Eating kelp, one of the most favored seaweeds in Korea, could help improve hearing ability, a group of doctors here said Tuesday, raising hopes for those with hearing difficulties.

According to Dr. Moon In-suk of Chung Ang University Medical Center and Dr. Choi Jae-young of Severance Hospital, the substance, fucoidan, promotes revival of damaged fibers in the ear essential for hearing.

Based on their clinical trials with mice, the doctors found that fucoidan resists signal delivery system that deters the cell revival.

“Currently, hearing disability is one of the problems considered hard-to-cure. The finding of the use of fucoidan, which is already widely used to treat cancer with its anti-oxidation function, will open the new era of auditory sense treatments,” Moon said.

Their finding was published in the latest edition of the Hearing Research.

(baejisook@heraldcorp.com)