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Pop a Pill, Save Your Hearing
powlow writes "People who've had their ears damaged by gunfire, jackhammers or punk rock have traditionally had two choices: get hearing aids, or suffer in silence. But a new set of drugs, about to be tested on Marine recruits, is showing promise as a way to protect ears against the din."
Hopefully the mods will take one of these pills before modding my jokes as off-topic.
"Derp de derp."
At the University of Michigan, for example, guinea pigs were blasted for five hours with 115 decibels of sound -- about the equivalent of a chainsaw.
I like that word 'blasted'. Where can I get a job blasting helpless animals like that?
To blast those 'pigs, use the AirZooka. This might be familiar, they are a Slashdot sponsoer and this item does appear in the banners.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
"tested on Marines", I just start to think of superviruses, and stuff like that.
Aren't drug trials usually performed on volunteer groups from the public who have a vested in interest in the proposed benefits of said drugs?
I hear advertisements all the time like "Participate in this medical study if you suffer from [insert ailment here], and you will receive free care from us, using our new experimental treatments"
propz to GNAA
The best irony is that this man, who best liked the sound of his own voice, will in old age probably hear only his own voice. I hope this means we won't be hearing any more of his voice in the future!
Big Daddy, Johnny, Burp, Aunt Zelda, Scott, Slurp, Big Momma
"tested on Marines", I just start to think of superviruses, and stuff like that"
Just wait until Mary Kay discovers that it can do most of its lipstick and eye-shadow testing on platoons of Marines instead of rabbits.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.
Stop giggling at the title... you know what I mean.
The first sentence implies that this is a cure; the second that this is a preventative measure. The second sentence is right. It can prevent hearing loss, but won't recover already lost hearing.
If it were me, I'd take the pill and wear hearing protection. The pill seems like a great idea for those who simply can't have ear plugs.
I understand that war doesn't stop for a soldier to insert ear plugs, but do soldiers use hearing protection at the firing range?
Noise pollution is just everywhere these days, highways, factories, concerts...
Even if ears don't get damaged enough to lose hearing completely, there is definitely a partial hearing loss, so using drugs to cure this instead of surgery of hearing aids is definitely a good step on the way to solve the problem.
The IT section color scheme sucks.
with Gorman's ear pills.
No more having to wear earplugs while DJing or attending warehouse/desert parties. The decent custom molded ones are $150, too.
Rush hasn't been charged with anything, he voluntarily went into rehab. If he had been arrested and convicted with 5000 pills, the story would probably have been different. Law enforcement have yet to be involved in his situation, although he was part of an investigation.
After playing in Punk bands, listening to Punk on walkmen and seeing other Punk bands play live I've had an awful case of Tinnitus since about 1990. Actually it started for me after seeing an industrial band play at a tiny nightclub in Neptune NJ.
The suck-factor of this malady has increased over the past decade. But I've learned to live with it (for the most part, but it does drive me nuts occasionally). There are treatments out there that are mostly based on cognitive adaptation. I've also heard of some treatments involving massive doses of vitamin A. But the latter is a bit dicey, because if things go wrong you can easily poison yourself if the dosage is just a bit off.
The article metiontions noise damage to the central ear - the cochlea - which is EXACTLY what caused my condition. The treatments in question could potentially reduce further damage to the inner. But I was *very* encouraged that they are also talking about the potential of hearing rehabilitation.
I've always (having already been a fullbown by the age of 5) been fascinated with science and technology and believing it's inevitable upward spiral would yield miraculous advances. After having been injured (in no small part due to my own ignorance of human physiology) in this way, I've held onto that belief tighter than ever. This is a truly maddening condition.
Quod scripsi, scripsi.
People who've had their ears damaged by gunfire, jackhammers or punk rock have traditionally had two choices: get hearing aids, or suffer in silence.
:)
:) Or both.
:)
Ha! I wish I could suffer in silence.
I haven't had a silent moment in probably 10 years (or more). Why? Because I have tinnitus, which is a constant high-pitched ringing noise-like sensation in my ears. I am not hearing a real noise, but something between my ears and my brain decide to generate a ringing noise which I hear every second of every day.
If it is really quiet, the ringing can be very loud and unsettling. I've learned to deal with it. Usually the normal background noise in an office can mask the noise.
I sleep with an airfilter on at night, on a low setting. The grey/white noise is loud enough to mask the ringing. Music/television are too distracting for sleep. My parents live in the country, and it's quiet. Hope I don't forget a noise generator...
It was hard to sleep in Europe. Tourist hotels are usually pretty loud, and earplugs make it so I can only hear the ringing. Drunk Austrians running up and down the street 3:30AM, singing at the top of their lungs... ack!
Oddly, one alcoholic drink subdues my sensation of the ringing.
As a side effect, I have a really hard time hearing people in a crowded room, even if they are two feet from me. I can't carry on a conversation in most bars. Quiet resturants are great.
My dad has it also. So either we have the same genetic predisposition to tinitus, or we have a genetic predisposition to listen to loud music
Damn you Einstuerzende Neubauten and your damn forks on garbage can lids! And Black Flag and Pink Floyd and Led Zepplin and Metallica! Damn you to hell!
"Can of worms? The can is open... the worms are everywhere."
That being the case, the Anonymous poster's comments are even less relevant.
Oh, I do hope someone mods that up. I've got coffee dripping from my nose now.
Soon I'm going to have to take TWO pills to go to clubs...
People who've had their ears damaged by gunfire
I immediately wondered how a pill would protect against being shot in the side of the head.
