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I wear hearing aids, but I consider myself lucky. There are a lot of people in America today who are deaf due to numerous environmental assaults on their hearing. Many of them don't have insurance to get what they need.
Recent research presented by the American Academy of Otolaryngology (Head and Neck Surgery) in San Diego concluded that males are three times more likely to have noise-related hearing loss than women. According to Dr. Hamid Djalilian of the University of California Irvine Medical Center, occupational and recreational noise exposure, as well as service in the armed forces, probably explain why men are at greater risk. Dr. Djalilian, who collaborated on the research, sees patients whose hearing problems “mostly come from music at concerts or night clubs, or outdoor activities with 'powered instrumentation' such as chainsaws and motorcycles.” Being a combat engineer (EOD) in Vietnam and Cambodia contributed to my hearing loss. Like I said, I'm lucky. It could have been worse. Dr. Djalilian said that hearing loss from sound depends on both duration and loudness. He also pointed out, “A very loud sound such as a gunshot can cause noise-induced hearing loss even for a fraction of a second.” We hear sound as vibrations of air molecules in our ears, according to experts. Our inner ear has a bone structure called the cochlea, which contains a fluid that moves in response to these vibrations. With the help of hair cells in the cochlea, the vibrations cause signals that are sent to the brain.
There have been many advances in restoring hearing in the last couple of decades. My father, who suffered complete hearing loss, received a cochlea implant back in the 1980s when the process was relatively new. Now he gets it tuned up one or twice a year at a clinic in Los Angeles. The good news is that now all ages, including babies, receive that once-groundbreaking surgery routinely. Researchers have come a long way in solving deafness. The bad news is that many deaf people in this country don't have insurance and can't get help for their condition. The study explored numerous reasons why people lose their hearing. Things like driving a convertible “may cause a buzzing noise in people's ears after driving for several hours,” said Dr. Philip Michael, an ear, nose, and throat surgeon at the Worcestershire Royal Hospital in the United Kingdom, who also presented his research at the annual AAO meeting. Researchers say we are born with 20,000 inner hair cells in each ear. When we lose some, they don't come back; over time, we get permanent hearing loss. One reason is a genetic link for age-related hearing loss. Studies have found that people with genetic mutation of anti-oxidant enzymes have three times the risk of age-related hearing loss. The study found that white, non-Hispanic males are at greatest risk. In other words, guys like me. I was particularly interested in their findings regarding married couples. They suggested that married people are at greater risk of losing their hearing than non-married people. I could go completely off-track here and make a wise-acre comment about why we married folk are losing our hearing faster than the rest of the population, but my wife might not appreciate it, and she's capable of retaliation -- like hiding my hearing aid! Researchers aren't really sure why marital status plays a role. Using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys from 1999 to 2004, the study reflects a wide range of reasons for hearing loss. Mozart is just as bad as heavy metal music when its volume exceeds the government-set safe limit of 85 decibels. The study concludes “people can also damage their hearing with portable audio devices such as iPods, but more research needs to be done.” As It Stands, when I look around and see people with those little ear plugs piping music directly into their inner ear, I can't help wondering how long it will be before they're wearing a hearing aid like me?
Dave Stancliff is a columnist for The Times-Standard. He is a former newspaper editor and publisher. Comments can be sent to
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