It’s a typical image of an elderly person, the old guy with his hand cupped over his ear saying “Speak up, I can’t hear you lad!” But not all folks lose their hearing merely from aging. Could this be due to genetics?
Neurotologists at the House Ear Clinic in Los Angeles, CA have identified a gene that is responsible for glutamate regulation, which may be one cause of hearing loss in the elderly. Glutamate, apparently, is a necessary neurotransmitter in the ear, but some people produce too much glutamate and this then damages sensory cells and neurons in the ear causing hearing loss.
According to the U.S. News Article, this discovery may lead to a drug that can improve hearing in this select group of individuals, but more studies are needed. The article did point out that while we may not be able to change a genetic predisposition to hearing loss, there are plenty of things we can do to limit hearing damage from a more common cause of hearing loss: noise damage.
One suggestion was to make sure you wear earplugs while mowing the lawn. From past blogs, you know that a lawnmower sound can be more than 90 decibels, which can cause hearing damage in a short amount of time. Especially if you use noisy equipment on a daily basis, you should be sure to protect your ears from hearing damage.
It’s more than obvious that marksman need to wear shooting earplugs that block dangerous decibels. A blast from a shotgun, as the article confirms, can reach decibels of 165! I mean, think about the distance between your ear and a gun when you aim and shoot!
Even though the health of our elderly has probably improved in general over the last few decades, I wonder what the future holds for our health when it comes to our ears? Today’s world has SO many devices that require the use of earphones or earbuds. So many bleeps, blips and sounds from technological advances and music from portable music devices can’t be good for our future hearing ability!
If the majority of us would like to hear in the future, I think it’s imperative that we take measures to protect our ears while we still can through the use of music earplugs, specialized earphones and in some cases, just turning the volume on mute. If we don’t, everything may be on mute by the time we reach our 60s!
Cheers!
Meghan