Hearing Loss Help  

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A veteran asked:

I have a hearing loss now. In my earlier years after finishing High School I joined the Navy. I spent most of my 4 years in the Navy in an engine room aboard a ship. After the Navy, I spent most of my working life in situations that did not expose me to any excessive noise. I am now in my senior years, and for the last 15 years have noticed a hearing problem. Could the years in the engine room be a possible cause for my hearing loss?

Look at it this way—your years in the engine room probably caused some hearing loss back then, but probably not enough that you or anyone noticed, but it “used up your reserve” so to speak so that when other contributing factors began affecting your hearing, it didn’t take much to make the hearing loss obvious.

There are lots of likely contributing factors besides your navy stint. Here are a few of the more common ones.

1. The loud sounds your ears are exposed to in daily life. For example, traffic, sirens, horns honking, loud music at parties and receptions, lawnmowers, chainsaws, snowmobiles, motorcycles, shooting guns, and so on over time all take their toll on your ears.

2. All the drugs and medications you have taken over the years (assuming you have). There are hundreds of drugs that can cause hearing loss. As you get older, typically you take more and more drugs. Their combined effect can result in increasing hearing loss.

3. Simply getting older negatively affects our ears and hearing.

4. The cumulative effects of our lifestyles affects hearing. For example, when our arteries get clogged up, less oxygen gets to our inner ears and the result is loss of some hearing acuity.

5. Smoking and drinking can, and do, cause hearing loss in some people.

These are just 5 possible factors—but you can see that a little bit of hearing loss here from one cause, and a bit there from another cause, added up over a lifetime results in major hearing loss. No doubt, your initial hearing loss began in the navy, but your hearing loss continued throughout your life from other causes. Now that you are a senior, you really notice how bad your hearing has gotten. It’s not fair to place the blame solely on any one factor because that is not how things typically work in real life.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

Did you know that loud music can blow out your lungs? It’s true. I recently came across a scary news item entitled “Loud music lung collapse warning” (1). It explains the cases of 4 young men that literally blew their lungs apart from being too close to big loudspeakers when they were playing loud music.

One man was driving around in his boom box car—with a 1,000 watt “bass box”. Another man was standing next to a loudspeaker in a club. A third man was standing near several large loudspeakers while attending a pop concert. The fourth man blew out his lungs, not just once, but several times, while attending heavy metal concerts. (Talk about a slow learner!) These are just a few of the many people that have damaged their lungs from being too close to loudspeakers.

These four men suffered what is called a “pneumothorax” or “collapsed lung” in lay terms. A pneumothorax is when air gets into the space between the lungs and the membrane that covers them when breaks occur in the lung walls. Doctors think that the intense pulses of low-frequency, high-energy sound causes the lungs to rupture.

Since these loud sound waves are bursting people’s lungs, imagine the damage they are doing to the sensitive structures in their ears. These people are foolishly sentencing themselves to a lifetime of unrelenting tinnitus, and ever-increasing hearing loss.

Unfortunately, they don’t seem to care because they are clueless, or think they are invincible.

Don’t be like them. As a minimum, when in places where loud music is played, keep well back from the big loudspeakers and wear ear protectors. It’s that important to your physical and aural health!

(1) Loud music lung collapse warning. BBC News. August 31, 2004.

 by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A man wrote:

I have extreme sensitivity in my hearing and some distortion as well. My ears buzz slightly to my own voice and others that have a deep tone in their voice. I believe this was sound-induced from my iPod and loud video gaming with head phones. My hearing is good except most everything with a high frequency hurts my ears and causes me distress. I have had this for a month and a half. Do you think it is permanent?

I think your extreme sensitivity to high frequency sounds will slowly go away if you protect your ears from louder sounds from now on. It may never completely go away, but it should be a lot better given enough time.

Very often exposing your ears to loud sounds results in damage to your ears such that you now perceive some sounds as being much too loud—in your case, the high-frequency sounds. This is called hyperacusis.

The problem can result from just one loud sound, but the “fix” often takes several months. It is generally a slow process. Think of it like a sprain—you get it in one sudden wrench—but healing takes weeks or months—slowly getting better. However, if during this time, if you wrench it again, you have to start all over again.

Your ears are the same way. That is why you must be so careful not to expose your ears to those damaging levels of sound again. Wear ear protectors in such situations if you can’t turn the sound down.

