Protecting your ears should be as important as caring for your heart, your eyesight or your stomach.
Therefore, you must avoid self-medication and consult about the side effects, since at least 130 long-term drugs increase the risk of developing irreversible hearing problems.
This phenomenon, known ototoxicity, can be potentiated with drugs for high blood pressure, diabetes, cancer, kidney and liver failure, and infections.
Some of these drugs are:
• The family of amino glucosides
• Antibiotics such as: streptomycin, neomycin, gentamicin or antineoplastic agents such as cisplatin
• Loop diuretics, salicylates, etc.
According to Dayana Leitón, an audiologist at Hearing Clinics,
these substances alter the inner ear, specifically the cochlea and the vestibule. Therefore, it is suggested that the patient consult their physician if the indicated treatment is within the range of these products that can damage the hearing.”
In addition, the doctor stressed that if you have to undergo a prolonged treatment with this type of drugs, it is advisable to perform a hearing test before, during and after the start of the process, as this will allow to detect if there was real damage, as well as to see if it is reversible or not.
Clinical audiometry may be sufficient at the beginning.
There are other elements that may predispose a patient to develop greater ototoxicity. For example, older adults, premature babies, people who metabolize the toxins more slowly or who use more than one drug of this type at the same time.
Although hearing problems are not painful, they manifest with symptoms such as tinnitus -ringing in the ear- , the most annoying of symptoms for those who are unaware that they have a hearing problem.
Other signs that can be: nausea, vomiting, dizziness and vertigo, said the specialist.