Hearing Loss in Adults

Tiny hair cells inside your inner ear help you hear. They pick up sound waves and change them into the nerve signals that the brain interprets as sound. Hearing loss occurs when the tiny hair cells are damaged or die. The hair cells DO NOT regrow, so most hearing loss caused by hair cell damage is permanent.There is no known single cause of age-related hearing loss. Most commonly, it is caused by changes in the inner ear that occur as you grow older. Your genes and loud noise (from rock concerts or music headphones) may play a large role.

The following factors contribute to age-related hearing loss:

Family history (age-related hearing loss tends to run in families)

Repeated exposure to loud noises

Smoking (smokers are more likely to have such hearing loss than nonsmokers)

Certain medical conditions, such as diabetes

Certain medicines, such as chemotherapy drugs for cancer

Age-related hearing loss is a natural part of the aging process.

As we get on in years, our hearing drops off. The treatment for age-related hearing loss is hearing aids. However, researchers believe that music and our eating habits can delay or reduce age-related hearing loss.One of the major causes of hearing loss is ageing. Hearing loss is a natural consequence of getting older. As you get older, the hair cells in your inner ear begin to die and when more and more hair cells die our hearing gets worse and worse. This happens to all of us and we all begin to lose our hearing when we are in our 30’s and 40’s.

Some people lose their hearing and get an age-related hearing loss earlier and faster than others. Around the age of 50, we see that more and more people get age-related hearing loss. Age-related hearing loss is especially common among people in their 60’s and 70’s. Age-related hearing loss is also called Presbyacusis. The treatment for age-related hearing loss is always hearing aids. Age-related hearing loss and GPsA study has shown that Australian GPs only play a minor role when it comes to identifying age-related hearing loss. Australian researchers have found that the levels of identification and management of hearing loss by GPs in Australia are relatively low and there appear to be relatively few cases in which hearing loss is identified opportunistically.

Data from one former study showed that only about 3 out of 1000 GP consultations with patients above the age of 50 involved management of age-related hearing loss.Musical trainingA study suggests that musical training from an early age could account for why older musicians have better hearing than non-musicians. An American scientist has shown that the brain can be trained to overcome some age-related hearing loss and that people, for whom music has been a part of their life since childhood, had an advantage when distinguishing one consonant from another.

Folate may reduce hearing lossSurveys indicate that folate may benefit your hearing. Low blood-levels of folate are associated with a 35% increased risk of hearing loss, according to a study from Australia. Folate is the natural source of vitamin B9. This study supports the link between B-vitamins and hearing.Researchers at the University of Sydney have examined blood levels of folate, vitamin B12, and homocysteine and correlated this with the risk of age-related hearing loss.

In 2009, researchers revealed that men over the age of 60 with high folate intake from foods and supplements had a 20% decrease in the risk of developing hearing loss. In 2007, in a study of 728 men and women between the ages of 50 and 70, scientists reported that folic acid supplements delayed age-related hearing loss in the low-frequency region.

Calorie restriction may also delay age-related hearing loss. Scientists at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the US have succeeded in delaying age-related hearing loss in mice by restricting their intake of calories. Experiments with mice have shown that a 25% reduction in calories activated a single enzyme, Sirt3, which helped preserve hearing. Although the diet delayed hearing loss at various frequencies in the normal mice, it did not work at all in the mice lacking Sirt3.

When you age, the outer part of the ear canal thins while earwax gets drier and stickier. This increases the risk of impacted wax. In addition, the eardrum may thicken, but the most significant changes take place in the cochlea, such as loss of sensory cells and degenerative changes in the nerve fibers that carry information from the sensory cells to the brain.These are the main types of hearing loss and their causes.

With this type of hearing loss, your hearing is muffled. It is typically caused by a build-up of ear wax, which blocks the ear canal and prevents sound from entering. Your primary healthcare provider can diagnose and remove the wax if there is an excessive build-up. It is normal for all ears to have some wax as this helps to protect the outer ear canal. Other causes of conductive hearing loss include infections in the skin lining the ear canal, fluid in the middle ear, arthritis that affects the bones of the ear, or a hole in the eardrum. None of these causes are very common in older people. One condition that affects older individuals and causes conductive hearing loss is Paget’s disease of bone.

