Recent Longevity News for the seven days ending 10/31/12.  You should consult your doctor if you are taking any medications.

Decline in incidence of heart attacks appears associated with smoke-free workplace laws - Science Daily, 10/29/12 - "When comparing the 18 months before implementation of the smoke-free restaurant ordinance with the 18 months after implementation of the smoke-free workplace law, the incidence of MI declined by 33 percent from about 150.8 to 100.7 per 100,000 population, and the incidence of SCD declined by 17 percent from 109.1 to 92 per 100,000 population" - Note:  People thought I was a nut case because I was so outspoken for my support of anti-smoking laws in public places in the '70's and '80's.

• Smoke-free laws led quickly to fewer hospitalizations -  Science Daily, 10/29/12

Exercise makes middle-aged people smarter - Science Daily, 10/29/12 - "High-intensity interval training involves alternating between short periods of low and high intensity aerobic exercise -- for example, a series of 30 seconds of sprinting followed by 30 seconds of walking or jogging ... Our participants underwent a battery of cognitive, biological and physiological tests before the program began in order to determine their cognitive functions, body composition, cardiovascular risk, brain oxygenation during exercise and maximal aerobic capacity ... After the program was finished, we discovered that their waist circumference and particularly their trunk fat mass had decreased. We also found that their VO2max, insulin sensitivity had increased significantly, in tandem with their score on the cognitive tests and the oxygenation signals in the brain during exercise" - Note: They didn't do a placebo of regular training vice interval training so how do they know whether regular training might have done the same thing?  Most people's bones and joints can't take high-intensity training.

Drug used to treat glaucoma actually grows human hair - Science Daily, 10/26/12 - "Given that the drug is already approved for human use and its safety profile is generally understood, this looks like a promising discovery that has been right in front of our eyes the whole time. On to the front of our scalp"

Omega-3 intake heightens working memory in healthy young adults - Science Daily, 10/25/12 - "In the first study of its kind, researchers at the University of Pittsburgh have determined that healthy young adults ages 18-25 can improve their working memory even further by increasing their Omega-3 fatty acid intake ... After six months of taking Lovaza -- an Omega-3 supplement approved by the Federal Drug Administration -- the participants were asked to complete this series of outpatient procedures again. It was during this last stage, during the working memory test and blood sampling, that the improved working memory of this population was revealed" - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com and Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com and probiotic products at Amazon.com.

Greek Unemployed Cut Off From Medical Treatment - NYTimes.com, 10/25/12 - "her cancer had grown to the size of an orange and broken through the skin, leaving a wound that she was draining with paper napkins ... When we saw her we were speechless ... Everyone was crying. Things like that are described in textbooks, but you never see them"

Probiotics are secret weapon for fighting symptoms of the common cold in college students, study suggests - Science Daily, 10/24/12 - "For the study, researchers followed 1,768 women ages 65 and older for 11 years. The women provided a history of their hormone therapy use and the date at which menopause began ... The study found that women who began hormone therapy within five years of menopause had a 30-percent lower risk of Alzheimer's dementia than those who had not used hormone therapy. The risk was unchanged among other hormone users who had begun treatment more than five years after menopause, but a higher risk of dementia was observed among women who had started a combined therapy of estrogen and progestin when they were at least 65 years old"

Moderate drinking decreases number of new brain cells - Science Daily, 10/24/12 - "The researchers discovered that at this level of intoxication in rats -- comparable to about 3-4 drinks for women and five drinks for men -- the number of nerve cells in the hippocampus of the brain were reduced by nearly 40 percent compared to those in the abstinent group of rodents. The hippocampus is a part of the brain where the new neurons are made and is also known to be necessary for some types of new learning ... This research indicates that social or daily drinking may be more harmful to brain health than what is now believed by the general public"

Green tea appears to ward off some cancers in women - Today Health, 10/24/12 - "Older women who regularly drunk green tea may have slightly lower risks of colon, stomach and throat cancers than women who don't, according to a Canadian study that followed thousands of Chinese women over a decade ... those who drank green tea at least three times a week were 14 percent less likely to develop a cancer of the digestive system ... women who said they'd regularly had green tea for at least 20 years were 27 percent less likely than non-drinkers to develop any digestive system cancer. And they were 29 percent less likely to develop colorectal cancer" - See green tea extract at Amazon.com.

