Oh Oh! Another Problem With Painkillers: Hearing Loss.
We have written a lot lately on the
55,850 American women were followed for 22 years to see if there was a relationship between how long painkillers were used and the risk of losing your hearing. They found that women who used nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) other than aspirin at least twice a week for more than 6 years had a significant 10% greater risk of hearing loss compared to people who used them for less than a year. Women who used acetaminophen (like Tylenol) for more than 6 years had a significant 9% increase in risk (Am J Epidemiol 2016;doi: 10.1093/aje/kww154).
When you consider the huge number of people who use painkillers, a 9-10% increase in hearing loss could affect a huge amount of people.
This is not the first study to find an increased risk of losing your hearing if you regularly use painkillers. Though this study found the risk for women, the same risk has previously been found for men.
The earlier study followed 26,917 men who were between 40 and 74. It found the same result, but this time aspirin didn’t get off the hook: men who used aspirin 2 or more times a week had a 12% greater risk of losing their hearing than men who used aspirin less than twice a week. There was a 21% increase in risk for other NSAIDs and 22% increased risk for acetaminophen. For NSAIDs and acetaminophen, the risk increased the longer the men used them.
The risk was the worst for men under 50. For them the risk went up 33% with aspirin, 61% for other NSAIDs and 99% for acetaminophen (Am J Med 2010 Mar;123(3):231-7).
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The Natural Path is intended for educational purposes only and is in no way intended for self-diagnosis or self-treatment. For health problems, consult a qualified health practitioner for a comprehensive program.