to improve hearing," according to Dr. Robert Frisina, director of the Global Center for Hearing and Speech Research at the University of South Florida. That could eventually change as Frisina has detected that merging the anti-inflammatory medication with hormone aldosterone could slow hearing loss, reported WNDU.
Meanwhile, researchers at the University of Southern California and Harvard have created a new approach to repair cells deep inside the ear. It could be a potential remedy that could restore hearing for the elderly and other individuals who experience hearing loss.
The figure is foretold to rise to one in four by 2050. The main causes are working in boisterous industries, including music, construction, mining, manufacturing, military, and age-related hearing loss, reported The Epoch Times.
The Rodney William Memorial Foundation and the Garnett Passe granted $1.25 million in funding to the Bionics Institute. It has spent a decade developing a world-first drug to reverse hearing loss.
For Stanford Medicine, new solutions were within reach for the millions of people who have hearing loss today or are projected to lose their hearing capacity. An RRL in the October 2017 "JAMA Otolaryngology" raised the estimate. They indicated that hearing impairment impacts nearly two-thirds of Americans 70 years old and above.
Numerous experimental new drugs aim to cure hearing loss. Many of such efforts remain to be in the early stages.
According to the Bionics Institute's CEO, Jeanette Pritchard, the drug would be received through the ear to restore hearing to people. She added that a situation with the inner ear, between the hair cells in the ear, promotes the regrowth of the damaged links to the neurons in the brain.
Adults older than 70 years old are more susceptible to have hearing loss. This is compared to normal, healthy hearing.
