Based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), smoking tobacco is the primary avoidable reason for death or sickness in the World. The research shaking its finger at Uncle Bob puffing on his pipe is not new. Even decades ago, clinical trials established an association between smoking and hearing loss, discovering that the prevalence of hearing loss is higher in current smokers than non-smokers across all age groups.
As many of them are suffering from hearing issues so for that you need to use a hearing aid or else visit and hearing aid center to know what type of hearing issue they have. Unsurprisingly, there also appears to be a link between the amount of smoking and the degree of hearing loss. It is measure using the unit of pack years. One pack-year refers to smoking an entire pack (20 cigarettes) per day over a full year (or 40 cigarettes per day for half a year and so on).
The higher the number of pack-years, the higher the incidence of hearing loss, with people who have over 40 pack-years 1.30 times more likely to experience hearing loss than those who have no exposure to smoking. Unfortunately for Aunt Jean, Uncle Bob’s wife, who is not a smoker, Aunt Jean, exposure to smoke from other sources can also lead to an increased chance of hearing loss as compared to those who do not live with smoking.
Smoking During Pregnancy
Smoking during pregnancy is a concern, with it being found to be present in about 12 percent of pregnancies across the US (though, at the very least, this is less than the 40% of mothers who were smokers in 1967). Alongside being responsible for around 10 percent of premature births and about 5% of infant deaths, maternal smoking is linked to an increase of almost three times the likelihood of hearing loss due to low frequency (SNHL) in teenagers.
Being aware that teens have limited hearing in the best of times aggravates this by exposing them to cigarette smoke while they are still in the womb maybe not be a perfect idea. A study examining the consequences of secondhand smoke exposure on infants also revealed a 4.9x greater incidence of hearing loss in infants at a young age of 10 months older.
Studies have shown that children with even minor hearing impairments are much more likely to be delay in school or leave early because they are hamper in communication and learning. Hearing loss in children expose to smoking by their mothers is believe to be susceptible to further progress into adulthood if the child continues to smoke from secondhand sources and, God forbid, takes to puffing on pipes themselves.
It is believe that children in the school-age group most likely take up smoking in these times from working-class or middle-income to lower-class families. They are also more likely to view school as unneeded, as a social group of students in a 1983 research paper aptly dubbed “burnouts.”
What causes smoking to cause hearing loss?
It’s well-known that smoking cigarettes causes all kinds of issues, including hearing loss, but not just. The tar, as well as the numerous chemical compounds in cigarettes, are believe to be responsible for the following:
- Lung damage
- Heart disease
- Infertility
- A weak immune system
- Eye disease
- Cancer
Hearing is dependent on several anatomical structures functioning precisely as they should. The toxins in cigarette smoke are believe to be ototoxic (poisonous to the structures of the ear). It is believe that the consumption of carbon monoxide from smoking cigarettes decreases the oxygen available for the hair sensory cells in the ear’s inner part, which causes damage and a decline in hearing sensitivity.
The overall supply of blood to the auditory nerve decreases because of the effects of nicotine which causes blockages and narrowing in blood vessels. Nicotine is also believe to alter the neurotransmitters involve in the auditory nerve’s communication, which is essential for processing sound information.
Within the uterus, babies expose to smoking by their mothers are believe to suffer permanent changes in their metabolism because of persistent fetal malnourishment due to an involuntary placenta dysfunction cause by cigarettes. Another theory could be that nicotine, and other chemical compounds in cigarettes, directly harm the fetus’s internal structure of the ear during the womb.
The loss of sensorineural hearing due to smoking cigarettes is permanent. However, there is evidence that stopping smoking can help prevent further loss; the chance of losing hearing has been shown to decrease in the first five years after stopping smoking. In the end, there is a minimal gain to smoking cigarettes, Uncle Bob, and you ought to put it down
