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The local newspaper reprints an article from Pittsburgh Post-Gazette about research at University of Pittsburgh on hearing loss. Apparently when sitting too close to the snare drum, the noise shakes a lot of zinc loose in your ears - and the researchers were able to prevent that by feeding the mice a potion that chelates the zinc and substantially protects them from the hearing loss that would have been caused by the free zinc.

I don't imagine it's going to be available as such in the near future, so it will continue to be necessary to wear earplugs or demand that the snare drum player be stationed farther away, but if that's not happening, I reckon it might be possible to come up with a home remedy with similar properties. Metal chelation isn't a particularly exotic phenomenon.

(I'm really thinking of one particular snare drum player, and sure enough I've played with others who didn't pose such a danger to my hearing, but I think of all common band instruments it's the most deadly.)

If the pill were a large capsule, one could put it in their ear to prevent hearing loss.

Like putting an aspirin between ones knees for birth control.

Three Valves wrote: ↑Mon Feb 12, 2024 6:20 pm If the pill were a large capsule, one could put it in their ear to prevent hearing loss.

Like putting an aspirin between ones knees for birth control.

That was my thought, too.

Great minds think alike.

Another way to protect your hearing from damage from extended (not from sudden) loud noises (such as train horns -if you're like me, and occasionally go train-watchin') is to yawn and equalize the pressure on either side of the eardrum.

I might email CSX Transportation, and ask them if they might consider galvanizing their Nathan horns...

More seriously I do know of players who either have or are near to giving up brass playing due to ear damage risks. The band that I play in had a percussionist who would site himself too near to me, after repeated polite requests to put a bit more space between his cymbals and my ears there was an ‘upset’ and he flounced off never to be seen again. My ears are OK, could be better, and after seeing (in older pals) how isolating hearing loss can be I’m keen to preserve what I have. I now always have ear plugs in my bag, ready if needed.

Pills and medication in general, in general I won’t take any tablets that aren’t strictly necessary - pretty much everything has side effects / risks. A pill to protect ears or use ear plugs instead? I don’t find that a hard question to answer.

I don't recall that they actually have a pill, in the experimental research. Pills are just round things anyway, with something in them; what counts is what's inside. I browsed around a little on the subject, but it was really swimming upstream against a lot of other stuff the search engine wanted me to see, but possibly pomegranate juice could increase chelation of zinc. For example. One would have to look into it a lot more than I did.

Sitting in the back of the orchestra, it didn't take me too long - decades ago - to figure out that my chair needs to be lined up with the trombone players chairs, and that my music stand needs to be brought back. That keeps my ears way behind the trombone bells.

Here's are a couple of references to the study:

https://neurosciencenews.com/zinc-noise ... oss-25602/

https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1033778

bloke wrote: ↑Wed Feb 14, 2024 8:29 am Sitting in the back of the orchestra, it didn't take me too long - decades ago - to figure out that my chair needs to be lined up with the trombone players chairs, and that my music stand needs to be brought back. That keeps my ears way behind the trombone bells.

Oh yes, sitting in front of someone else’s bell isn’t wise and sitting in front of the Trombones is definitely not wise. There might only be three of them but that’s all it takes to produce a literal tsunami of sound.

And there's the potentially fatal trombone slide to the back of the head. I'm not making that up.

I find that a bit fascinating since I have to take large daily doses of zinc because of pyroluria, which is a genetic condition in which the body "throws away" zinc, B6 and taurine. But at 74 I have not yet needed hearing aids despite sitting in front of trombones early on (violin days,) and having horn bells to my left for a very long time. I think the acquisition of 15dB Westones 25 years ago really made a difference. They were still well made back then.
So probably the last thing I would want would be a pill that removed zinc.