So, antioxidants. Among the drugs of the class of antibiotics, there are practically no such drugs that do not have side effects and sometimes they are extremely dangerous.
Scientists have found a way to combat one of the side effects of antibiotics – hearing loss. In the decades since the introduction of antibiotics in the medical arsenal, these drugs have undoubtedly saved hundreds of millions of human lives. However, the effect of most drugs with antibacterial activity is not limited only to the therapeutic effect and leads to unpleasant, and even dangerous extraneous consequences.
Antioxidants
For example, antibiotics belonging to the class of aminoglycosides quickly destroy many types of pathogenic bacteria, so they are often successfully used in cases where classical penicillin or amoxicillin are powerless. However, at the same time, aminoglycosides (gentamicin, kanamycin) have a pronounced ototoxicity: they can damage the auditory hair cells that are located in the inner ear, which can lead not only to persistent hearing loss, but also to complete deafness.
American researchers from the University of Florida during experiments with guinea pigs found that regular administration of experimental animals such vitamins as vitamin C, E and beta-carotene (that is, powerful antioxidants) significantly reduced the damage to hair cells by gentamicin.
Scientists divided several dozen guinea pigs into 2 groups and administered gentamicin to all animals for 2 weeks. At the same time, half of the rodents were also injected with vitamins E, C and beta-carotene. The study of the brain activity of animals in response to auditory stimuli, which was conducted after the experiment, showed that in the control group, which did not receive vitamin supplements, pronounced and persistent hearing loss was observed in more than half of guinea pigs.
In the experimental group, such phenomena were much less pronounced and were observed in a smaller number of animals.