At the same time, don’t overprotect your ears by wearing ear protectors all the time, or you can make the situation even worse. I can’t emphasize this enough. Your ears need adequate sounds reaching them all the time to keep your hyperacusis under control—just not too loud.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

According to an animal study at the University of Michigan, “a combination of high doses of vitamins A, C and E and magnesium, taken one hour before noise exposure and continued as a once-daily treatment for five days, was very effective at preventing permanent noise-induced hearing loss.” (1)

Here’s why researchers think this works. They feel that one of the major factors causing hearing loss from loud noise is excessive free radical activity. “Scientists have learned that noise-induced hearing loss occurs, in part, because cell mitochondria in the inner ear churn out damaging free radicals in response to loud sounds.”

Think of these free radicals as tiny enemy bullets. If they fatally damage a cell, it goes into a process called apotosis—in which the cell systematically shuts itself down and dies. If those cells are the hair cells in your inner ears, then you lose hearing when those hair cells die. Thus, it is important to zap the free radicals before they do their dastardly deeds.

The anti-oxidant vitamins are the “good guys”. They act as tiny missiles that shoot down the free radical bullets before they can cause any damage.

In addition to the vitamins A, C and E, your body makes a powerful antioxidant called glutathione. (This above study didn’t include glutathione, but it should have.) You see, “glutathione is considered the most powerful natural antioxidant there is. Your body makes this antioxidant naturally from compounds such as N-acetyl-cysteine and D-methionine which in turn are made from three amino acids-cysteine, glycine and glutamic acid. When your ears need extra help, taking N-acetyl-cysteine and D-methionine helps your body quickly make more glutathione.” (2)

“According to the researchers, pre-treatment [with vitamins A, C and E and magnesium] presumably reduced the free radicals that form during and after noise exposure, and noise-induced constriction of blood flow to the inner ear, and may have also reduced neural excitotoxicity, or the damage to auditory neurons that can occur due to over-stimulation. The post- noise nutrient doses apparently “scavenged” free radicals that continue to form long after this noise exposure ends.” (1)

That magnesium helps our ears is nothing new. Back in 2005 I wrote, “In addition, researchers now know that the mineral magnesium plays an important part in hearing. Scientists have found that a magnesium deficiency increases susceptibility to noise damage. One of the things that happens is the lack of magnesium causes the tiny blood vessels in your ears to constrict, thus depriving them of an adequate supply of oxygen. At the same time, loud noise depletes your ears of magnesium—so loud noise actually causes a double-whammy. There is evidence that high doses of magnesium taken soon after a sudden hearing loss can sometimes help restore hearing.” (2)

The University of Michigan has applied for patents covering the use of this combination of vitamins and minerals. However, you don’t have to take their patented formulation if you don’t want to. Just make sure you are taking adequate daily doses of vitamins A, C and E, and magnesium supplements, and you will get essentially the same protection.

You can get all of the above in almost any good health food store for a fraction of what you will likely have to pay for the patented formulations. Furthermore, when you get your own supplements, you can tailor the amounts you take of each supplement to fit your own body chemistry and lifestyle.

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After having said all this, don’t be stupid and deliberately expose your ears to loud sounds thinking that you can always zap the free radicals with the various things named above. These nutrients help, but they don’t do a perfect job. You will likely still experience some degree of ear damage.

Thus, If you are around noisy machinery, use loud lawnmowers and leaf blowers, ride noisy recreational vehicles such as motorcycles and snowmobiles, go to loud sports venues or loud concerts, in addition to taking your vitamins and glutathione, etc., Wear ear protectors. The little foam ones available at most drugstores for a few bucks go a long ways towards protecting your ears from the results of excessive noise.

(1) “Nutrients might prevent hearing loss in war zones, concert halls & workplaces, new animal study suggests” by Anne Reuter, 2007. University of Michigan Health System.

(2) “Loud Music and Hearing Loss” by Neil Bauman, 2005.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A recent report out of Norway (September 11, 2008) revealed a shocking statistic. “One in six children are affected by kindergarten noise.” One in four employees suffer permanent hearing loss for the same reason.

Figures published by the pre-school teacher’s union and work safety authorities indicate that stress, headaches, tinnitus, learning difficulties and at worst, impaired hearing can affect children in noisy kindergartens, according to daily newspaper Dagbladet.

According to a Labor Inspection Authority report from 2005, 75 percent of kindergarten employees are exposed to harmful levels of noise at work. This means that the kids are also exposed to these same harmful sound levels.