Abstracts from this week's Doctor's Guide Nutrition/Dietetics plus abstracts from my RSS feeds (Click here for the journals, the PubMed ones at the top):

The relationship between sex hormones, sex hormone binding globulin and peripheral artery disease in older persons - Atherosclerosis. 2012 Oct 3 - "Low SHBG and high T levels are significantly and independently associated with the presence of PAD in older men and women, respectively"

Age Trends in Estradiol and Estrone Levels Measured Using Liquid Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry in Community-Dwelling Men of the Framingham Heart Study - J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2012 Oct 25 - "Estrone was positively associated with smoking, BMI, and testosterone, and total and free estradiol with diabetes, BMI, testosterone, and comorbid conditions; additionally, free estradiol was associated negatively with smoking ... Men in the highest quintile of estrone levels had significantly higher age and BMI, and a higher prevalence of smoking, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease than others, whereas those in the highest quintile of estradiol had higher BMI than others ... Total estrone and estradiol levels in men, measured using liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry, revealed significant age-related increases that were only partially accounted for by cross-sectional differences in BMI, diabetes status, and other comorbidities and health behaviors" - Note:  Until I read possible future studies indicating otherwise I'm sticking with my regimen of one quarter tablet of letrozole every second or third day.  See Femara (letrozole) at International Anti-aging Systems.  See my page on aromatization.

Vitamin D mitigates age-related cognitive decline through the modulation of pro-inflammatory state and decrease in amyloid burden - J Neuroinflammation. 2012 Oct 25;9(1):244 - "Our results show that: (1) aged rats demonstrated significant learning and memory impairment overall compared to younger animals. However, the age-related decline in learning and memory was ameliorated by the supplementation of vitamin D. No vitamin D effect on learning and memory was seen in the young animals; 2) the pro-inflammatory cytokine IL-1beta is significantly increased while the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 is significantly decreased in the aged rats compared to the young animals; but this age-related change in inflammatory state was mitigated by vitamin D supplementation. No effects of vitamin D were seen on the IL-1beta and IL-10 expression in the young rats; (3) vitamin D increased Abeta clearance and decreased amyloid burden in the aged rats while no significant difference was seen between the young animal groups" - See vitamin D at Amazon.com.

Soups increase satiety through delayed gastric emptying yet increased glycaemic response - Eur J Clin Nutr. 2012 Oct 24 - "A total of 12 volunteers were tested on three occasions after a solid meal, chunky soup or smooth soup test meal for gastric emptying (GE) ... glycaemic response (GR) ... The smooth soup had the greatest GR (87.0+/-49.5 mmol/l/min), followed by the chunky soup (65.4+/-48.0 mmol/l/min), with the solid meal having the lowest GR (61.6+/-36.8 mmol/l/min). Volunteers were fuller after the smooth soup compared with solid meal (P=0.034). The smooth soup induced greater fullness compared with the solid meal because of a combination of delayed GE leading to feelings of gastric distension and rapid accessibility of nutrients causing a greater glycaemic response" - Note:  I was flipping through the channels a couple weeks ago and on one of the major networks was a dietician recommending soup as a major contribution to satiety.

Metabolic Syndrome and Risk of Cancer: A systematic review and meta-analysis - Diabetes Care. 2012 Nov;35(11):2402-11 - "We analyzed 116 datasets from 43 articles, including 38,940 cases of cancer. In cohort studies in men, the presence of metabolic syndrome was associated with liver (relative risk 1.43, P < 0.0001), colorectal (1.25, P < 0.001), and bladder cancer (1.10, P = 0.013). In cohort studies in women, the presence of metabolic syndrome was associated with endometrial (1.61, P = 0.001), pancreatic (1.58, P < 0.0001), breast postmenopausal (1.56, P = 0.017), rectal (1.52, P = 0.005), and colorectal (1.34, P = 0.006) cancers. Associations with metabolic syndrome were stronger in women than in men for pancreatic (P = 0.01) and rectal (P = 0.01) cancers"

Fatigue in patients with coronary artery disease: association with thyroid axis hormones and cortisol - Psychosom Med. 2012 Oct;74(8):848-53 - "In univariate regression analysis, lower free T(4) concentrations were associated with general and exertion fatigue, lower free T(3) concentrations were associated with general and physical fatigue, and lower ΔCortisol was associated with mental fatigue" - See T3 at International Anti-aging Systems.