This is the most common type of hearing loss in older adults. It is typically caused by changes or damage to the hair cells and/or nerves in the cochlea. The main cause is age but excessive noise exposure and ototoxicity (damage to the inner ear caused by drugs or chemicals) can contribute as well. Other causes of sensorineural hearing loss include genetics or blood vessel problems (including those related to diabetes). More rarely, sensorineural hearing loss may be related to: occupational and environmental factors such as chemical exposurescertain autoimmune diseasesnerve tumorsinfections such as herpes and influenzacigarette smoking.

Older adults with the following conditions are more likely to experience hearing loss: dementiadiabetescerebrovascular disease (conditions that affect blood flow to the brain)

Dual sensory impairment (for example, vision and hearing loss at the same time) is a significant. problem for at least 30% of older adults. One type of sensorineural hearing loss, called “central hearing loss”, occurs when you lose the ability to understand speech in situations such as in the presence of competing noise, competing conversation, or in environments where sound can echo. Sudden sensorineural hearing loss (loss that occurs over 72 hours) often has no identifiable cause. The primary symptom is the sensation of a full or blocked ear. If you have sudden ear blockage or fullness, contact your healthcare provider promptly to avoid any treatment delay. Treatment may include corticosteroids taken by mouth or by ear drops.A third type, mixed hearing loss, is a combination of conductive and sensorineural hearing loss.

Signs and Symptoms of Hearing Loss

Typical signs of a hearing problem include:

Playing the radio or TV too loudly

Saying “what?” a lot during conversations

Having problems communicating during parties or in restaurants

Not hearing something if the person is out of your range of vision

Sometimes you are so unaware of your hearing loss that it is up to a family member to tell you and your healthcare provider that you’re having problems hearing.

A simple way to tell if you’re having problems is with the “whisper test”. Have someone stand about two feet away and whisper a letter and number combination like “4K2”. If you can’t hear the combination, it indicates that you have some hearing loss and should undergo formal testing. Another possible symptom of hearing loss is ringing in the ear (tinnitus). Tinnitus often accompanies age-related hearing loss, but it could also be a symptom of an unrelated condition requiring medical attention. Therefore, if you experience tinnitus, you should see your primary care provider or an otolaryngologist (ear, nose, throat doctor) for an evaluation.

There are more than 200 drugs that are known as ototoxic—meaning that they affect hearing. Often, simply stopping an ototoxic drug will restore hearing, but sometimes the damage is permanent. The first sign of hearing problems related to a medication is usually tinnitus (ringing in your ears). You may also experience some balance problems or dizziness. Some ototoxic medications include: Age-related hearing loss (presbycusis) is the loss of hearing that gradually occurs in most of us as we grow older. It is one of the most common conditions affecting older and elderly adults.Approximately one in three people in the United States between the ages of 65 and 74 has hearing loss, and nearly half of those older than 75 have difficulty hearing. Having trouble hearing can make it hard to understand and follow a doctor’s advice, respond to warnings, and hear phones, doorbells, and smoke alarms. Hearing loss can also make it hard to enjoy talking with family and friends, leading to feelings of isolation.

Age-related hearing loss most often occurs in both ears, affecting them equally. Because the loss is gradual, if you have age-related hearing loss you may not realize that you’ve lost some of your ability to hear. There are many causes of age-related hearing loss. Most commonly, it arises from changes in the inner ear as we age, but it can also result from changes in the middle ear, or from complex changes along the nerve pathways from the ear to the brain. Certain medical conditions and medications may also play a role.

Radio waves are a type of electromagnetic radiation with wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum longer than infrared light. Radio waves have frequencies as high as 300 GHz to as low as 3 kHz, though some definitions describe waves above 1 or 3 GHz as microwaves, or include waves of any lower frequency. At 300 GHz, the corresponding wavelength is 1 mm (0.039 in), and at 3 kHz is 100 km (62 mi). Like all other electromagnetic waves, they travel at the speed of light. Naturally occurring radio waves are generated by lightning, or by astronomical objects.