Hearing Loss
This page on HealthMBA.com is about how the ears work to pick up sound signals from the environment and to transmit them to the brain. Exposure to intense noises in the environment, as well as genetic disorder and infections, can lead to damaging the mechanisms of the ears and loss of hearing. This article lists some of the treatments for hearing loss and the steps you can take to preserve and protect your sense of hearing in your every day life.
Hearing loss is a condition that affects many people and has a great impact on interacting with the environment. The sense of hearing relies on a complex and sensitive set of mechanisms inside of the ear. Due to aging, over-stimulation, or genetic disorders, a damage to the workings of the inner ear can degrade and ultimately cut off the sense of sound to the brain. Much of the damage to the inner ears can be reduced or prevented by taking precautions and being mindful of the dangers in the environment. Naturally, a great deal of hearing loss occurs due to elements in the environment that cause over-stimulation, such as exposure to loud noises, either due to a brief encounter or prolonged and repeated incidents. The middle ear, which is made of the ear drum and the ossicles bones, is the sensitive sound "receiver" that amplifies and passes on the sound waves and in an electrical signal to the cochlea of the inner ear and to the brain through the auditory nerve.
The ear drum continually receives vibration waves from the outside environment. A healthy ear drum can perceive very subtle sounds ranging from just above zero to twenty decibels (dB), but with hearing loss the lowest level of hearing raises higher. Closer to a lower level of seventy dB a person has trouble hearing most sounds and they suffer from profound deafness. The two main types of hearing loss are conductive, where the mechanisms of the ear are unable to pass signals through to the brain, and sensorineural, where the inner ear is damaged and unable to send an electronic signal to the auditory nerves. Hearing loss is something that can develop over time by being exposed to loud noises in the workplace, such as working in a noisy restaurant, or by being exposed to brief but intense sounds, like an explosion from fireworks. This puts a great deal of strain on the delicate workings of the ears and they become less sensitive.
Listening to loud music as a concert or through headphones can add up to damage to the ears and hearing loss. One sign that your ears have been over-stimulated is from the "ringing" (tinnitus) you may hear even when it's quiet around you. The effects of hearing loss can be avoided by turning down the music, wearing hearing protection, or by getting away from the noisy conditions. In some cases though the effects of hearing loss cannot be avoided. As we age the mechanisms begin to wear down, and it is normal to expect a degradation of the clarity and intensity of our sense of hearing.
There are also young people who are born with genetic or physical defects that lead to an inability to carry the signal of sounds to the brain, which leads to a lifetime of deafness. Medical science is developing ways to work around damaged or inefficient sound mechanisms in the ear, such as implants or surgery to repair problems. In some cases the blockage of sound transmission in the inner ear is caused by an infection, which can be treated with medication, and damaged eardrums and the ossicles bones can be surgically repaired or replaced. Advanced techniques employ sophisticated electronic implants to take over for the ear's natural signal transmission. The
