MP3 players could turn you deaf

If you frequent discos, have earphones plugged to MP3 players most of the time, and listen to loud music, you are possibly heading towards deafness.

Medical research conducted by doctors in Belgium and published
in the Archives of Otolaryngology — Head & Neck Surgery, has found that the younger generation’s favourite pass-time — loud music and MP3 players — can cause irreparable damage to hearing. The researchers found that using portable music devices causes temporary changes in hearing sensitivity, having a potential for permanent hearing loss.

Incidentally, there has been a sharp increase in hearing problems among teenagers in India over the last decade, which
ENT specialists mainly attribute to loud music.

“While there is a sharp rise in noise level in general in the environment, it is also a fact that youngsters who frequent discos more or hear loud music report more hearing problems,” said Dr JM Hans, ENT specialist to prime minister Manmohan Singh, and chairman of the department of ENT at Delhi’s BL Kapoor hospital.

“Loud music and constant listening to portable devices leads to tinnitus (degeneration of auditory sensory cells or hair cells) and reaches the stage of hearing loss. In many cases, surgery is the only way out,” Hans said.

“Excessive noise exposure can lead to metabolic and/or mechanical effects, resulting in alterations of the structural elements of the organ of corti (the inner ear organ in mammals that contains auditory sensory cells or hair cells). The primary damage is concentrated on the outer hair cells, which are more vulnerable to acoustic over-stimulation than inner hair cells,” the authors of the study wrote in the journal.

Twenty-one participants were exposed to pop/rock music, using two types of headphones at multiple preset settings of an MP3 player.