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The five common medicines that could be harming your hearing

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I have severe hearing loss and can say it wasn’t due to medication. I don’t take prescription drugs. My hearing loss is genetic made much worse due to my military service.

@cvkemp

Ohhh, you were in ‘Nam, right? A LOT of noise!! What was your job there?

I have a friend who also was there, his role was not in direct combat, but he was exposed to all of the loud noise, likely with no protection. And now he suffers with hearing loss a lot. He may end up with a cochlear implant. And he’s a singer/songwriter, and quite good.

You guys darned well earned the ’s benefits, imperfect though they are.

You have the Spheres, right? They sound awesome.

No I was fortunate to stay stateside and provide communication for the guys that went. My hearing loss was due to actually flying to world over in the cargo bay of jet cargo planes. You see my job was to support 3 presidents by providing secure communication for the president, vice president, and Secretary of State. I had a demanding job but I was not on a battlefield. I actually also provided the communication for the Secret Service Agents too.

@cvkemp

Wow, that’s good that you weren’t in ‘Nam. However, your hearing got blown out anyway. Wow, sounds like a cool job, except for the cargo planes, that is! It must have been exciting, except a job is a job. It beats sitting behind a desk though. And you got to travel the world, too! And your service was vitally important. I’ll bet you have a ton of stories, except you probably have to keep mum about plenty, also.

I have a big, fat book about ototoxic drugs!!! Lots of drugs are ototoxic, and it often is not considered as a side-effect. Except for the well known side-effects, doctors often don’t know them that well. As someone who seems to get tons of side-effects, I have to pay attention to them.

But often enough, one is between a rock and a hard place, needing to take a med in spite of its side effects. It beats the alternative.

Hydroxychloroquine mentioned in the link by @testing123 or it’s generic name Plaquenil, this drug was the cause of my SSHL in 2015/2016. I’ve been on it for over 30 years, my specialist ceased it last week due to other long term complications I am experiencing. It’s a horrid drug for long term use, so many complications associated with it.

For me at least so far. My diet has kept me healthy and healed my body. I eat real food. Mostly no fast food, no processed food or factory created food. Only a small amount of alcohol. Fruit and vegetables along with herbs are the medicine that God created and made available on this earth for our wellbeing. Sure meat and dairy are also important. We here in this country didn’t know what obesity and diabetes were until convenient factory food was created after WW2.

If you look at the list- it is either very high doses, or treatments for life-threatening conditions (infection, cancer). Antibiotics, especially in children, are notorious. I am fairly convinced my hearing loss is due to a massive treatment of antibiotics received over 60 y ago as a toddler in Indonesia. I don’t blame anyone- that treatment perhaps saved my life, antibiotics were still brand-new and their ototoxicity not generally known (and if so, probably not in Sumatra).

As others pointed out, medical treatment always follows a benefit-risk analysis. Another, major complication is drug-drug interactions. Some drugs (and even foods, like grapefruits) may overwhelm the liver enzymes that degrade your xenobiotics; as a consequence, your exposure or plasma halflife of a second drug in that same metabolic pathway may reach dangerous levels (that’s the reason doctors always ask what else you are taking…).

In reply to @Deaf_piper

@Deaf_piper Yes! It’s a very useful drug, if you need it. But long term, it is not good for one. I need it, but I don’t think I should take it.

My retinologist, who is quite esteemed, wrote a paper on how it can create retinal damage. I’m already fighting that long-term, so Plaquenil is not such a great idea for me.

I seem to be currently on top of the retinal issue, but need to be checked every 3 month or so, and need to take meds to keep the inflammation down (doxycycline). My retinas were damaged by long-term Lyme. The gift that keeps on giving!

If my retinas get bad again, I have to have a very expensive shot in the eye. Not fun.

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