Age-related deafness, and hearing loss caused by loud noise, may be reduced by the antioxidants in red wine, green tea and aspirin, it was claimed yesterday. 

    The compounds they contain could help protect the delicate hairs of the inner ear that are vital to hearing, new research suggests.
Destructive chemical agents called oxygen-free radicals, produced by normal cellular processes and in response to loud noise and exposure to powerful antibiotics, can damage the hairs. 

    But antioxidants such as resveratrol, found in red wine and green tea, and salicylate, the active ingredient in aspirin, should be able to neutralise them. 

    To test whether this was the case, scientists in the United States used salicylate to prevent damage to hair cells in patients' ears caused by the strong antibiotic, gentamicin. 

    Hearing loss affected just 3 per cent of patients who were given gentamicin plus aspirin for acute ear infections, compared with 13 per cent treated with the antibiotic plus a non-active placebo. 

    人们都知道，阿司匹林、红酒和绿色蔬菜对人的心脏有好处。而美国最新一项研究结果显示，它们对人们的听力健康也大有裨益，能推迟因年龄引起的耳聋，还能降低因抗生素和噪音引起的听力下降。 

    据法新社5月10日报道，研究人员得出上述结论的间接证据来自对抗氧化剂对听觉毛细胞具有保护效果的研究。内耳微小的毛细胞对听力起着至关重要的作用。 

    美国密歇根医疗学院大学的约钦·沙赫特和其同事发现，水杨酸盐（阿司匹林中含有的重要的抗氧化成分）能够保护那些使用抗生素类药物的患者的听觉毛细胞。 

    研究显示，那些同时使用庆大霉素和阿司匹林的人中，只有3％的人出现了听力下降的症状；而那些同时使用庆大霉素和安慰剂的人中，则有13％的人出现了听力下降的症状。

    报道说，抗氧化剂是一种能够有效阻止自由基破坏作用的化学物质。在红酒、绿色蔬菜、苹果、绿茶和其他一些食物和饮料中，也能发现抗氧化剂的存在。尽管，目前还没有直接的证据说明，从日常饮食中摄入抗氧化剂（如饮用适量的红酒等），能够预防人类出现的听力下降的症状，但在老鼠身上进行的相关试验则为此提供了间接证据。