Photo credit: ReSound licensed under CC BY 3.0
by Daniel Fink, MD, Chair, The Quiet Coalition
The New York Times asked recently why hearing aids are so expensive. They should have stepped back and asked a more important question: What’s better than a cheap hearing aid?
A: Preserved natural hearing.
As a paper I presented at the 12th Congress of the International Commission on the Biological Effects of Noise discussed, the scientific evidence suggests that significant hearing loss (25-40 decibel hearing loss) is probably not part of normal aging, but is actually noise-induced hearing loss in the vast majority of cases. Research supporting this conclusion includes studies of hearing done in populations not exposed to noise, different rates of hearing loss in males vs. females, decades of occupational studies correlating increased noise exposure with greater hearing loss, and recent laboratory experiments showing the molecular, genetic, and sub-cellular structural mechanisms by which noise damages the auditory system.
If you protect your hearing now–by avoiding noise exposure or using hearing protection (ear plugs and ear muffs) if you can’t–you shouldn’t need a hearing aid in the future.
Preserved natural hearing…it’s better than a cheap hearing aid!
