Cholesterol and Hearing

Cholesterol levels in the inner ear can affect your hearing. That’s the finding of researchers from Baylor College of Medicine, Rice University and Purdue University. It has been known that the cholesterol is lower in the outer hair cell membranes than in the other body cells. But this new study found you can change an animal's hearing just by adding or subtracting cholesterol. If the level in the inner ears of mice fell, there was a hearing loss. Adding cholesterol initially increased hearing, but it later resulted in a hearing loss as well. Details are published in the Journal of Biological Chemistry.