About 35 years ago, I can remember buying my first personal music system – an AIWA personal cassette player – state of the art then, but I suspect only found in museums now.
The very first time I used the personal headphones, listening to Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons, I honestly thought my head would explode with the sensation the music brought to me. Having the music ‘in my head’ was so much more thrilling than listening to it on speakers.
What none of us appreciated then, as we listened to our favourite tracks in glorious isolation, was the damage to our hearing that can be done with overuse of personal headphones. Mammals are the only class of animal that are unable to regrow damaged hair cells; and once they are damaged, hearing loss inevitably follows.
Over the years in which The Tinnitus Clinic has been open, we have seen an increasing number of people under the age of 35 complaining of tinnitus symptoms. It is hard for these younger people to accept that the symptoms, which they are finding tough to deal with, will not simply disappear.
We have great success in helping our patients of course, but wouldn’t it be better if there was more education around hearing and how precious it is?
We recently collaborated with noise action week to produce a report about the dangers of recreational noise.
So if you use personal headphones, or know someone who does…. take a break or turn it down. Once your hearings gone, it’s gone. And what follows might be tinnitus.