Things are no better over here. Many kindergartens are noisy places. I know. My younger daughter works in one. But this does not have to be. She told me the remarkable difference in noise levels in Montessori schools she has also taught in. Maybe the kindergartens should learn how the Montessori schools control excessive racket and do the same. Reducing this harmful racket will benefit both the kids and the staff.

Aftenposten English Web Desk / NTB

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A lady wrote:

 I have an iPod. Music on the iPod sounds very good to me. The other day I downloaded many tunes from the iTune Store and was excited about being able to listen to all the oldies from the 50’s. I did a lot of listening with ear buds that day. The next day I listened to my down loaded tunes and I was disappointed. Everything had an extra edge to it; hard to describe but sort of like static and raspy. Real speech sounded that way to me as well. My ears felt like they had weights in them. I had more ringing in the ears than usual, the aids felt like ear plugs and I took them out. Ordinarily I don’t feel them in my ears at all. This condition went on for about a week and I was very discouraged. What is going on? Does listening to music with headphones or ear buds for too long bring this on?

You are right—too much of a good thing ends up being a bad thing, especially if you are listening to the music at louder volumes. Sustained louder sounds such as you would experience when listening to music with the volume up causes noise-induced hearing loss (NIHL).

In fact you describe 3 of thee classic symptoms of noise-induced hearing loss.

First, you have the “plugged up” feeling. You describe it as your ears feeling “like they had weights in them” and “my hearing aids felt like ear plugs”. This muffled hearing is a sign that you have had the volume too loud for too long. You are now experiencing some degree of temporary hearing loss—what doctors call a temporary threshold shift. This makes everything sound muffled, or as though you are hearing through a fog. The more often you expose your ears to loud sounds, the longer this threshold shift will last, until finally you will be left with further permanent hearing loss.

Second, you have increased tinnitus. As you say, “I had more ringing in my ears than usual.” Any sounds that cause your ears to ring (or your existing ringing to get louder) indicates that you are exposing your ears to damaging levels of sound. This tinnitus is your first warning that the sound is too loud—so you need to immediately turn the volume down and/or give your ears a rest.

Third, you have distorted hearing, which you describe as “everything had an extra edge to it; hard to describe but sort of like static and raspy”.

The good news is that if you give your ears a rest from all loud sounds, often your hearing will go back to normal and the ringing and distortion will disappear too. In this case, it took your ears a whole week. That is quite long. Often it only takes minutes to a few hours. As I said, the more often your ears are exposed to loud sounds, the longer it takes them to recover. I’d be very careful in the future, because one day if you keep on listening to music at that volume and for extended periods, these symptoms will never go away—and you do not want that!

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

A man wrote:

I do not expose myself to high noise levels either in my occupation or leisure. I do not listen to iPods etc. However, 5 days ago after a night out, when leaving a bar with loud music, my hearing felt dull. While my hearing appears normal, I now have a feeling of fullness and a constant ringing. I have scared myself silly reading all the forums and panicking that after 5 days, this may be permanent. Has tinnitus been known to go after 5 days?

I’d call going to nightclubs exposing your ears to loud sounds in your leisure time. You may have been exposing your ears to more loud sounds than you realize.

The feeling of fullness you are experiencing is actually indicative of a temporary threshold shift. In other words you do have a hearing loss significant enough that your brain notices it—thus you get this “blocked” feeling. The constant ringing (tinnitus) is another sign that the noise was far too loud, and you exposed your ears for far too long.

I’m glad you have “scared yourself silly”. Hopefully, you will now carefully protect your ears in the future. Too bad you hadn’t done that before. At the very least, have some foam ear protectors in your pocket, and put them in your ears before you go into noisy places, or leave as soon as the racket gets too loud.

Now to explain about tinnitus and whether it will go away. Typically the way it works is that the first few times you expose your ears to loud sounds the tinnitus goes away reasonably rapidly—hours or a day or so—but the more you expose your ears to loud sounds (and the louder the sounds are), the longer it takes for the tinnitus to go away. Finally, if you don’t wise up and protect your ears, it will never go away.

I doubt this was your first time in a night club, so I fear you have been exposing your ears to excessive noise for some time.

The main thing now is not to expose your ears to any louder sounds in order to give them time to “heal” if they will. After a month or so, re-evaluate your tinnitus and see whether it has gone away. In the meantime don’t dwell on your tinnitus or it will only appear to get worse. You need to totally ignore it by focusing on the loves of your life and let the tinnitus fade into the background.

