Protect Your Hearing!

OUR ability to hear is a gift to be treasured. As we age, though, our hearing progressively diminishes. Modern society, with the many and varied sounds and noises it generates seems to have accelerated this process. A  senior scientists at the Central Institute for the Deaf, in St. Louis Missouri, U.S.A. noted:  "About 75 percent of hearing loss in the typical American is caused not by the aging process alone but by what you've done to your ears throughout your lifetime." 

Intense, brief exposure to loud sounds can be harmful to the sensitive structure in the inner ear. More often, though, hearing loss is a result of "the cumulative activities," said hearing specialists Dr. Margaret Cheesman.  What can you do to protect your hearing?  To find the answer, it is helpful to know something aobut how your sense of hearing functions. 

Next time: The Sounds We Hear

From the Awake!  magazine, 2002