Ototoxic Drugs

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D. As prescription drugs proliferate, so do their weird and seemingly unpronounceable names. New drug brand names are bad enough, but some of the newer generic drug names are real enigmas to pronounce. For example, how do you pronounce drug names such as “Abciximab” or “Ixabepilone” or “Pioglitazone” or “Zafirlukast”? Is “Abciximab” […]

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D. A man wrote: I started taking Adalimumab (Humira) 40 mg in April 2007. Approximately 4 weeks after the first shot, I started having severe vertigo and dizziness along with tinnitus. My balance has been an issue ever since. I have visited and asked several doctors including my primary care physicians, my […]

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D. A lady wrote: Would you explore the question of medications that affect hearing loss. My hearing gets noticeably worse every year. I’ve asked my doctor about which of my many medications (I’m 81) might cause deterioration of my hearing. He doesn’t seem to know. Here is the list of what I […]

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D. Americans take a lot of prescription drugs. Doctors in the USA in 2008 prescribed a total of 1,505,200,000 prescriptions for just the 50 top prescription drugs. (And they prescribed untold millions more prescriptions for the hundreds of other drugs.) The retail value of these 1.5 billion prescriptions was a whopping $53,186,000,000.00 […]

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D. A lady wrote: One thing I am concerned about is the new swine flu and flu vaccines in general. I’ve heard that they contain a lot of mercury. Do these vaccines have a negative effect on hearing? I have not ever had any kind of flu shot and will not if […]

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D. A lady asked: Have you heard about potassium gluconate having ototoxic effects? I have been diagnosed with Meniere’s Disease. My ENT put me on a diuretic and a daily dose of 550 mg of potassium gluconate, Almost as soon as I started on it, my tinnitus started to roar and I […]