Health Focus (Hearing Loss):

Alternative News:

• Preventing noise-induced hearing loss, tinnitus in soldiers - Science Daily, 9/6/12 - "Antioxidants, dietary supplements and high-tech brain imaging are among some of the novel strategies that may help detect, treat and even prevent noise-induced hearing loss and tinnitus among American troops ... Noise-induced hearing loss doesn't just impact a person's ability to hear; it can cause balance issues, make it difficult to sleep and communicate, and even raise the risk for heart disease by increasing a person's blood pressure, lipids and blood sugar ... Dr. Seidman will discuss the use of nutraceuticals, such as acetyl-l-carnitine, alpha lipoic acid and resveratrol ... a nutraceutical with a resveratrol-based component may possibly hold the potential to not only prevent, but reverse hearing loss in certain circumstances for soldiers. This research is based on animal models, but will soon be tested with humans" - See resveratrol products at Amazon.com.
• Dietary Antioxidant Intake is Associated with the Prevalence but not Incidence of Age-Related Hearing Loss - J Nutr Health Aging. 2011;15(10):896-900 - "We aimed to examine the link between dietary and supplement intakes of antioxidants, and both the prevalence and 5-year incidence of measured hearing loss ... participants aged 50+ at baseline, examined during 1997-9 to 2002-4 ... Dietary data were collected in a semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire ... each standard deviation (SD) increase in dietary vitamin E intake was associated with a 14% reduced likelihood of prevalent hearing loss, odds ratio, OR, 0.86 (95% confidence interval, CI, 0.78-0.98). Those in the highest quintile of dietary vitamin A intake had a 47% reduced risk of having moderate or greater hearing loss (>40 dB HL) compared to those in the lowest quintile of intake, multivariable-adjusted OR 0.53 (CI 0.30-0.92), P for trend = 0.04. However, dietary antioxidant intake was not associated with the 5-year incidence of hearing loss"
• Listen up! Antioxidants may slash risk of hearing loss, says study - Nutra USA, 7/19/11 - "People with the highest average intakes of vitamin A had a 47 percent reduced risk of moderate or greater hearing loss, compared to people with the lowest average intakes ... In addition, increasing dietary vitamin E intakes were linked with a 14 percent reduction in hearing loss"
• Dietary Intake of Cholesterol Is Positively and Use of Cholesterol-Lowering Medication Is Negatively Associated with Prevalent Age-Related Hearing Loss - J Nutr. 2011 May 25 - "After multivariable adjustment, the likelihood of prevalent hearing loss increased from the lowest (reference) to the highest quartile of dietary cholesterol intake (P-trend = 0.04). Among persons self-reporting statin use (n = 274), a 48% reduced odds of prevalent hearing loss was observed after multivariable adjustment [OR = 0.52 (95% CI = 0.29-0.93)]. Participants in the second and 3rd quartiles of dietary monounsaturated fat intake compared with those in the first quartile (reference) had a significantly reduced risk of hearing loss progression 5 y later [multivariable-adjusted OR = 0.39 (95% CI = 0.21-0.71)] and [OR = 0.51 (95% CI = 0.29-0.91)], respectively. Our results suggest that a diet high in cholesterol could have adverse influences on hearing, whereas treatment with statins and consumption of monounsaturated fats may have a beneficial influence"
• Musical experience offsets some aging effects: Older musicians excel in memory and hearing speech in noise compared to non-musicians - Science Daily, 5/11/11 - "when compared to their non-musician counterparts -- musicians 45- to 65-years-old excel in auditory memory and the ability to hear speech in noisy environments ... Difficulty hearing speech in noise is among the most common complaints of older adults, but age-related hearing loss only partially accounts for this impediment that can lead to social isolation and depression ... It's well known that adults with virtually the same hearing profile can differ dramatically in their ability to hear speech in noise ... The musicians -- who began playing an instrument at age 9 or earlier and consistently played an instrument throughout their lives -- bested the non-musician group in all but visual working memory, where both groups showed nearly identical ability ... Music training "fine-tunes" the nervous system"
• Age-related hearing loss and folate in the elderly - Science Daily, 12/1/10 - "The main finding of the study was that low serum levels of folic acid were significantly associated with high-frequency hearing loss in the elderly" - See folic acid at Amazon.com.
• Age-related hearing loss, vitamin B12, and folate in the elderly - Otolaryngol Head Neck Surg. 2010 Dec;143(6):826-30 - "Spearman's correlation revealed that low folate (correlation coefficient = -0.27, P = 0.01) and cyanocobalamin (correlation coefficient = -0.35, P = 0.02) were significantly associated with increasing hearing threshold in the high frequencies. After adjusting for age, serum folate (correlation coefficient = -0.01, P = 0.01) was significant, while vitamin B12 (correlation coefficient = -0.01, P = 0.74) was not" - See folic acid at Amazon.com.
