Beware: You might lose your hearing aid

The trend of youth carrying portable music player with headphone in their ears is very common. Youth is mostly seen driving their bikes along with headphones and listening to music or even while studying whether in their study room or in colleges or also while walking or jogging in parks or stadiums etc.

They might wear headphones not just to enjoy the music but also to block out ambient noise of buses, cars or trains etc but on a serious note, they are not aware of the fact that listening to music along with headphones would damage their ears. It is estimated that today more than 40% of youth is addicted to listening to music via headphones.

Rahul, a student, avers, “I was habitual of listening music on my mobile with headphone and that too on high volume to enjoy every beat of song, in my leisure time. And even when I used to travel to my college. But suddenly few days ago, my ears started paining. On consulting a doctor, it was found that my ear cells have started getting affected due to high volume. But now I am aware of the fact and have stopped using headphones.”

The physicians say that the usage of I-PODS is worst for ears as its music through headphones are pumped deeper into the ears.

Dr Manu Seth, E.N.T. specialist, Tagore Hospital, says, “It’s quite an obvious fact that loud music harms the ears. But, according to me, if you listen to music on headphones at 60% of the total volume on your music players and that too only for an hour in a day would not hurt your ears. But if it exceeds to more than two hours approximately in a day then it would injure the ear cells which would further wound your auditory nerves which connects to brain.”

Exploring more facts, he says, “ the major ill which a person suffers by listening excess music on headphones is ‘ Sensori Neural Hearing Loss’. And there is no particular treatment to cure it. I would suggest that people should use headphones in their dry ears and they must avoid applying headphones if they are already suffering from any sort of ear infection.”

It is generally found that people especially youngsters’ use headphones while going to bed and listen to music and sleep. They forget to stop the music being played. This is the major cause of loss of hearing.

As parents advice their kids, not to watch television closely as they would go blind, similarly, doctors advice not to listen music exceeding 60% of total volume on headphones.