A piece of advice to youngsters who are crazy about new gadgets listening to music using earphones. One can understand the advantage of using a earphone is not to disturb others while they listen to music but at the same time one has to understand that sound very near to ear can cause deafness. I am by profession an MT (medical transcriptionist) who uses headphone at least for 8 hours a day and I have no other option but I take precautions not to damage my ear. I listen only to different voices and not music so in a way I am safe, but when it comes to music one tends to get so much involved that they want to listen to finest music tones and tend to increase the volume without realizing the damage it can cause to the ears.
To understand this better, we have to know how sound is transferred. The external sound touches the eardrum and causes it to vibrate, which in turn causes three small bones in the middle ear to vibrate and amplify the sound. These vibrations reach the cochlea in the inner ear. This cochlea is filled with fluid that converts the frequency into electrical signals reaching the brain. During this process hair cells in the outer cochlea when exposed to loud sound may lose their function. They can regain the function, but if they are overexposed they permanently lose their function and may cause deafness. This is all technical aspects.
We have seen a recent movie, in which the hero bangs on the ears of the villain and due to that affect the villain loses his sound function for a while and then regains. This is due to over vibration of hair-like cells in the ear, which stop vibrating and send no signals to brain. The same bang can happen on your ears also if your ears are over exposed without caution.
In earlier days, we had never seen so many gadgets at such a low price, but now a days we are getting gadgets at a low price and the sound is also loud and harsh. So, please youngsters when you listen to music using earphones next time take care, your ears are at the receiving end, you may lose your sound function.
Precautions:
Use low volume.
If possible listen to music with hands-free instead of headphones. The lesser the headphone the more safer it is.
Give breaks after half an hour or one hour of listening.
Put some aloe vera drops in your ear while sleeping at night. It nourishes your ear.
Happy Listening!!!