• Dietary Glycemic Load Is a Predictor of Age-Related Hearing Loss in Older Adults - J Nutr. 2010 Oct 6 - "Participants in the highest quartile of mean dietary GL intake compared with those in the lowest quartile had a 76% greater risk of developing incident hearing loss (P-trend = 0.04). Higher carbohydrate and sugar intakes were associated with incident hearing loss (P-trend = 0.03 and P-trend = 0.05, respectively). In summary, a high-GL diet was a predictor of incident hearing loss, as was higher intake of total carbohydrate. Hence, high postprandial glycemia might be a potential underlying biological mechanism in the development of age-related hearing loss"
• Consumption of omega-3 fatty acids and fish and risk of age-related hearing loss - Am J Clin Nutr. 2010 Jun 9 - "There was an inverse association between total n-3 PUFA intake and prevalent hearing loss [odds ratio (OR) per SD increase in energy-adjusted n-3 PUFAs: 0.89; 95% CI: 0.81, 0.99]. There was an inverse association between long-chain n-3 PUFAs and incident hearing loss (OR per SD increase in long-chain n-3 PUFAs: 0.76; 95% CI: 0.60, 0.97). Participants who had >/=2 servings of fish/wk compared with participants who had <1 serving of fish/wk had a significantly reduced risk (42%) of developing presbycusis at follow-up (multivariate-adjusted OR: 0.58; 95% CI: 0.35, 0.95). There was an association between consumption of >/=1 to <2 servings/wk of fish and a reduced risk of a progression of hearing loss (OR: 0.53; 95% CI: 0.32, 0.88). CONCLUSIONS: There was an inverse association between higher intakes of long-chain n-3 PUFAs and regular weekly consumption of fish and hearing loss. Dietary intervention with n-3 PUFAs could prevent or delay the development of age-related hearing loss" - [Nutra USA] - See Mega Twin EPA at Amazon.com and Jarrow Max DHA at Amazon.com.
• Folate may prevent hearing loss in men - Nutra USA, 10/7/09 - "men over the age of 60 with high folate intake from foods and supplements had a 20 per cent decrease in risk of developing hearing loss" - See folic acid products at Amazon.com.
• Can A Dietary Supplement Stave Off Hearing Loss? - Science Daily, 2/12/09 - "temporary noise-induced hearing loss – the hearing loss you might feel immediately after attending a loud concert but that goes away in a day or two – can be prevented in guinea pigs by a combination of the antioxidants beta-carotene, vitamin C, and vitamin E and the mineral magnesium, when administered before exposure to a loud sound ... In a second study conducted with colleagues at Washington University, the researchers demonstrated that permanent noise-induced hearing loss can also be prevented in mice through the combination of the same nutrients administered before exposure to a loud noise"
• Can Vitamins And Minerals Prevent Hearing Loss? - Science Daily, 11/10/08 - "The combination of vitamins A, C and E, plus magnesium, is given in pill form to patients who are participating in the research. Developed at the U-M Kresge Hearing Research Institute, the medication, called AuraQuell, is designed to be taken before a person is exposed to loud noises. In earlier testing at U-M on guinea pigs, the combination of the four micronutrients blocked about 80 percent of the noise-induced hearing impairment"
• Vitamin E and vitamin C in the treatment of idiopathic sudden sensorineural hearing loss - Acta Otolaryngol. 2007 Aug 22;:1-6 - "The hearing gain after therapy was 29.4 dB and the improvement rate was 63.3% in the study group, compared with 18.5 dB and 44.0% in the control group. Significant improvement was seen in the hearing gain and recovery rate in the study group"
• Nutrients Against Noise? - Dr. Weil, 5/1/07
• Nutrient Combo May Curb Hearing Loss - WebMD, 3/30/07 - "The guinea pigs that got the combination treatment of magnesium and vitamins A, C, and E had the least amount of noise-induced hearing loss and ear damage"
• Folic Acid May Slow Hearing Loss - WebMD, 1/2/07 - "Half the study participants got strong folic acid supplements -- 800 micrograms per day, about twice what one would get in a multivitamin pill ... After three years, those who got folic acid pills had less low-frequency hearing loss than did placebo recipients"
• Can You Stop Hearing Loss? - Dr. Weil, 11/26/04
• Vitamin E Helps People with Sudden Hearing Loss - Healthwell Exchange Daily News, 10/2/03 - "one group received vitamin E, 600 IU two times per day, while the other did not. Treatment was considered successful when hearing improved by 75% or more ... At follow-up examinations, successful treatment was noted in 76% of those receiving vitamin E and 56% of those not receiving vitamin E"
• Cod Liver Oil Fights Ear Infections - WebMD, 7/15/02
• Low High-density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Levels Linked To Hearing Loss In Men - Doctor's Guide, 10/23/00 - "The two groups showed no difference in hearing when stratified based on total cholesterol and total triglyceride levels. However, when men were stratified based on their HDL cholesterol concentration, hearing levels at 2000 Hz and 4000 Hz in the high-level group were significantly better than those with low concentrations of this lipid ... The authors suggest that low serum concentration of HDL cholesterol is associated with hearing loss."
• Local Steroids May Be Effective In Treating Sudden Hearing Loss - Doctor's Guide, 9/30/99
• Antioxidant-Enhancing Drug Partly Reduces Noise-Induced Hearing Loss - Doctor's Guide, 9/12/97 - "the researchers showed the stress of loud noises causes an increase in free radicals in the inner ear, which can damage or kill sensory cells. To defend themselves, sensory cells express a rush of glutathione, an antioxidant that absorbs free radicals. R-PIA was found to increase the activity of glutathione, thus providing enhanced protection from free-radical damage."

