Well, luckily for me there’s nothing more relaxing than a soft harmony on Sunday mornings, but for my cousin, an hour or two of loud rock seems to do the trick, EVERY DAY!
Sure music is a great pleasure of life, scattered everywhere, for some, in pockets, for others in cars, and for still others in the sound of an engine! Yet the question remains, does it really do us more harm than good? Read on.
When sound waves hit our eardrums, they tend to vibrate the millions of sensory hair cells within, creating electrical signals that, in simple words, are picked up and sent to our brain to define music/sound. Any loud sound, in general, damages these hair cells. If the exposure to such a sound is brief ,the hair manage to recover , but as the duration prolongs, the recovery ebbs down. The more of them we lose, due to damaged recovery, the less sound we hear!
Problem starts at 85 Decibels plus. Remember the times when the music/noise around you was loud enough to force you to speak louder than normal in order to converse with the nearbys? Well, that was still 80 dbs! Did you know that a sustained exposure( say 7-10 hours) to a sound at a level of 90-95 dbs can cause hearing impairment? And, did you know that the music you groove to on a DJ night in front of the speakers is equivalent to nearly 105-110 decibels!! Now, you can think about the consequences for yourself.
During a casual medical checkup of my cousin, the doctor told him he has hearing issues in high frequencies, that is, issues in listening distinct sounds in a loud environment. Not too bad, but for a 20 years old, -13 Decibels in the right ear, it sure is and would only get worse. It’s not only the morning loud music that the doctor suspects to have caused this hearing loss, but also his addiction to listening to loud music and staying in loud environments.
However, you don’t have to worry about ending up like my cousin, if you take some very basic yet important precautions, some of which I hereby mention for your convenience-
HEADPHONES: For prolonged listening, set volume such that you can listen to the person about a metre away from you.
CELLPHONES: Switch it between ears to lessen the hair damage when talking to your loved ones for a long duration.
LOUD MUSIC: Inevitable for some, yet try not to prolong you exposure to it.
Lastly, remember loss of hearing can change your lifestyle adversely. Take well care of your ears.
Listen wisely to listen everything…..!Happy Hearing!
