Hearing Loss Today
Written by Sarah N. Amundson
Hearing loss affects more than 500 million people around the world. This number continues to grow more and more each year. Unfortunately, it is also becoming a much more prevalent issue found in our modern society. This serious condition is caused by a multitude of things. The most common type of hearing loss is called sensorineural hearing loss, or SNHL. A smaller subset of that is noise-induced hearing loss, or also NIHL. Noise-induced hearing loss is caused by many things including age, medications, and noise exposure. There is also conductive hearing loss, or CHL, which is caused by a deformity or issue with the inside of your ear and how it is functioning. However, it is the hearing loss that is caused by listening to music too loudly through earbuds that is the main cause that is being brought to the attention of the public through the news and other sources of media. Listening to music through earbuds can also cause more issues if it is done for prolonged periods of time, because it can cause bacteria to grow on the earbuds themselves and in the wearer’s ears. This bacteria can cause ear infections and other issues. These ear infections can do a lot of damage if not treated properly, including but not limited to more hearing loss. Everyone should always be concerned about their hearing. A person’s hearing will deteriorate as they age, so we need to be doing anything and everything we can to help drastically slow that process. The ability to hear well is something we should all be protecting.Loud music is a well-known factor that can cause hearing loss. It can actually be loud noises of any kind, especially if you are hearing them on a regular basis. Loud music has been found to damage the nerves in the brain. Loud music also has the ability to kill the fibers in your eardrums that allow you to hear at higher frequencies and higher pitches. As you are exposed to these loud sounds more and more frequently the symptoms of hearing loss will continually get worse. Once the hearing is lost it can’t ever be regained, but the progression of the hearing loss can be slowed. If you are hearing noises at 85 decibels it will take 8 hours for those noises to permanently damage your hearing. However, if you raise the volume by 3 decibels it cuts that time in half. So, if it’s 88 decibels it only takes 4 hours, if it’s 91 decibels it only takes 2 hours, and so on. Once it gets past 110 decibels it can take a matter of minutes to cause permanent damage. There was a recent study done by Siemens Hearing Instruments. Siemens Hearing Instruments is a company that sells and produces hearing aids and other implements to help the hearing impaired. They mentioned that 1 in 6 teens are showing signs and symptoms of hearing loss. There has been found to be an up to 30% increase in teens showing the symptoms of hearing loss over the past two decades. Many teenagers are aware of the risks they are taking that could greatly damage their hearing. However, many of them decide to do nothing to protect it. A typical teen thought when coming to hearing loss is, “It won’t happen to me,” or “I don’t listen to music that’s loud enough to cause that.” Those thoughts are very wrong. Hearing loss can and will happen if the music you’re listening to is over 110 decibels, or even if it’s just too loud. Some teens are taking the necessary precautions to protect their hearing, but many teens are taking something precious and very limited for granted. I, personally, think it’s tragic.
When I was little I thought that hearing loss was just something that you got when you got to be in your 60’s or 70’s. As I grew up and loved loud music I realized that that was not the case. Hearing loss doesn’t discriminate based on age. I’m sure that I have lost some of my hearing due to how I enjoy listening to my music rather loudly. Teenagers in general listen to a lot of loud music, luckily not all of them like their music as high, but a lot of them do. Then as some of their hearing depletes the volume must be turned up higher and higher, which then causes more of their hearing to vanish. Over the years hearing loss has been occurring in younger generations. People working in construction, in welding, or any other position that causes loud noises daily are also at a higher risk of hearing loss than the normal person. Many of people are not considering all the problems that can accompany blaring their music too loudly. Many people think that it can’t happen to them; not everyone remembers the consequences of their actions. I think if we all payed more attention to what we’re doing to our bodies, maybe we’d all act differently.
However, this does not make music bad for the body. Just listening to music over 110 decibels is what is considered bad for the brain. There have been hundreds, maybe thousands, of studies on how music is beneficial for your health. An article found posted for Bufferapp talked about how music can in fact benefit our brains in lots of different ways. They mentioned how music can affect your emotions by raising and lowering the dopamine levels in your brain, it can make you more creative or less creative depending on the type of music, the type of music you like to listen to can predict your personality, it helps you exercise by making you much more excited and motivated, and it can do many more things that are beneficial for your body and overall health. An article found posted for True Fire talked about several things that most people don’t know that music can do. The human heart will actually synchronize with the beat of the music, music has been found to also increase the productivity in the brain, and there is a direct correlation to music volume and drink sales in a bar. Music has been found to reduce stress levels and improve a person’s general health, it can reduce depression, it can help you eat less by listening to soft music, it can strengthen your learning and memory, it can reduce pain, it can increase verbal intelligence, the list can go on and on. Music does much more good for your health than it does bad.
Luckily, there are many things that someone can do to prevent hearing loss. One thing that can be done is to listen to your music through headphones instead of earbuds. Headphones can help keep some of the direct sound out of your ears and thus causing much less hearing loss. It is important to always wear ear protection when using loud equipment, attending concerts, and attending sporting events. If you ever develop symptoms of hearing loss remember to turn down the volume if you can, and if it worsens you should consult your doctor. Being in the middle of a loud room is better for your hearing than being along the walls, because it can help reduce noise exposure. It is also important to remember that if you notice that your friend is listening to their music is too loud you should tell them about it, and they might want to listen to you and turn it down. Custom ear protection may be purchased from several companies for people who work or find themselves in loud environments. Hearing loss has become such an issue that companies are working hard to try and develop apps that you can put on your smartphone to tell you when you need to turn down the volume. To use with the iPhone and other Apple products dB Volume Meter was created by Darren Gates and for Android products deciBel was created. Both of these apps and some others like them were created so people would know if the volume on their phones was too loud.
You may ask yourself why this article seems to be directed towards teens. It seems that way because I am, in fact, directing this article towards teens. Teenagers are at a higher risk of hearing loss caused by loud music. It is true that this can happen in adults as well, but it is much less likely. Adults who have hearing loss have, most likely, already considered the potential damages that they are doing to their body. Many teenagers think that they are invincible and don’t always consider the consequences of their actions as they should, and as adults do. Music has always been a very large part of our society, and I don’t think that it is going to change anytime soon. As a music-loving teenager, I don’t want it to change either. However, while technology continues to improve I think that the things that we use to protect ourselves from hearing loss will also improve.
