{"id":299985,"date":"2025-11-18T22:49:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T22:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/299985\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T22:49:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T22:49:08","slug":"hard-of-hearing-viagra-could-reverse-some-deafness-study","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/299985\/","title":{"rendered":"Hard of hearing? Viagra could reverse some deafness: study"},"content":{"rendered":"

Come again?<\/p>\n

The infamous little blue pill that keeps men up and at \u2019em<\/a> may improve a different kind of hardness \u2014 hardness of hearing<\/a>, that is.<\/p>\n

A new study reports<\/a> that Viagra has the potential to reverse a frequently permanent type of inherited hearing loss.<\/p>\n

\"SeniorViagra has more uses than just in the bedroom \u2014 popping a little blue pill may reverse hearing loss, according to a new study. thodonal \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

About 3 in 2,000 people<\/a> are born with auditory impairments. The good news is that popping a Viagra could come with a surprising perk beyond the bedroom.<\/p>\n

Research published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation<\/a> highlighted a mutation in a gene called CPD, which results in a form of deafness known as sensorineural hearing loss.<\/p>\n

Scientists from the University of Chicago, the University of Miami and several institutions in Turkey uncovered that the condition could be targeted by two treatments.<\/p>\n

One is a common supplement, while the other is the popular erectile dysfunction drug.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis study is exciting because we found a new gene mutation that\u2019s linked to deafness, and more importantly, we have a therapeutic target that can actually mitigate this condition,\u201d\u00a0said lead author\u00a0Rong Grace Zhai<\/a>, a neurological diseases professor at the University of Chicago.<\/p>\n

\"AnSildenafil may improve audio detection in people with a certain type of congenital hearing loss. H_Ko \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/p>\n

One treatment was sildenafil, the active ingredient in Viagra and other ED medications<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In healthy hearing, the CPD gene instructs an enzyme to maintain levels of the amino acid arginine, which produces nitric oxide, helping send signals through the nervous system.<\/p>\n

Sensorineural hearing loss occurs when the CPD gene pathway is disrupted, causing oxidative stress and cell death in the ear hair cells<\/a> responsible for hearing and balance.<\/p>\n

When the ear loses the function of the CPD gene, the ability to detect sound waves goes too.<\/p>\n

The study authors addressed this loss in two ways using fruit flies with CPD mutations: sildenafil to stimulate nitric oxide production and a separate arginine supplement<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Both treatments improved hearing loss in the flies.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt turns out that CPD maintains the level of arginine in the hair cells to allow a quick signaling cascade by generating nitric oxide,\u201d Zhai explained. \u201cThese hair cells in particular are more sensitive or vulnerable to the loss of CPD.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sensorineural hearing loss can be managed with hearing aids and cochlear implants, though the initial study results may lead to a cure.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe found a promising therapeutic avenue for these patients,\u201d said Zhai.\u00a0\u201cIt is a good example of our efforts to repurpose FDA-approved drugs for treating rare diseases.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Come again? The infamous little blue pill that keeps men up and at \u2019em may improve a different…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":299986,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[138078,200,97,24111,3284,156113,2595],"class_list":["post-299985","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-erectile-dysfunction","tag-genetics","tag-health","tag-hearing","tag-study-says","tag-viagra","tag-weird-but-true"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299985","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=299985"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/299985\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/299986"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=299985"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=299985"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=299985"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}