Beating on the ears: why teenagers began to lose their hearing faster
Today, more than 1.5 billion people in the world face hearing loss, according to WHO statistics. Of these, about 430 million have a disabling degree of hearing loss. The forecasts are disappointing: by 2050, one in four people on the planet will experience hearing problems. What affects the ability to hear, why it is harmful to "pull your ear" while spying on your neighbors, and how headphones harm your health — in the Izvestia article.
Sticks in the ears
Doctors are observing an alarming trend — the rejuvenation of hearing loss, Nikita Dikopoltsev, an audiologist and founder of auditory prosthetics centers, noted in an interview with Izvestia.
"Previously, people mostly sought help after the age of 60, but now patients aged 25-30 are increasingly coming with audiograms typical of 65—year-olds," he comments. — According to our statistics, 14% of the total number of such patients in 2025.
The expert believes that the cause of this problem is the irreversible death of cochlear receptors, the hair cells of a part of the inner ear (the so—called cochlea).
— The hair inside the ear is like a very fragile "stalk" of a glass wand, — explains the specialist. — The calm sound makes it vibrate pleasantly. But the constant noise (in the subway, in headphones) actually strikes this "wand". First, "microcracks" appear, and the sound becomes muffled. And when the "wand" breaks, it cannot be restored. The more such "stems" are broken, the quieter the world is for you.
According to doctors, the main factors of death of cochlear receptors are the constant use of headphones without noise cancellation, and often without interruptions, including during sleep, as well as increased background noise in everyday life: subway, noisy streets, clubs.
— It is worth mentioning about the youth separately. According to WHO and a study published in BMJ Global Health, more than 1 billion young people between the ages of 12 and 35 may be at risk of hearing loss due to unsafe use of headphones and visits to noisy entertainment venues, Dikopoltsev cites statistics.
The doctor considers accelerated noise—type hearing loss to be the main problem of underage patients - it occurs in children due to uncontrolled use of gadgets.
— Children and teenagers often fall asleep with music or videos in their in-ear headphones. There are many studies confirming that most even "children's" headphones are not safe, as their power can reach 85-90 dB, the expert explains. — The auditory hair cells do not rest during sleep. Continuous exposure to background noise of 40-50 dB for six to eight hours triggers the process of apoptosis, the programmed death of these cells. The process develops gradually and often remains unnoticeable, but the consequences can be irreversible.
According to the audiologist, in addition to noise injury, children who constantly close the ear canal with an earphone can develop inflammatory diseases — natural ventilation is disrupted, a "greenhouse effect" and conditions for bacterial growth are created.
— Any headphones with prolonged use can lead to hearing loss, but the worst option is plug—in in-ear headphones, — warns Svetlana Scissitskaya, Candidate of Medical Sciences, otorhinolaryngologist at the children's clinic "Be Healthy" on Sushchevsky Val. — They actually push sulfur deeper into the ear canal and provoke the formation of sulfur plugs. In addition, earplugs can injure the skin of the ear canal and cause inflammation in the form of boils or otitis externa.
In addition to the newfangled cause of hearing loss in children, the interlocutor of Izvestia also recalls another common factor — middle ear infections (otitis media). According to the doctor, it is necessary to sound the alarm when the child starts asking more often than usual, or "freezes", rather than immediately starting to complete the tasks of the parents and asks to read the book louder. You can also ask a toddler or teenager from the next room to bring something and observe the reaction. If you have the slightest suspicion, you should consult an ENT doctor and have your hearing checked.
To avoid possible problems, the otorhinolaryngologist advises that after showering or bathing in a pond, children's ears should be dried with a towel. But you do not need to plug the ear canals with cotton swabs before bathing babies. It is enough to dry the ears with a towel and a cotton flagellum, but not with chopsticks, says Scissor. After that, you need to put a cap on the baby for 20-30 minutes and make sure that the child is not in a draft.
At the same time, not only a child can be "blown into the ears", as representatives of the older generation are afraid of.
— The ear is an open organ that communicates with the air environment. If water got into the ear canals in the morning while shampooing, and after that the person went outside without a hat and cold air got into his ears, then hypothermia and inflammation cannot be avoided, the expert explains.
