'Your Generation will Need Hearing Aids by 40'

Hearing is essential for many things, mostly communication but music has become a huge part of our lives whether it’s attending live gigs or it’s sound-tracking your life as you go about your daily business, music has become more accessible than ever, Recently, there's been an increasing demand for live performances and technology providing your favourite songs at the touch of button.

When MP3 players came on the scene, it gave people access to music anytime they wanted and little was known amongst people about the true dangers of listening to your personal player at a high volume. So when most of us are having a bad day or that special song comes on the natural thing to do is to turn up the volume and forgot about the world around us. But at what expense? In an article on youth.hear-it.org it states “just one in four give any thought to how loudly they play their music. 22 percent always play at high volume with no regard to the threat to their hearing”. This proves that some people are completely oblivious to the damage that they are doing to their ears.

Curious about my own hearing, I came across a website that specialised in hearing aids I saw that they were offering free hearing tests so I booked an appointment at hidden hearing centre. When the audiologist called me in I explained to him that for 10 years I have been regularly attending gigs without ear protection and that I also listened to music a lot on my personal player with disregard of the volume levels. We did a series of tests in which he pitched different frequencies.

In the end he explained to me that I have in fact damaged my ears. He said that I had similar to hearing of someone in their late 40’s and that I have to wear ear protection to every gig I go to from now on. He stated that sadly most young people are unaware of the damage that can be caused by listening to music too loud and a lot of our generation will need hearing aids by 40.

If you are also curious about your hearing, you can do a quick check with the video above but I recommend booking a free hearing test in Boots, Hidden Hearing etc. Even if you haven't suffered any hearing damage, it doesn’t mean that you won't in the future.

“Listening at 100 percent volume for more than 5 minutes may result in permanent hearing loss,” according to a North American study, carried out by the Harvard Medical School in 2006. Not only can loud music cause hearing loss but also cause tinnitus. Tinnitus is a devastating and permanent problem which consists of constant ringing noises. It is mostly caused by listening to music too loud and resulting in the loss of a certain frequency in the ear therefore causing the persistent ringing.

A lot of famous djs and musicians have tinnitus including Nina Kraviz, Andy Purnell, Will.I.am and Chris Martin. People who suffer from tinnitus suffer from sleeping problems due the constant ringing and “Research shows that up to 60% of people with tinnitus have a major depressive disorder and more than 40% have found that tinnitus has a negative impact on their personal relationships and their work.” A lot of people that I know personally all suffer from it because they were simply unaware of the damage that loud music can cause. While there are some things to help alleviate the symptoms of tinnitus, there is still no cure for it.

With a lot of people out there unaware of the damages that loud music can cause to the ears, what can we do to prevent damage? Turn down the volume music on your phone/mp3 player. Most new players indicate when you are listening to the music at a harmful volume so keep it out of the red and yellow, usually just around the halfway marker is safe. Also it is very important to give your ears a break when listening to music consistently.

Everyone who goes to gigs should wear earplugs. Earplugs can be bought very cheaply starting from around 12 euros so it doesn't cost a lot to protect your ears, It's usually the higher frequencies that cause the damage so wearing protection that filters out these frequencies is important. If you're a musician or a DJ who gigs regularly, I would recommend the custom moulds (starting around 150 euros) as pictured below. If your hearing is your livelihood then it is definitely worth investing in a pair.

Young people should take this matter more seriously and think twice about turning up the volume on personal players and wearing ear protection at gigs or nightclubs. At the end of the day, none of us want to deaf at the age of 40 or develop tinnitus which is a living nightmare.

But not being able to listen to your favourite music is not only one of the problems that hearing loss can cause. Who.int states “limited access to services and exclusion from communication can have a significant impact on everyday life, causing feelings of loneliness, isolation and frustration”. So hearing loss can impact all aspects of our lives. All we have to do is turn it down volume, give our ears a break every so often and wear ear protection at places where the music is dangerously loud. Seems worth it considering how important hearing is to all aspects of our lives.

For more tips on preventing hearing damage check out NHS Top 10 tips to help protect your hearing.