Other News:

• Popular pain-relieving medicines linked to hearing loss in women - Science Daily, 9/12/12 - "women who took ibuprofen or acetaminophen two or more days per week had an increased risk of hearing loss. The more often a woman took either of these medications, the higher her risk for hearing loss. Also, the link between these medicines and hearing loss tended to be greater in women younger than 50 years old, especially for those who took ibuprofen six or more days per week ... Compared with women who used acetaminophen less than once per week, women who used acetaminophen 2 to 3 days per week had an 11 percent increased risk for hearing loss, while women taking the medicine 4 to 5 days per week had a 21 percent increased risk ... Possible mechanisms might be that NSAIDs may reduce blood flow to the cochlea -- the hearing organ -- and impair its function ... Acetaminophen may deplete factors that protect the cochlea from damage"
• Kill the germs, spare the ears: Encouraging study shows how - Science Daily, 6/11/12 - "a team from Switzerland, England and the University of Michigan show apramycin's high efficacy against bacteria, and low potential for causing hearing loss, through a broad range of tests in animals ... The research aims to overcome a serious limitation of aminoglycoside antibiotics, a class of drugs which includes the widely used kanamycin, gentamicin and amikacin ... While great at stopping bacterial infections, these drugs also cause permanent partial hearing loss in 20 percent of people who take them for a short course, and up to 100 percent of people who take them over months or years ... the drugs produce damaging free radicals inside the hair cells of the inner ear ... The research also lends more evidence to support the use of antioxidants to protect the hearing of patients taking current aminoglycoside antibiotics. Schacht has already led a clinical trial in China that showed a major reduction in hearing loss if aspirin was given at the same time as aminoglycoside antibiotics"
• Injection therapy for sudden hearing loss disorder may be suitable alternative to oral steroids - Science Daily, 5/24/11
• Association of plasma adiponectin levels with hearing thresholds in adults - Clin Endocrinol (Oxf). 2011 Apr 30 - "Plasma adiponectin may protect peripheral hearing function, particularly that related to high frequencies. Adiponectin may be a mediator of obesity-associated, age-related hearing impairment"
• Given prior to loud noise, two drugs protect hearing better than one - Science Daily, 2/23/11 - "We found they have synergy ... anticonvulsant drugs for treating epilepsy helped protect hearing in mice after exposure to loud noise. And other groups had determined that glucocorticoids, anti-inflammatory drugs often used to treat allergies and asthma, were also protective ... they administered the drugs to different groups of mice 24 hours after noise exposure ... Three of the four drugs showed increasing protection with higher doses. And two of the drugs in combination, the anticonvulsant zonisamide and the glucocorticoid methylprednisolone, showed comparable hearing protection at much lower doses than when administered alone"
• Hearing loss associated with development of dementia - Science Daily, 2/14/11 - "follow-up of 11.9 years ... for every 10 decibels of hearing loss, the extra risk increased by 20 percent ... "A number of mechanisms may be theoretically implicated in the observed association between hearing loss and incident dementia," the authors write. Dementia may be overdiagnosed in individuals with hearing loss, or those with cognitive impairment may be overdiagnosed with hearing loss. The two conditions may share an underlying neuropathologic process. "Finally, hearing loss may be causually related to dementia, possibly through exhaustion of cognitive reserve, social isolation, environmental deafferentation [elimination of sensory nerve fibers] or a combination of these pathways.""
