How can headphones affect your hearing

But playing loud music so close to your eardrums can cause permanent hearing loss. The ear is made up of three parts that work together to process sounds: the outer ear, the middle ear, and the inner ear.

Part of the inner ear, called the cochlea, contains tiny hair cells. These hair cells help send sound messages to the brain. Loud noise can damage the hair cells. When this happens, the cochlea can't relay sound messages to the brain as well. Unlike damage to other parts of your body, inner ear damage never heals.

Over time, as more and more hair cells get damaged, your hearing will get worse and worse. Noise-induced hearing loss from using earbuds usually takes a while. So, many people don't know they have a problem until it's too late. Teach your children NOT to turn up the volume in loud places.

Temporary symptoms mean they might return and become permanent. People survived for millennia without a personal sound track for their lives and you can too. Read a book. Look out the window. Listen to the birds. Talk to your seat mate. You might find that things will be fine. Temma Ehrenfeld is an award-winning journalist who covers psychology and health. Her work has appeared in major newspapers, magazines and websites.

You can find more of her writing at her Psychology Today blog, Open Gently. Read more about Temma. Need a hearing test but not sure which clinic to choose? Call for help setting up a hearing test appointment. Side Menu. Assistive listening devices Amplified phones Captioned phones Hearing aid compatible phones TV hearing aid and listening devices FM systems Alerting devices.

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Back to Healthy body. Hearing loss cannot always be prevented — sometimes it's just part of getting older. But hearing loss due to exposure to loud noises is completely avoidable. There are some simple things you can do to help stop loud noises from permanently damaging your hearing, no matter how old you are. The best way to avoid noise-induced hearing loss is to keep away from loud noise as much as you can. Noise levels are measured in decibels dB : the higher the number, the louder the noise.

Any sound over 85dB can be harmful, especially if you're exposed to it for a long time. You can get smartphone apps that measure noise levels, but make sure they're set up calibrated properly to get a more accurate reading.

Listening to loud music through earphones and headphones is one of the biggest dangers to your hearing. Even just turning down the volume a little bit can make a big difference to your risk of hearing damage.

Cranking up your earbuds as you listen to music or a podcast might be your favorite form of self-care. According to recent analysis , high levels of noise can affect hearing loss in the future. The World Health Organization WHO estimates that around 50 percent of people ages 12 to 35 are at risk of hearing loss due to prolonged and excessive exposure to loud sounds, such as music heard through personal audio devices.

Daniel Fink , board chair of the Quiet Coalition, told Healthline. He compares this misunderstanding to the misconception that deep wrinkles and skin pigmentation are part of normal aging, whereas they largely represent solar or UV damage. Fink and audiologist Jan Mayes reviewed and integrated information from multiple articles in multiple disciplines to form conclusions about personal audio system usage. A key takeaway was that people who use personal audio systems also called personal listening devices or music players linked to headphones or earbuds — so the content can be heard without disturbing others — are damaging their hearing.

In addition to losing some ability to communicate, hearing loss has been connected to cognitive decline. According to a study , compared to people without hearing loss, those who had hearing loss were at risk for developing dementia in the following ways:. Mary L. Carson , Au.

D, licensed clinical audiologist, said research also shows that individuals with untreated hearing loss, over time, are at a higher risk for dementia. She added that there are some promising studies that show that treating hearing loss with hearing aids reduces the risk of cognitive decline and dementia.