Hearing Loss | How loud music affects your ears

The Anatomy of the Ear by Bruce Blaus

Many people listen to music daily, maybe it is country, rock or pop. But did you know, that having your music on very loud settings might be fun, but can ruin your ability to listen to music for the rest of your life. Before we dive into understanding hearing loss, lets understand how you can hear. Sound travels in waves, but to hear them, you have to transfer them into vibrations. First the sound waves travel down the ear canal and reach the eardrum. The eardrum then turns the sound waves into vibrations that travel down the Hammer, to the Anvil and then to the Stirrup. Fun fact, the stirrup is the smallest bone in your body. Then the stirrup sends the vibrations into the Cochlea which is full of liquid. This liquid is sent into movement in waves. This then reaches the hair cells. The hair cells are tiny cells that look like hair, thus, the name hair cells. Each type of hair cell has a different purpose. They each can recognize a different frequency of sound. The small and thick hairs recognize the higher frequency sounds and the thinner and more flexible hairs can recognize the lower frequency. When a sound reaches them they start to move. If the sound is quieter then they move less and if the sound is louder they shake around and move crazily. But if a sound is too loud, they can cause the hair cells to lose the tip of the cell. This causes ringing in the ear. This is because the hair cells leak electric impulses. This is a problem because the electric impulses are sent by the hair cells to the brain to tell it when it is hearing noise and of what frequency, but if it leaks the electric impulses, then the brain gets confused as to what is noise and what is not. Therefore, you can hear a ringing in the ear. This is where hearing loss comes into play. Whereas most of the time, the tips of the hair cells will grow back in a day or two, if you listen to loud noises to often, they won't grow back. Making it harder and harder to hear.

Listening to loud music can add to the growth and beginning of hearing loss because of the damage it causes to the hair cells. These hair cells eventually get so damaged that they don't work as well as they used to. This causes noises to become more muffled. This is because the loud music makes the hair cells lose their tips, then when you come back and listen to it the next day, it damages it more, and more and more until the hair cells can't recover anymore and become useless, this means they can no longer send messages to your brain. So you don't hear parts of the word and noises because quieter because your brain isn't hearing as much, because there are not as many hair cells sending the message. It gets quieter and quieter until you can't hear. So next time you plug in your beats or put on your airpods, take a moment to look at the volume, it may save you some hearing when you are older.