06 Jun A glass of red wine a day may help keep the audiologist away!
Resveratrol, a substance found in red wine, may have the potential to protect against hearing loss.
A study from an otologic lab at the Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit shows that rats are less likely to suffer from hearing loss when given resveratrol before being exposed to loud noise for an extended time period.
This protective effect of resveratrol is hypothesized to be related to bioinflammation, which is the body’s response to injury. Dr. Michael Seidman (the study’s lead author) said “resveratrol is a very powerful chemical that seems to protect against the body’s inflammatory process as it relates to aging, cognition and hearing loss.” Dr. Seidman and his colleagues have published multiple papers exploring noise-induced hearing loss, as well as the use of resveratrol, a grape constituent noted for its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties.
“We’ve shown that by giving animals resveratrol, we can reduce the amount of hearing and cognitive decline,” notes Dr. Seidman.
Please visit the journal Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery for more information: http://oto.sagepub.com.