In the 1950s people said that Rock and Roll was evil. With good reason because there are raised concerns about hearing loss in young people. This is largely due to their increased use of iPod’s and Mp3’s and Ear Buds playing rock music at higher than acceptable volumes.
Since the 1980’s, there have been many personal music instruments around like the Walkman and portable CD players. They used up their batteries long before any real hearing loss could occur. However since MP3s, Ear Buds, and the iPod have come along, they have enough power to last for days with a capacity of thousands of songs. The real damage is occurring without you even being aware of it.
iPods can reach 110 decibels and damage your hearing in just one day!
Research from the British Medical Journal shows that ninety percent of all young 聽力中心 people are more likely to play music at levels above one hundred decibels. One day’s exposure at that rate can cause permanent hearing damage! Fifty decibels is a quiet conversation. Eighty five is a blender.
You can listen to music at a respectful level for longer periods of time and still experience some hearing loss. But five hours at a higher rate of volume can definitely create more damage to your hearing than any noisy work place. This translates into music is a greater contributor to hearing loss than all occupational deafness alone. That’s huge!
Listen less often with less volume!
You need to give your ears a break. If once every hour you stopped listening to music for fifteen minutes and gave your ears a rest, you stand a better chance of keeping some of your hearing. Ignore some basic ground rules about ears and hearing and you won’t have any. The bottom line is listen less often with less volume.
Lots of young people enjoy the new “Mosquito Tone” ring on their phones. Adults over thirty cannot hear them because the register or tone is to high to be perceived. But the kids always know they are being hailed by a friend. There is even contemporary music called “Buzzin” that plays one audio track for the general public and another for younger people who listen to a different track altogether.
Seventy-five percent of young people already play music far too loud.
Hearing loss is not just for the elderly, it’s for young people as well. Most young people do not believe that using music players will not cause them harm to their hearing. Nothing could be further from the truth except the notion or belief that some miracle cure will help you out if they do.
Depending on the volume and the period of time spent listening, using an iPod or MP3 can lead to early hearing loss and most certainly predisposes you to suffering an increased risk of hearing loss later in life.
These are the guidelines on how much exposure to sound and for what length of time spent listening each day, that should not be exceeded. Whenever you listen to music at a level of three decibels higher, you need to remember that listening for half as long is producing the same degree of hearing loss.
An MP3 at 110 decibels is the same as a plane taking off right beside you!
This is alarming when you consider that most players are listened to at around a hundred and ten decibels. Equal to a plane taking off right beside you.
Here are the numbers:
90 dB(decibels) for 8 hours, 92 dB for 6 hrs, 95 dB for 4 hrs, 97 dB for 3 hrs. 100 dB for 2 hrs. 105 dB for 1 hr. 110 dB for 30 minutes and 115 dB for only15 minutes duration before damage begins.
Thousands already are suffering hearing loss, should you?
There are many people already that are suffering severe permanent hearing loss from using personal music players of all kinds. iPod’s can produce a sound level of 110 decibels. What chance do your unprotected ears have against that?
Just to get another idea of what a decibel is, here are a few stats;
The sound of a person breathing is ten decibels.
Whispering is twenty.
Fifty decibels is a normal quiet conversation.
Eighty is heavy traffic, horn honking, etc.
Ninety to one hundred is your lawn mower or chainsaw that can cause damage after eight hours.
One hundred and twenty to twenty five is a night club a thunder clap or a jet taking off and damage to your ears will occur in just fifteen minutes.
When you wake in the morning and your hearing is gone, it’s gone!
Please keep in mind that hearing loss is called a “Sneaky Pete” of disorders. You just wake up one day and everything you hear has changed. There used to be no turning back. However, now there are natural supplements and over the counter drugs that can help with hearing loss and in some cases even reverse it.
But only if you catch it early!
There are hearing surveys online that you can take that will tell you if you need to seek a sound amplifying device or a hearing aid.
The biggest problem with a hearing aid is embarrassment.
The biggest problem with using an aid is vanity. We are embarrassed to wear them and be thought of as less intelligent. A hard of hearing stigma that is still carried over from the past. With the micro circuitry available today the “completely in the canal” hearing aids can just disappear in your ear completely.
Don’t turn your iPod higher than what you are trying not to hear!
Another mistake users fall prey to is adjusting your music player above the sound you are trying to drive away. For example, turning your sound above the lawn mower. The lawn mower is already to high and you are just adding to your own catastrophe by making the music higher in range than the lawnmower.
Help is out there. “Inside the ear filters” really work!
MP3’s and the like can be used safely if you use “inside the ear” foam filters. The outer layer blocks the damaging background sounds so the music can then be delivered at a more comfortable lower register for your ears.
There’s lots of information out there detailing the negative effects of using MP3s and iPods. Dr. Josef Shargorodsky an Otolaryngologist (ear doctor) from Harvard Medical School shows us in the Journal of American Medicine, that loss of hearing in young people 12 to 19 years has risen five percent in just the last twenty years alone.
Hearing loss doesn’t start in the late teens, it starts in elementary school!
Australia has also published a study this year showing that the use of personal music players was directly associated with a whopping seventy percent increase in the risk of slight to mild hearing loss from a sample group of many thousands of “elementary” students.
The British Medical Journal cited in a recent editorial the reasons why this is even possible. Apparently ninety percent of young people there are using mp3’s and everything else like it for hours and hours a day at top volume or 100 decibels.
One of the first symptoms of hearing loss is a disorder called tinnitis; ringing in the ears, one or both, without there being anything around that could make that noise. That ringing is also a waving banner telling your body that it is stressed and needs relief.
That ringing in your ears is like the ringing out the dead!
Tinnitus is the perception of sound in the ear that others cannot typically hear. Usually described as a ringing, buzzing, popping, pulsating, or squealing sound. Tinnitus can range from something mild to severely impairing. Treatment could include intense therapy and sound programs or possibly a supplement regime.
There is also evidence to be found pertaining to the amount of particulate matter in the air that is destroying the cilia (tiny hairs) in the inner ear. Dr. Nina Shapiro an Oncologist at UCLA say’s that air pollution is now being factored into our understanding of our growing hearing loss problems. The air in our cities now carries three times the particulate matter in it than it did fifty years ago.
The pollution in the air is three times worse than 50 years ago!
Obviously the people who manufacture the music players need to be responsible in warning everyone of the risks of listening to music played to loudly. As well the user is also responsible for playing music at a safe and acceptable level for ear protection. Using filtered ear phones can also help reduce music to safe levels. Given that you only use them for short periods of the day.
Put up “Sound Limit” signs, just like cars use “Speed Limit” signs.
One healthy way to look at what we are doing to our ears is this. When cars first came out, people went for speed and crashed a lot. So they put up speed limit signs to limit the damage we did to each other. If we could only do the same thing by limiting the volume with listening devices the world and you would be further ahead.
Even more obvious is the knowledge that you now have about how to use your iPod or music listening device more responsibly. Along with a better understanding of some of the ill effects you will experience by using them.
If you have experienced hearing loss, it is important to remember before spending huge sums on an aid is that they will start needing repair after only two years and will not usually last more than five before they break down, or are considered obsolete by industry standards.
Hearing aids start to break down in two years and are obsolete after five.
You are also encouraged to learn what you can do to professionally clean your own ears and greatly improve your hearing. It sure made a difference too me. There’s also a world of natural supplements out there for you to discover that are proven to help with hearing loss. Our best professional advice is to attend to your hearing needs sooner than later.
Thanks.