Gupta S, et al. - In two large prospective cohorts, Nurses’ Health Studies (NHS) I and II, researchers ascertained if plasma inflammatory markers were correlated with incident hearing loss. The independent connections between plasma levels of markers of systemic inflammation (C-reactive protein [CRP], interleukin-6, and soluble tumor necrosis factor receptor 2) and self-reported hearing loss were investigated. At the beginning of the analysis in 1990, participants in NHS I (n = 6194 women) were between 42 and 69 years of age, while NHS II participants (n = 2885 women) were between 32 and 53 years of age in 1995. Women at baseline ranged in NHS I from 42 to 69 years of age and in NHS II from 32 to 53 years of age. There were 628 incident cases of moderate or worse hearing loss during 100,277 person-years of follow-up among the NHS I and II women with measured plasma CRP. No significant connection was found between the plasma levels of any of the three inflammatory markers and incident moderate or worse hearing loss. In addition, no significant relation was noted between inflammatory marker levels and mild or worse hearing loss.