Hearing is an amazing sense in how it works when it does,
since some people are born deaf. The ear
if one of the smallest organs in our bodies, but the most complex in how it
works. In essence the ear is just an
amplifier for the brain, but that “amplifier” doesn’t work if one of the 3 parts
to it is “broken”.
The 3 parts of the ear are the outer, middle, and
inner. The outer ear is the part that
helps direct the sound into the ear canal itself and thus to the middle
ear. The middle ear has 3 tiny bones, as well as
the eardrum, and they work together to amplify the sound. This amplification is transferred to the
inner ear. That converts the sound to an electrical impulse by moving across the
fluid in our ears, and is converted to an electrical impulse that is sent out
to the brain. From there the brain sorts
out what the waves are, and how they are relevant to the situation.
The most common reason for hearing loss of any age group is
loud noises. Infants can even have this
type of hearing loss as well from being around any loud noises on a regular
basis, i.e. they have an older sibling that listens to really loud music
regularly. Teens have this type of
hearing loss from the loud music they listen to on their musical systems, and have their earphones in their ears, turned up loudly repeatedly (but of
course they never listen to their parents to “turn it down” as we parents don’t have a
clue as to what we are talking about).
Adults tend to lose their hearing when they work in an environment that is very
loud, i.e. construction sites using jackhammers.
Prevention is the key to keeping your hearing longer as you
get older. The easiest but not always
the most practical is to avoid the areas where loud noise is going on, but of course
in this day and age, it’s harder to avoid those situations. The next best way is ear protection
from either noise cancelling earphones or ear plugs that you can
wear. Some people prefer to not wear
these items as they may be uncomfortable, but very necessary to prevent the hearing
loss.
Currently there is a company in Oklahoma called OMRF and
the Hough Ear Institute that is working on a solution to restoring some of the
damaged cells in our ear and preventing some of the damage caused by exposure
to the loud noises. It would be a pill
that you would take that would help reduce some of the free radicals that cause
damage to the inner ear.
Here's an interesting tidbit: Birds &
fish can spontaneously regenerate the inner ear cells when they are damaged, but
mammals can’t, so this pill would be sort of like what birds & fish do naturally.
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