Hearing Loss Health Feed

Your hearing is one of the most important function your body carries out and sometimes you realize that you are losing your sense of hearing, when it is too late to get it back. There are two main reasons for this. One of the reason is age and the other is when the inner ear's hair cells break down and do not pick up sound well.

Here are 7 ways to safeguard your hearing:

1. Try to avoid loud places: It is not advisable to go to places where you have to shout to be heard, such as in a street, a concert or a construction site.
2. Buy low noise rating equipment: The equipments in your house will make sound that you hear the most. Try to avoid these equipments by buying appliances with a low noise rating.
3. Wear hearing protection at loud places: However, it is true that it is not always possible to avoid loud noises. This is when you need to get hearing protection. Earplugs and earmuffs are two of the best ways to make sure that even when you are in a loud place, your hearing does not get affected. Earplugs and earmuffs generally reduce sound by 15 to 30 decibels, which may be crucial to make sure that later in your life, you do not lose your hearing.
4. Avoid smoke: Smoking raises your chance of hearing loss. Second hand smoke does the same thing. Therefore, try to avoid, both smoking and secondhand smoking. 
5. Remove earwax properly: Earwax cannot be removed properly using a cotton swab. Instead, you should use an irrigation kit. Remember this as otherwise; the earwax could muffle your hearing.
6. Avoid medications which reduce hearing: Certain medications increase hearing loss. Therefore, double check with your doctor to make sure your medicines will not make you lose your hearing.
7. Get your hearing tested: Finally, get your hearing tested as identifying the problem early on can help stop worsen the situation.

Did you know your earphones are making you deaf? Here's how.

Fact: Roughly 1.1 billion people worldwide within the age group of 12-35 have been found to be at an increased risk of developing hearing problems.

Listening to loud music on handheld devices using earphones has become a common trend among youngsters these days. You might find it very relaxing to plug in your earphones and escape into your own world of music, but you need to know that this can cause serious damage to your ears. The worst part: you won't realise your ears are being damaged until it's too late.

So, exactly how is loud music damaging your ears?

Continuous exposure to loud music from earphones or other sources results in a medical condition known as Noise-Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL), which can be associated with irreversible damage to the ears resulting in deafness.

When you hear loud music for a considerable amount of time every day it affects your hair cells (nerve cells responsible for sending sound signals to the brain) negatively, so that their ability to respond to sound decreases. If this keeps on happening for many months, eventually the hair cells are damaged beyond repair. These cells cannot be regenerated, making you permanently deaf.

How loud is too loud?

If your ears are exposed to sounds at 95, 100, 105, 110 and 115 dB (decibel, the unit used for measuring sound) for 4 hours, 2 hours, 1 hour, 30 minutes and 15 minutes each day respectively, your ears are at risk of getting severely damaged. Also, playing music at 120 dB or above can damage your ears instantly. You can have a realistic idea about the relation between decibels and sounds you commonly hear by referring to this list:

- 30 dB: soft whisper
- 75 dB: busy traffic
- 90 dB: noise of a motorcycle at 25 feet
- 100 dB: noise of a farm tractor
- 140 dB: jet plane taking off

Moreover, if you experience the following symptoms regularly, there's a high chance that you need to get your ears treated soon:

- A ringing sound in your ears when you are at a quiet place, which vanishes after a few minutes
- You need to raise the volume of TV or music to the fullest to hear it properly
- You have difficulty in hearing people talking at a distance of just 3 feet

How can you prevent the risk of hearing impairment?

When you're using earphones, keep the volume low. Also, using in-ear headsets or noise reduction/cancellation earphones also helps as it lets you hear the music distinctly at lower volumes by cutting out background noise.

CHECK: You need to lower the volume of your music if the person sitting or standing beside you can hear the sound coming out of your earphones.

Nihl also called as noise induces hearing loss, is a permanent hearing loss caused by prolonged exposure to high levels of noise.
Causes:
By exposure to excessively loud noise for longer periods 

• by firecracker
• phone
• loud music at concert/party
• gunshots
• loud music in mobile phones
• And lot many

Symptoms:

• pain in ears during loud noise exposure.
• you speaking louder
• you have tinnitus - ringing, whooshing, roaring or buzzing sounds in your ears - after noise exposure.
• trouble understanding what other people are saying, or it sounds like they are mumbling.

Cure:
The first thing after you notice any symptoms, do visit ent specialist otherwise it may result in the permanent hearing loss. Also once it becomes permanent, there is no cure to nihl, in nihl. The hair cells in your inner ear are damaged by the exposure to noise. The hair cells’ ability to pick-up and transmit sound to the brain is thus reduced.

Preventions:
There is only one prevention from nihl which is staying away from loud noise or may be using ear protections in some cases. 

Your hearing is one of the most important functions your body carries out and sometimes you realize that you are losing your sense of hearing when it is too late to get it back. There are two main reasons for this. One of the reasons is age, as the inner ear's hair cells break down and do not pick up sound well.

Here are 9 ways to safeguard your hearing:

1. Try to avoid loud places - It is not advisable to go to places where you have to shout to be heard such as in a street, a concert or a construction site.

2. Buy low noise rating equipment - The equipments in your house will make sounds that you hear the most. Try to avoid these equipments by buying appliances with a low noise rating.

