How to improve hearing

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

If you are still far from old age, and your ears are not the same, hurry to the doctor. Perhaps a bad process can still be stopped.

How to tell if you are hard of hearing

1. It has become difficult for you to talk in noisy places or in a crowd. You prefer to interrupt such a conversation or not communicate with people at all in such situations.
2. The volume level that you set when listening to music with headphones is now higher than before. But otherwise, the drum rhythm or guitar in your favorite songs, in your opinion, does not sound like that.
3. You increase the TV volume.
4. Quite often ask others to repeat what has been said or speak more clearly, because you cannot hear them the first time.
5. Avoid talking on the phone because the sound is not enough for you.

If you find that you have at least 2-3 of the listed symptoms of Hearing loss, then your ears are malfunctioning. To understand how serious it is and whether it is possible to return a vanishing hearing, you need to figure out some details.

Why do we hear

The ear is a finer and more sensitive structure than many are used to thinking.

It consists of three parts (we will not go into details, the description is schematic).

1. Outer ear

Includes the auricle and the auditory canal. They capture and concentrate sound waves, sending them deeper.

2. Middle ear

It contains the eardrum and three tiny bones associated with it. The membrane vibrates under the action of sound waves, the movable bones catch and amplify these vibrations and transmit them further.

A separate nuance: the middle ear cavity is connected to the nasopharynx through the so-called Eustachian tube. This is necessary to equalize the air pressure before and after the tympanic membrane.

3. Inner ear

It is a so-called membranous labyrinth inside the temporal bone. The snail is one of the most important parts of the bone labyrinth. It got its name from its characteristic shape.

The labyrinth is filled with liquid. When the bones of the middle ear transmit vibrations here, the fluid also begins to move. And it irritates the finest hairs that cover the inner surface of the snail. These hairs are connected to the fibers of the auditory nerve. Their vibrations turn into nerve impulses, which our brain interprets as: "Oh, I hear something!"

Why hearing deteriorates

There are hundreds of reasons. Any damage, inflammation, modification in each of the three parts of the ear leads to the fact that the organ loses the ability to correctly capture and send sound signals to the brain.

These are the most common causes of hearing impairment.

1. Aging

With age, the sensitive hairs in the cochlea wear out and no longer accurately respond to fluctuations in the fluid within the membranous labyrinth. As a result, older people often suffer from constant muffled hum in their ears and increasing deafness.

2. The habit of listening to loud music with headphones

Loud sounds, like age, damage the sensitive hairs and nerve cells of the inner ear.

3. Barotrauma

A powerful sonic attack (for example, a fireworks banging very close, a rock concert, a very loud party in a nightclub) can cause barotrauma - a stretching or even rupture of the eardrum. When stretched, the ability to hear returns by itself after a while. But with a ruptured eardrum, you will have to go to the ENT for a long and tedious time.

4. Sulfur plug or other foreign objects in the ear canal

This can be, for example, sebaceous glands that are inflamed before the formation of an abscess, or the same water that has got into the ear after bathing. All this blocks the auditory canal, preventing the correct penetration of sound waves to the eardrum. There is a feeling of congestion in the ear.

5. Ear canal infections

They cause inflammation and swelling, again narrowing the ear canal.

6. All kinds of otitis media

Otitis media are inflammatory processes of a viral or bacterial nature that develop in the ear. Depending on which part of the ear is affected by the disease, doctors distinguish between external, middle and internal (labyrinthitis) otitis media.

This is a dangerous ailment that is fraught with not only temporary but also complete hearing loss. Therefore, at the slightest suspicion of otitis media, it is important to consult a doctor as soon as possible.

7. Mumps (mumps), measles, rubella

These infections aggressively attack the inner ear and can lead to complete deafness.

8. The habit of cleaning your ears with cotton swabs

Doctors are categorically against such measures. Careless movement can push the earwax down and block the eardrum, or damage the sensitive skin of the ear canal, causing inflammation.

Sometimes cleaners even manage to perforate the eardrum or damage the auditory ossicles, which is fraught with not partial, but already complete hearing loss in at least one ear.

9. Taking some medications

High doses of aspirin, other pain relievers, antimalarial drugs, and a number of diuretics can cause Causes of Hearing Loss in Adults tinnitus - tinnitus or ringing in the ears. Fortunately, this is a temporary phenomenon that goes away as soon as you stop using your medication.

Other drugs, such as the antibiotic streptomycin and some chemotherapy drugs, can damage the inner ear. But this is already serious: in order not to recover from hearing loss, it is important to consult a doctor in time and, if possible, replace the ototoxic drug.

10. Diseases accompanied by high fever

Fever can damage the nerve cells in the inner ear. Therefore, the temperature, especially the one that has risen above 38.5 ° C, is better to bring down.

11. Physical head injury

Impacts can damage the middle and inner ear.

12. Otosclerosis

This is the name of a disease of the middle ear, in which the ossicles increase in size, and their movement is difficult. This means that they cannot correctly “tap” the vibrations of the eardrum into the inner ear.

13. Autoimmune and other diseases

Autoimmune diseases of the inner ear, Meniere's disease, all kinds of tumors - the spectrum of diseases, the side effect of which is hearing loss, is quite wide 7 diseases that can cause hearing loss.

How to improve hearing

To answer this question, it is necessary to discuss your specific case with a therapist, ENT or a narrow specialist - an audiologist. They will find out exactly what caused the hearing loss.

If the reason lies in the sulfur plug, inflammation and other damage affecting the outer ear, the prognosis is favorable. In most cases, it is enough to eliminate the cause: wash the plug, rid the ear canal of water that has got into it, cure inflammation, and hearing will be restored.

If the cause affects the middle ear, there may be some complications. Damage to the tympanic membrane or, for example, otosclerosis may require surgery and long-term rehabilitation. Fortunately, modern medicine has learned to deal with these problems quite successfully.

The inner ear is the most difficult case. If the labyrinthitis is still treatable, then it is impossible to restore hairs and nerve cells that have worn out with age or from an excessive love of loud music. Therefore, they resort to radical methods - the installation of a hearing aid or a cochlear implant (a prosthesis that takes over the work of a worn-out cochlea). These are rather expensive devices and procedures.

How to prevent hearing loss

Unfortunately, this is not always possible. Genetics, autoimmune diseases, head injuries - these factors cannot be influenced in advance.

However, you can still do something.

1. Avoid too noisy concerts and shows.
2. Do not turn up the volume on your headphones.
3. If you work in a noisy place, are fond of shooting or riding a motorcycle, be sure to use earplugs or ear protectors.
4. Rest your ears - spend more time in silence.
5. Do not run colds, and even more so do not try to endure the pain in the ears, which otitis media make itself felt.
6. If you have a runny nose, blow your nose outward. Sucking in mucus can cause the infection to rise up the Eustachian tube to the ear.
7. Do not clean your ears with cotton swabs!
8. Make sure that you are vaccinated with MMR vaccine (a complex drug against measles, mumps, rubella). If not, get vaccinated.
9. Take a hearing test from time to time. This can be done both at an audiologist's appointment and at home.