Enduring Loud Music with Hearing Intact

You may love the high-decibel rock concerts and ear-splitting club floors, but it’s proven that continued exposure to loud music can harm your ears. Leave it to science to find a solution! By altering the system of the human ear, scientists have discovered a “tweak” that can lower the impact of permanently damaging sounds.

With a small change to the building block gene of a specific protein, tested mice effectively had their hearing turned down. While there is some doubt as to exactly what the system is used for, there might be a new drug on the horizon for preventing hearing loss.

Paul Fuchs, co-director of the Center for Sensory Biology at the Institute for Basic Biomedical Sciences at Johns Hopkins says:

“Now we’ve definitively shown that this system functions in part to prevent acoustic trauma. The encouraging news is that molecular mechanisms like [these] frequently involve unique gene products, so there is a real chance of finding ear-specific drugs in the future.”

It’s probably better to stick to earplugs for now, but would you use a drug that could prevent hearing loss?

Photo via prweb.com
Source: Physorg