3. Wear hearing protection at loud places - However, it is true that it is not always possible to avoid loud noises. This is when you need to get hearing protection. Earplugs and earmuffs are two of the best ways to make sure that even when you are in a loud place, your hearing does not get affected. Earplugs and earmuffs generally reduce sound by 15 to 30 decibels which may be crucial to make sure that later in your life, you do not lose your hearing.

4. Avoid smoke - Smoking raises your chances of hearing loss. Second hand smoke does the same thing. Therefore, try to stop smoking if you are a smoker, and try to stop consuming second hand smoke if you are not a smoker.

5. Remove earwax properly - Earwax cannot be removed properly using a cotton swab. Instead, you should use an irrigation kit. Remember this as otherwise; the earwax could muffle your hearing.

6. Avoid medications which reduce hearing - Certain medications increase hearing loss. Therefore, double check with your doctor to make sure your medicines will not make you lose your hearing.

7. Get your hearing tested - Finally, get your hearing tested as identifying the problem early on can help stop worsen the situation.

8. Avoid using earbuds - Earbuds should not be used regularly as it may accidentally damage your eardrum which can eventually lead to hearing loss can happen.

9. Taking anti-oxidants and vitamins - Recent studies have proved that taking vitamins and anti-oxidants in adequate amount help avoiding the hearing loss for a long time. 

Labyrinthitis is a very common disease related to audiology in which the person suffers from an inner ear medical disorder. The two vestibular nerves present inside the inner portion of the ears send information to the brain about spatial navigation and also balance control. Now, when any of these two nerves become inflamed due to some reason, it causes Labyrinthitis.

The symptoms of this disorder are easily identifiable and the person is treated generally based on the kind of symptoms he or she is experiencing.

Symptoms: 

Even though the symptoms may disappear after a few days, a chronic Labyrinthitis will continue to affect after that as well.

• Dizziness can be experienced throughout the day
• Vertigo or fear of heights can affect the person.
• Loss of balance because of the inflammation.
• Nausea and vomiting due to dizziness.
• Tinnitus or a ringing sensation in the ears.

These are the symptoms Labyrinthitis and sometimes if these are not treated well, then it can lead to permanent hearing loss.

Causes

• Illnesses like bronchitis can cause Labyrinthitis.
• Different viral infections affecting the inner ear
• Infection or virus attack in the stomach
• Herpes caused by Human alphaherpesvirus
• Bacterial middle ear infections

So if you are suffering from any of these medical problems then you must visit an audiologist immediately and treat the condition in a proper manner.

Diagnosis And Treatment 

The doctor will conduct different physical examination and other tests which will help him or her to detect the real problem. Hearing tests, blood tests, a CT or MRI scan of the head and even electroencephalogram can be used to diagnose the patient. Once the real cause of the disease gets traced, the doctor will prescribe medication accordingly.

Here are some of the best treatment of this disease: 

• Antihistamines, such as desloratadine or Clarinex will be prescribed.
• Medications which will effectively reduce dizziness and nausea are also given to get relief from the most common symptoms.
• Sedatives, such as diazepam if the patient is unable to sleep properly.
• Easily available antihistamines like fexofenadine (Allegra), diphenhydramine (Benadryl), or loratadine (Claritin).

Apart from treating yourself with different medication here are some important actions you can perform to get relief from symptoms which might affect you:

• Avoid rapid or quick changes in position and postures.
• Sit very still and don't move during a vertigo attack.
• Get up clamly and steadily from a lying down or seated position instead of a sudden movement.
• Avoid bright television, computer screens, and flashing lights during a potential vertigo attack.

So, here are the different information which you must know about Labyrinthitis and we hope this article will help you to get the best treatment and recovery.

Ageing is not the only factor that brings hearing impairment. The causes are many. Certain medications, continuous exposure to loud noise, genetic involvement, injury and some medical conditions may cause hearing loss.

But if you think that you are facing hearing issues, then these symptoms should raise an alarm for you to see an ENT specialist:

1. You find it hard to hear phone conversations: Do you find yourself asking the person on the other end of the phone line to 'repeat' themselves, or find yourself pressing the phone instrument right into your ear? If you are trying so hard to hear, you might find yourself missing out on bits of the conversation as focussing to clearly hear the conversation is exhausting work. Getting a hearing test might be a good option if this sounds like you.
2. Your TV is blaring: Do you often find people around you shouting above the TV sound complaining that it's too loud? When you find it hard to hear the TV at the average volume and find yourself turning up the sound, this could signify a hearing loss. Doctors are seeing a growing number of patients visiting them after prolonged exposure to loud music and sounds.
3. You have trouble hearing in noisy environments: When you are out dining with friends or family at a busy restaurant or accompanying a friend shopping in a busy street, all that background noise makes it difficult to hear what the people are saying. People with hearing loss often have problems masking out background noise. 
4. You find yourself leaning closer to people to follow the conversation or staring at their lips trying to lip-read what's being said.
5. Family members telling 'you're going deaf'?: Trust the views of the people closest to you, they never lie about your health. Family members often are the first to sense signs of hearing loss as they find themselves repeating things to you or calling out louder to get your 'attention'.