The consequences of smoking on hearing

Smoking is bad. Not only to the lungs and heart, but also to hearing. The correlation between smoking and hearing is now confirmed by several studies, which have found a much higher incidence on hearing loss in smokers than in non-smokers. Let's try to understand more on this link between hearing loss and cigarette smoking with a deep-dive the results of the study, conducted in Japan.

A recent Japanese study, conducted by Japan's National Center for Global Health and Medicine, published in the journal Nicotine & Tobacco Research and carried out by Huanhuan Hu, Ph.D, showed that nicotine negatively affects individuals' ability to hear well, highlighting the need to prevent or delay the development of hearing loss.

The study was carried out on a sample of over 50,000 people, without obvious hearing problems, who underwent periodic audiometric tests every year for eight years, to check the state of their hearing. Well, the results that have emerged are staggering: among those who had never smoked, about 8 out of 1,000 each year developed some form of hearing loss; this ratio rises to 15 in 1,000 for smokers. In practice, an almost double incidence of hearing loss was found among smokers, compared to non-smokers.

Although the conclusions of this analysis leave no room for interpretation, two positive aspects also emerged:

• The probability of losing hearing is directly proportional to the number of cigarettes smoked.
• The risk of hearing loss is significantly reduced among those who have quit smoking for at least five years.

Although there was no need, the results of this study provide an extra motivation for choosing to quit smoking: the awareness of being able to damage an organ apparently as distant from cigarettes as the ear, should make us reflect on the negative consequences that the the habit of smoking has an effect on health in general.