How to protect your hearing and avoid hearing loss

HOW TO PROTECT YOUR HEARING

Noises, city traffic, loud music with and without earphones, are just some of the risk factors for our hearing. In this article, we'll explain how to protect your hearing with the right precautions and a few simple tips.

TO KNOW MORE: Listen to music correctly, without damaging your eardrums and hearing

HOW TO PROTECT AND IMPROVE YOUR HEARING

Protecting your hearing from temporary discomfort or permanent damage is possible and within everyone's reach. You just need to pay attention to a series of daily activities and situations.

Listening to music, doing maintenance work, and many other things we do can affect the quality of our hearing.

To preserve it over time, we can implement some good habits:

• Volume. In front of tv When listening to music with headphones, you should never turn the volume up to maximum or keep it at high volume. This won't improve the sound quality and will damage your hearing. In general, the volume should never exceed 60 percent of the device's maximum. And to complete the 60-60 rule, you should not listen to music or TV for more than 60 consecutive minutes at 60 percent of the volume.
• Headphones. Whenever possible, we avoid using them. Diffusing them into the environment is less stressful for the hearing system and less dangerous.
• Shows. At the cinema, at concerts or in discotheque We must avoid standing near the speakers. The decibels are very high and can cause permanent hearing damage.
• Protection. Anyone performing tasks that require the use of a jackhammer or other tools that generate loud, prolonged noise must wear ear protection. Failure to use ear protection can seriously damage your hearing.
• Prevention. Anyone who lives or works in noisy areas should see an ENT doctor at least once a year. Any hearing loss can be treated early, preventing serious damage.
• Physical activity: it is also very good for your hearing, especially if you get into the habit of walk every day, for at least half an hour in total.
• If you dive, check your eardrums regularly and do not overexert them. When descending to depth, do so slowly and in the first few minutes. diving, for every season, always use earplugs.
• If you frequent discos and clubs with the musicEven at high volume, stay away from the speakers. And alternate ten minutes of listening with ten minutes of rest for your ears.
• If you go to a concert (not classical music), take a 12-16 hour sound break the next day.
• Quit smoking: smoking cigarettes increases the risk of hearing loss by 70 percent.
• Eat fruits and vegetables often. They contain vitamins A, C, and zinc, all of which reduce the risk of ear infections.
• Take good care of any possible otitis which could damage the eardrum
• Moderate your alcohol intake.

HEARING LOSS

Do you ever miss the doorbell or the telephone? Do you turn up the volume on the television? These are all signs that most Italians underestimate, and it's no coincidence that in Italy there are more than 8 million people with hearing loss.

These are people who have not lost their hearing, but begin to have difficulty understanding sounds and thus gradually lose contact with others. The number is constantly growing, given the high index of longevity, but not everyone pays the necessary attention.

Prejudice, laziness, social and economic motivations, lead to a lack of awareness towards the phenomenon, with serious but avoidable consequences, if addressed in time.

Unfortunately, a third of the hearing impaired It takes a good three years before talking to a doctor. This allows the brain to gradually adjust to the weakened signals, causing a decline in hearing sensitivity.

Protecting your hearing naturally is possible, but we must do it before it's too late.

ALSO READ: The importance of silence, unnecessary noises ruin your hearing and especially your head

TYPES OF HEARING LOSS

Anyone who begins to experience symptoms of hearing loss may experience conductive hearing loss o perceptive hearing loss (sensory neuronal).

• THEconductive hearing loss It is a condition that affects the ear canal, the tympanic membrane, the small bones that make up the inside of the eardrum, namely the hammer, the anvil and the stirrup;
• THEperceptive hearing loss o neurosensory instead it is more invasive and directly affects the acoustic nerve, essential for the transmission of sound.

The nerve's job is to send sound from the cochlea of ​​the inner ear to a specific auditory area of ​​the brain. And it is here that we can process and understand the meaning or message of a sound, be it a word, a musical note, or a loud noise.

The ear is the vehicle through which we perceive and capture sound.. But only the brain is able to analyze and process frequenciesIf the auditory nerve is damaged, we are no longer able to process sounds.

For the first type of hearing loss, the central causes are:

• Earwax plugs
• Acute ear infections
• Eardrum perforations
• Chronic ear infections

In the case of perceptive hearing loss, the causes can be triggered by acute acoustic trauma, pathological conditions of the ear or infectious diseases including meningitis.

DIAGNOSIS TO EVALUATE HEARING

Investigate thehearing loss needs the diagnosis of a specialist, that is, theotolaryngologistThe competent doctor evaluates the condition of the ear canal, the eardrum and performs other specific tests.

What are the exams available:

• Pure tone audiometry: an exam in which the patient listens to whistles (pure tones) with headphones and must report to the doctor each time he hears a sound;
• Vocal exam: the doctor plays some words to the patient through headphones, which he has to repeat if he can;
• Impedance analysis: a method for assessing the elasticity of the eardrum. When it is reduced or absent, it means that there is mucus inside the eardrum that is preventing proper sound transmission.

It is possible to conduct such tests also in children smaller ones who will be involved with some forms of game to which the child will have to respond when he hears or perceives sounds. The impedance analysis test is important for children to understand if they are at risk of ear infection.

PREVENTION OF HEARING DISORDERS

All hearing disorders, of any kind and before they worsen, can be prevented with a few precautions and with the right lifestyle.

• Avoid frequent and continued exposure to excessively loud noisesThis applies to music, but also to other situations that have to do with thenoise pollution.
• Do not overdo it with the time we spend using headphones and earphones.
• In case of conversations that are not very short, always use the earphones cellular.
• During the scuba diving and in the stages of landing and takeoff of an airplane, it is good to do an easy compensation maneuver.
• Have one good ear hygiene.
• Completely eliminate the use of cotton swab.

WHEN TO GO TO THE SPECIALIST

It is advisable to make an appointment with the ENT doctor when the patient experiences symptoms such as frequent ringing in the ear, hearing problems, blocked ear, acute otitis, sensation of stuffy nose for no apparent reason.

But even in case of feelings of disorientation, difficulty of equilibrium o dizziness frequent, which could be symptoms related to the maze in the ear.

ALSO READ: How to use earphones

HOW TO AVOID HEARING DAMAGE

Ignoring the warning signs is the best way to avoid problems. A dive, a air travel or a violent blow can cause temporary or permanent hearing loss.

The characteristic of sudden deafness It is a hearing loss of at least 30 decibels that develops over a 72-hour period. During that time, it should be treated by consulting a doctor. To intervene promptly, it is important to understand the symptoms:

• Ear pluggedAuditory perception is greatly reduced. It's as if sounds are muffled, and less intense ones aren't perceived.
• BuzzAfter a stroke, you may experience ringing in one or both ears. This is a warning sign. It could indicate an emergency situation.
• DizzinessIn the most dangerous cases, in addition to the muffled feeling and ringing in the ears, dizziness may also occur. This is an important warning sign because it indicates more serious damage.

ALL THE BENEFITS OF SILENCE:

• Gordon Hempton, the musician of silence who records nature (video)
• "The Silent Streets" and "Academy of Silence": websites that help you rediscover silence.
• Communicating with Silence: Pope Francis's Lesson to the Wordspeople of Nothing