Photo credit: Kevin Bidwell from Pexels
by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition
Well, I’m exaggerating. A resident physician and a medical student aren’t babies, but they are still in training. Despite this, Michael Denham and Alexander Chern give sound advice about protecting your hearing in an Op-Ed in The New York Daily News.
The interesting point they make is that many if not most of us have gotten used to wearing masks to protect ourselves from COVID-19 infection, and we should learn from that in terms of protecting our ears from auditory damage.
They focus on those attending loud concerts, and mention interesting public health efforts in the Netherlands, but their advice might also apply to subway riders in New York City, and really to anyone anywhere.
As they correctly note, the only current treatments for hearing loss are amplification (hearing aids and cochlear implants), which are poor and expensive substitutes for well-preserved natural hearing.
So protect your hearing every day. Because if it sounds loud, it’s too loud, and your hearing is at risk.