• Individuals with partial hearing loss may benefit from hybrid cochlear implant - Science Daily, 1/11/11
• Secondhand smoke exposure increases risk of hearing loss - Science Daily, 11/15/10 - "Former smokers were significantly more likely to have impaired hearing. The prevalence of low to mid frequency hearing loss among this group was 14%. And almost half (over 46%) had high frequency hearing loss (more than 25 decibels) ... Although the risk was not as strong among those who had never smoked, almost one in 10 (8.6%) had low to mid frequency hearing loss and one in four (26.6%) had high frequency hearing loss"
• For children with hearing loss: The earlier the better for cochlear implants, study finds - Science Daily, 4/20/10
• Regular analgesic use increases hearing loss in men, study finds - Science Daily, 3/1/10 - "For aspirin, regular users under 50 and those aged 50-59 years were 33% more likely to have hearing loss than were nonregular users, but there was no association among men aged 60 years and older. For NSAIDs, regular users aged under 50 were 61% more likely, those aged 50-59 were 32% more likely, and those aged 60 and older were 16% more likely to develop hearing loss than nonregular users of NSAIDs. For acetaminophen, regular users aged under 50 were 99% more likely, regular users aged 50-59 were 38% more likely, and those aged 60 and older were 16% more likely to have hearing loss than nonregular users of acetaminophen"
• Drivers Of Convertibles May Be At Risk For Noise-induced Hearing Loss - Science Daily, 10/6/09 - "Drivers who frequently take to the road with the top down may be risking serious damage to their hearing"
• Hearing Aids: New Software Makes it easier to Hear The Words Beneath The Noise - Science Daily, 8/5/09
• Earwax Removal: New Guidelines Released - Science Daily, 8/29/08
• Not All Hearing Aids Are Created Equal - Science Daily, 8/13/08
• New Hearing Aid Technology Passes The Restaurant Noise Test - Science Daily, 7/14/08
• Hearing Loss Is Twice As Common In People With Diabetes Compared To Those WIthout The Disease - Science Daily, 6/18/08 - "Adults with pre-diabetes, whose blood glucose is higher than normal but not high enough for a diabetes diagnosis, had a 30 percent higher rate of hearing loss compared to those with normal blood sugar tested after an overnight fast ... Diabetes may lead to hearing loss by damaging the nerves and blood vessels of the inner ear" - That might be another good reason to take pioglitazone if you have pre-diabetes.
• Why the obese and smokers risk deafness - New Scientist, 6/10/08 - "stop smoking, stay slim, and have an alcoholic drink at least once a week ... a 60-year-old man who has smoked a pack a day for at least 10 years loses about five decibels on top of the 25 dB loss experienced by a third of the people his age"
• Cholesterol Fine Tunes Hearing - Science Daily, 12/14/07
• Cell Phones May Cause Hearing Loss - WebMD, 9/19/07 - "One- to two-year users had a 16.48 decibel loss in the high-frequency range, he says, while those who used the phones more than four years had a 24.54 decibel loss ... That decrease in hearing over a relatively brief period may not be noticeable to mobile phone users but would be of concern to a hearing expert"