Alzheimer's disease risk
Hearing is related to brain function and affects cognitive functions, memory, and the ability to analyze information. This is why it is especially important to "take care of your ears" from childhood, Nikita Dikopoltsev emphasizes.
— Hearing is the entrance gate for the brain. The ear only transmits the signal, but it is the brain that hears and interprets it. This connection is crucial for cognitive health. In my practice, I often emphasize that hearing loss is not just about the fact that a person has stopped distinguishing sounds. It's about accelerated cognitive aging," he notes.
If the brain constantly receives distorted or muffled sound, it is forced to spend enormous resources just to guess what it is about, the expert believes. This wastes the resources that memory, analysis, attention, and reaction control need. As a result, operational memory deteriorates (the brain does not save what it has not heard), and the speed of information processing decreases.
—Scientific research and clinical practice show a direct link between hearing loss and the risk of dementia,— continues Dikopoltsev. — In people with uncompensated hearing loss, the risk of cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease increases, according to various data, from two to five times.
Many people often pay attention to the fact that most people have a conditionally working ear, which is more actively involved in the analysis of meaningful information. Some people prefer to hold the phone to their right ear, while others prefer to hold it to their left ear. This does not impair the function of the second ear, but reflects the different areas of responsibility of the brain, says the audiologist. Normally, both ears hear equally well, but the brain can interpret incoming information in different ways. This is a question from the field of neurophysiology.
— It's not necessarily that one ear hears better physically, although everyone has a slight asymmetry in hearing thresholds. The main thing here is the functional asymmetry of the cerebral hemispheres," explains the editorial interlocutor. — The sound coming into the right ear is processed mainly by the left hemisphere, and the sound from the left ear is processed by the right hemisphere. Therefore, there is a so-called right ear advantage for the perception of speech and verbal information.
Thus, if we need to quickly understand a complex verbal instruction, we intuitively substitute our right ear. And when perceiving music or natural sounds, the left ear can play a leading role, since the signal goes to the "musical" right hemisphere.
What kind of music hits your ears
The main impact falls on the hearing organs of music lovers — both professionals and those who "turn on the cue balls" at full volume in headphones or in a car. There are even studies conducted on the risks posed to the ears by different musical genres, but according to observations, there is no particular difference between the directions. It is the constant exposure to noise and the lack of protection that matter, says Nikita Dikopoltsev. From his point of view, there are no safe genres of music. Rock, classical, rap or jazz are not harmful in themselves — the risk is created by the volume and duration of exposure.
— Loud wind instruments can have the same effect on hearing as a heavy guitar or bass. The main thing is not the style of music, but the observance of basic listening rules," the audiologist emphasizes. — If we're talking about musicians, then it's more about protection. For example, rock musicians often just "don't accept" and "it's not cool" to wear noise-canceling headphones.
The expert draws attention to the WHO recommendations on hearing protection:
— Volume. The safe maximum is 75-80 dB. This is about 50-60% of the maximum volume scale of the smartphone. With headphones, the music should not block out the sounds of the outside world. If the person sitting next to you is listening to music from your headphones, the volume is dangerously high.
— The time. You can use headphones at the maximum allowable volume for no more than one hour a day. If the volume is lower, the total time with pauses should not exceed four to five hours per day.
— Rest. It is mandatory to take a break for 15 minutes every 45-60 minutes so that the hair cells can regain their sensitivity.
The bad news for those who like to eavesdrop on other people's conversations is that the ear, as an anatomical structure, does not become hypersensitive due to the fact that a person diligently listens to whispers.
— Listening to someone else's speech may be true from the point of view of attention training, but not in the sense of physically improving the senses, — explains Dikopoltsev. — Adaptation occurs at the brain level. When a person strains their ears, the brain triggers noise filtering mechanisms and amplifies the desired signal. This is exactly the process of attention management.
The audiologist notes that a bad habit has a downside: pathological "listening", or hyperacusis. In some conditions, the brain begins to perceive ordinary sounds as painfully loud.
— So you shouldn't set yourself up for eavesdropping.: this leads to fatigue of the nervous system, but not to hearing training," the audiologist summarizes.
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