Hearing and drugs

March 30, 2006 10:18 AM

Hearing loss, vasodialators and nitrous oxide - why do these chemicals improve hearing?

My partner wears hearing aids due to the bones fusing to each other and to the eardrum. She's noticed that when she has nitrous oxide or takes vasodialators, her hearing improves noticibly. Not enouch that she can hear well enough to take out her hearing aids, but enough that she needs to turn them down.

google shows technical papers on sudden hearing loss and vasodialators, but that isn't the type she has, nor does that explain why the gas improves hearing.

What is going on here? Is it anything we can trap to help her hearing? Does the same mechanism work with both substances?

posted by QIbHom to Health & Fitness (6 answers total)

Is it possible that it dulls her other senses, creating a feeling of improved hearing? You may want to eliminate sudden hearing loss from your Google search, it is a huge area of study and will alter your results. You can also check directly on the university websites for current studies - we do a lot here, I know John Hopkins does, as well as Mass. Ear & Eye Infirmary.
posted by blackkar at 11:41 AM on March 30, 2006

The effect of nitrous oxide on hearing.
posted by Gyan at 12:12 PM on March 30, 2006 [1 favorite]

FWIW, nitrous oxide is a vasodilator.
posted by oats at 5:33 PM on March 30, 2006

Nitric oxide is a vasodilator. Nitrous, not so much.
posted by ikkyu2 at 5:55 PM on March 30, 2006

Response by poster: Thanks, gang. That abstract is a bit confusing, Gyan. Inner ear pressure goes up, but the subjects just *think* they hear better.

Off for more googling.
posted by QIbHom at 10:52 AM on April 1, 2006

They just have a different idea of what it is, to "hear better":

There was no significant effect on auditory threshold at a range of frequencies. It appears that 10% or 20% N2O inhalation does not lead to the commonly held view of increased hearing acuity as measured in terms of auditory threshold.
posted by Gyan at 1:47 PM on April 1, 2006