Scientists have discovered a way to make animals regenerate inner-ear hair cells to restore their balance, a new study reveals.
Tiny hair cells deep in the internal ear that play a critical role in balance for animals, including humans.
Fish and birds can constantly regrow these hair cells throughout their lives, but as we age, we stop regenerating these hidden elements of the internal gyroscope.
The loss of these cells one element in the aging process responsible for elderly people’s increasingly poor balance.
Now, Stanford University scientists managed to manipulate mice DNA so that they regenerated the tiny hairs, and their balance was restored too, suggesting the same restoration and improvement may be possible in humans.
The secret to balance is in the ear: Scientists have tricked mice’s bodies to regrow inner ear hair cells (not pictured) that are crucial to the balance system in the animals as well as humans. If it works in people, the technique could prevent tens of thousands of fatal falls (file)
An estimated 69 million Americans, including 35 percent of those over 40, have some form of vestibular dysfunction, meaning their balance system is faulty and may leave them dizzy, suffering vertigo and off-balance.
Suddenly, elderly people lack some of the information they need to calculate whether they are falling through space, or if their foot is about to make even contact with the ground.
The resulting falls prove deadly for many older Americans. In 2016, 36,338 people in the US died after a fall, according to the latest Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data.
And bizarre tiny hairs deep in the inner ear may be what throws us off balance, and the key to preventing falls.
When we’re trying to balance, it may feel like it involves our sense of touch and sight, but the biological computer system that tells us when that the speed or angle at which we’re moving through the world is off is tucked within the ear.