"People who've had their ears damaged by gunfire, jackhammers or punk rock have traditionally had two choices: get hearing aids, or suffer in silence." Actually they have three choices - if they have the money (and their hearing loss is profound enough) they could purchase a cochlear implant (12 electrodes that are inserted into the cochlear to stimulate it, producing sound.)
My checklist for going out just got longer:
Joint...
Fake ID........
Roofie........
Dugout....
Blotter....
Tooter........
Rock.......
Blade......
Mini-mirror...
Housekey.....
Cell phone....
Some cash........
King-sized rubbers.
Glowsticks....
Pacifier......
Waterbottle..........
Nitrous Balloon..
Mini-bong.......
Lighter......
Oh yeah, hearing pill so I can stand next to the towers..............
Rock 'n Roll is here to stay! wooooooohoooooo!
Ya know, this lameness filter is a REAL pain in the ass... first it bitches about me making a list of items - gee, they only have 6.5 characters per line (as if I absolutely give two shits anyway right?), now it's pissed because I have some junk characters.... So let's see if I can get the lameness filter to give up on it's belief that this message is lame... Of course, it is now arguable that this mesage is more lame now that I've added this anti-lameness paragraph here to get around the superbly brilliant lameness filter... But I digress...
He may still be under investigation, but whether or not "Indymedia" says so has nothing to do with anything. "Indymedia" is sort like a version of "The Onion". Just the other day, I read on there that the planes flown into the World Trade Center on 9-11 were flown by Jews, and there were no passengers in the jets. They were flying under orders of George W Bush, no doubt.
They just make up stories.
"Given his advocacy of turning up prosecutorial heat on white drug abusers"
He's one of least racist of media figures: he turns up/down the heat on all regardless of race.
Well can ya?
The dirty little secret is that many, many H.S. band kids already have permanent hearing losses due to brass and percussion. UNT is just starting to discover this, but I'll bet if OSHA took SPL readings in the brass section, they would shut down every band in the U.S. How do I know? My son, the "ace" trumpeter in HS and UT, has major hearing loss. So, get your band kids hearing protectors and get them knowledgable about the dangers of loud sounds. Once they loose it, it can never come back.
Did you say something
I'm totally baffled. You need to use the stuff in advance of a noise exposure. They don't say how long it takes for it to take effect, but you'd think it would have to be at least half an hour. That means you'd need to know that the noise exposure was coming. They describe a use in which it provided good protection against a 115-db noise exposure.
A cheap pair of earplugs provides 30 db reduction, meaning it would reduce that 115 db to 85 db, which would also provide excellent protection. Earplugs come in a huge variety of designs, some very inexpensive, some very comfortable, some "high-fidelity" (attenuate all frequencies equally), some which attenuate very little when the noise level is low but seal and provide protection against loud noises (such as gunfire), etc. etc.
I mean, this is sort of like using pseudoephedrine instead of Kleenex.
"How to Do Nothing," kids activities, back in print!
Aren't drug trials usually performed on volunteer groups from the public who have a vested in interest in the proposed benefits of said drugs?
Sometimes they are performed on sailors who want to get drunk this weekend. The story, as I heard it, related to the US Navy no decompression time limits for scuba divers goes something like this. Circa 1940 +-10. Navy offers weekend liberty to sailors who volunteer for research. Sailor 1 sent to a depth of 60 feet for 60 minutes. He comes up, feels fine. Sailor 2 sent to 60 feet for 70 minutes. He comes up, feels a little pain in joints, off to the decompression chamber he goes. Navy notes 60 minutes as limit for 60 feet. On to next depth and fresh sailors.
Actually, I know you were trying to be funny, but apparently the Society of Audiologists or whatever are furiously trying to get the word out about drugs like oxycodone, etc. and people who might be chronic heavy users, for legitimate reasons or not.
Apparently, they've been finding that people who take drugs in this class (vicodin, oxycodone, etc) can experience as a side effect sudden and near-total if not total and permanent hearing loss. Research is ongoing as to what's going on, but people who pop a lot of these pills for quite a while end up at risk for sudden deafness.
Naturally, if you're in enough pain that you need that kind of trank to go on living without curling up into a foetal ball and losing the will to live 24hrs a day (like when cancer REALLY takes a hold) you couldn't really give a rat's ass about this possibility.
But somehow I don't buy Rush's story about an auto-immune ear disease 86ing his hearing any more.
--- Jump!! Fire!! Bullet time!! - Lego version of the Matrix
What can they do for those of use whose hearing is already damaged?
I've had a huge loss in the midrange, affecting how I hear human voices. I have great difficulty understanding what people say and if I can't see their mouth as they speak I miss at least 30% of any given sentence. If someone has their back to me as they speak I miss more than 80% of what they said. If they are facing me but head down where I can't see their mouth, the sound is directed to me better but still I miss some. Most people that know me well know that they have to speak loudly and directly at me.
Seeing thier lips move as they speak helps me to more better guess at the words that I *THINK* I hear them speaking.
I lost most of my hearing due to being around gunfire and monsterous diesel engines for months on end, then frequent ear infections from water exposure. Taking huge doses of asprin for several years for an unrelated chronic pain also did it's damage too, artificially inducing tinitus.. Now, years later, the damage is done and it's not so easy.
I can hear (or more like feel) low freq without problem and some of the low end of the midrange, I can also *some* high pitched stuff.
I can't wait to see a CURE for damaged hearing in a pill, I don't want surgery (not that it would help) and I don't want hearing aids either.
Is also being tested for use as a treatment for cataracts with good success in Africa. Surgery is not always an option there, and the treatment invloves daily eye drops for a period of six months for the worst afflicted.