In a month or so, it wouldn’t hurt to go to an audiologist and have a complete audiological evaluation to see the state of your hearing. That way you’d know if there was any permanent damage. I wouldn’t go now—give your ears time to recover, and hopefully the temporary threshold shift will go away.

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

Hearing loss among younger people is reaching alarming proportions. Here are some excerpts of a recent report out of Mexico showing the conditions there—and we here in the USA are probably not all that much different—at least in regards to excessive noise.

The report begins:

The excessive noise found in the main cities of Mexico and the improper use of certain antibiotics are seen as the main reasons for an increase in the number of hearing impaired Mexicans…

A study carried out in a suburban area of Mexico City measured the noise levels in two schools, two manufacturing plants, a shopping center and a block of flats. Researchers found noise levels between 90 and 100 dB. (1)

Sustained sounds above 80 dB are believed to cause hearing loss, and these sound levels are much higher. Remember each 10 dB increase represents a tenfold increase in sound pressure.

The report continues:

135 subjects aged between 15 and 49 years were screened for hearing disorders. Researchers found that 35% of the participants suffered from severe hearing damage. Surprisingly, the group aged between 15 and 29 years was more severely affected by hearing damage.

Researchers concluded that the higher incidence in the youngest group may be due to unrestrained use of personal stereos. More and more people try to drown out the background noise by listening to music on their MP3 players, thus increasing their risk of suffering from hearing loss.

In addition to noise, the misuse of ototoxic antibiotics is another factor causing this hearing loss epidemic. Unfortunately, most antibiotics are ototoxic to some degree, while the Aminoglycoside class of antibiotics is extremely ototoxic. Adding to this problem is the fact that such highly-ototoxic antibiotics are often readily available in developing countries. Mexico is no different. “Unfortunately, any adult can obtain antibiotics without medical prescription in Mexico.”

One thing this report doesn’t mention is that when you combine noise with certain ototoxic drugs, the resulting hearing loss is much worse that what would have been caused by either noise or drugs by themselves.

(1) Hear-it Press, January 31, 2008

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.
 

Loud sounds damage our ears. But how loud is too loud? Which devices produce sounds that are too loud? What can we do to protect our ears from loud sounds?

Excellent questions. The Oregon Museum of Science and Industry and the Oregon Health & Science University have put together a fun web site for you called “Dangerous Decibels” It consists of 8 modules that you interactively work through and learn as you go.

This site is suitable for both kids and adults.

As the web site explains, “This is a collection of games, demonstrations and activities that will answer three important questions:

1. What are the sources of dangerous sounds?

2. What are the effects of listening to dangerous sounds?

3. How do I protect myself from dangerous sounds?”

Intrigued? Get started. Click on “Dangerous Decibels” and have fun!

by Neil Bauman, Ph.D.

 Loud sounds damage your ears. That is no secret. Furthermore, the longer you expose your ears to loud sounds, the greater the chances of damage. That is just plain common sense.

What has this got to do with hockey? Canadians (and Americans too) love their hockey games. Unfortunately, the sound levels in hockey arenas often exceed safe levels. Therefore, unless you wear ear plugs, your hearing is at risk.

Just how bad is it? Let’s look at the sound levels observed during the 2006 Stanley Cup playoffs between the Edmonton Oilers and the Carolina Hurricanes played in Edmonton, Alberta

During the 3 hour game, noise levels almost never fell into the safe zone (sound levels below 85 dB). In fact, the average sound levels for 3 of those games was 104, 101 and 103 dB respectively. That’s loud! Peak levels recorded when goals were scored topped out at 122 dB. (1) That’s equivalent to a jet plane taking off! At that level, without ear protectors, you risk damage to your ears in just 1/8th of a second!

In these games, it only took 6 minutes to reach the maximum daily allowable noise dose. And remember, this sustained racket went on for 3 hours, not just 6 minutes! Looking at it another way, each person that attended these games exposed their ears at each game to 8100% of their allowable daily noise dose! And you wonder why so many people have hearing losses and ringing in their ears?

Therefore, if you are a hockey fan (or other sports enthusiast for that matter), wear the little foam ear protectors you can get at any drugstore for a couple of bucks. They have a rating of 25 to 30 dB. Wearing these ear protectors will bring the noise level down to below 80 dB where no hearing damage is likely to occur.

$2.00 ear protectors are certainly much cheaper than shelling out $2,000.00 each for the hearing aids you will eventually need if you don’t wear the ear protectors!

(1) Can Hockey Playoffs Harm Your Hearing?