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I don't recommend many supplements but, if you read this blog regularly, you know vitamin E is one of those rare exceptions. Now, there's evidence from a recent study of 66 patients that this potent antioxidant can speed people toward a better recovery after suffering from idiopathic sudden hearing loss (ISHL).
About two-thirds of patients with ISHL recover without treatment within days, most in the first two weeks after onset. The prognosis is worse, however, if the patient has severe hearing loss with downward-sloping audiograms and vertigo, and does not begin recovery within two weeks. Many treatments have been proposed, but none has been consistently supported.
Israeli researchers have recently discovered that Vitamin E may be effective in restoring sudden onset hearing loss of unknown origin. The results, which found the vitamin to improve recovery of the disease, suggest antioxidants may play a role in the prevention and restoration of hearing loss.
For the study, patients were divided into two groups: Those given a standard treatment -- doses of magnesium and steroid treatment -- and others receiving the same treatment, in addition to 400mg of Vitamin E twice daily.
Those who took Vitamin E had at least a 75 percent hearing recovery rate in about 80 percent of the patients. But, in the control group, there was only about a 45 percent recovery rate.
Israel 21C News September 26, 2004