How to save your hearing

Your hearing is a vital part of your 5 senses, alerting you to danger and helping you to enjoy the sound of birds singing, conversation and laughter.

Hearing is the primary way in which we connect with other people. Those of us who are lucky to have good hearing probably cannot appreciate how difficult hearing loss can be.

It can even lead to isolation and withdrawal from many pleasurable activities which people with hearing take part in.

Listed here are a few common causes of hearing loss:

Hearing loss resulting from acoustic trauma is caused by damage to the ear due to prolonged contact with loud noises. Listening to loud music or exposure to extremely loud noises over a period of time can damage the sensitive inner structures of the ear. With prolonged exposure to loud noises, the cells inside the spiral part of the cochlea become inflamed.

The loss is dependent on loudness of the noise and the duration that you are exposed to this loud noise this could be from clubbing and the contact with very load music or as a result of constantly listening to load music in your car. People, who are exposed to very loud noises over an extended period of time, may be more likely to develop Noise-Induced Hearing Loss.

This one is inevitable and is considered to be common hearing problem and is the major cause of loss to hearing. Most people tend to begin losing some of their hearing during the ages of 30 to 40. As we get older hearing loss increases and many people need to wear hearing aids.

This type of hearing loss occurs when the sensitive hair cells inside the cochlea progressively become damaged or die. As the hearing starts to deteriorate, high-frequency sounds become difficult to hear. This can also make understanding speech in background noise very difficult.

Another type of hearing loss is called Conductive hearing loss it occurs when sounds are not able to pass through to the inner ear. This could be due to an obstruction, possibly caused by having too much ear wax, or from a build-up of fluid caused resulting from an ear infection.

This type of hearing loss can also be caused by a perforated eardrum, this is when the eardrum is torn or the eardrum has a hole. Or otosclerosis caused by an abnormal growth of bone in the middle ear, which results in the inner hearing bone (the stapes) becoming immobile causing ineffective sound transmission.

Hearing loss known as Sensor-ineural results from damage to the hair cells inside the ear, these are very sensitive, or if the auditory nerve is damaged, the auditory nerve is used for transmitting sound signals to the brain.

Many factors can result in this type of sensor-ineural hearing loss, if you think you may be suffering this then search on Google for this type of hearing loss to get more info, you should also consider seeking medical advice from your Doctor.

Many people find it difficult to admit “I have hearing problems” and often go without seeking help for their hearing loss until it becomes a real problem in their lives.

So don’t put it off, if you feel that there may be something that just does not sound right with your hearing then get it checked out. Avoid continuous contact with loud noise, wear ear protection if you know you will be exposed to loud noise.