Hearing Loss And Earbuds

You do want your 5 senses intact, right? We all do but we find it hard to take care of ourselves on a daily basis. How many of us get lazy in brushing  our teeth twice daily? How many of us manage to exercise regularly or get in touch with nature more? Internet and smartphones has literally put a lot of strain on our eyes and ears the most. One of the culprits that could lead to hearing loss over time could be your earbuds/earphones.

We spend a lot of time in front of screens along with managing our other daily chores and tasks. Either we are looking at random posts online, or watching videos. Both of which keeps our eyes and ears occupied than they should be.

hearing loss and earbuds
via Hearing Review

William H. Shapiro who is audiologist and a associate professor with NYU Langone gives details about how earphones affect our hearing and could lead to hearing loss.

One of five teenagers have hearing loss which could be partly due to the overuse of earphones/earbuds.

When the earbud is in our ears, it is closer to the eardrum. Usually when listening to music people generally raise the volume, which means higher level of noise and closer to the ear drums. This stresses the hair in the cochlea which starts to get damaged over time. By increasing the sound from 3DB (decibels) to 6DB actually doubles the sound intensity.

William Shapiro suggest that people not use earbuds for more than 60minutes a day, or even better to use noise cancelling headphones that don’t pierce into your ear. Still is it equally important to keep the volume level to a max of 60%. Many youngsters or even adults increase their volume just to stop outside noise.

hearing loss and earbuds
via Humavox

Using noise cancelling headphones allows one to keep volume at a normal level and also cancel outside noise that might be interrupting whatever you want to listen to or watch.

Watch the video here but remember to keep the volume down, or use speakers and not earphones.

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