Everyone knows that smoking is bad for your health. But did you know that it can also result in serious hearing loss?

If you smoke, you’ve probably become accustomed to hearing about the dangers of it. The ‘smoking kills’ message on the package probably gets the message across, and then there’s also your mom and your grandma and that colleague that stopped smoking and now wants to convince you how bad it really is. Of course you know by now. You don’t need to hear it from us.

Your grandma already told you, but…

If you want to make sure that you can still hear, maybe it’s better to stop smoking. Aside from all the health risks – cancer, heart disease, COPD, et cetera – that are pretty well known, it seems that smoking can also result in hearing loss. The damage smoking does to your ears have been suspected since the sixties, and more recent research generally confirms it.

According to one study from ‘98 of about three thousand people, smokers are about 70% more likely to suffer from hearing damage than non-smokers. The research also suggests that non-smokers living with a smoker are twice as likely to get hearing loss than those who are not exposed to secondhand smoke at all.

Nasty stuff

Why smoking does this to you? Well, like you probably know: cigarettes contain chemicals and other nasty stuff that are not really healthy. Like nicotine, which does weird stuff with neurotransmitters in your brain in the auditory nerve and causes tinnitus. Also, smoke irritates the eustachian tube (the tube between your nose and your ears).

Stopping won’t make the damage you’ve already done go away. But it might help to not destroy your ears (and the rest of your health) even more. We know, smoking is really good and relaxing and all, but it really destroys your health and the health of those around you.

Do you have anything to add to this article or does it bring up questions? Let us know, we’re always curious to what you have to say. Thanks!

Source: Healthy Hearing