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Hearing Loss - Have Rock bands Contributed?

How old are you? Did you listen to Rock bands When you Were Younger?

Read through this band list :

60's -  Beatles, Black Sabbath, Jimmie Hendrix, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones

70's - Aerosmith, Allman Brothers, Black Sabbath, Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Jimmie Hendrix,  Led Zeppelin, MC5, Motorhead, Pink Floyd, Rolling Stones, The Who

80's - AC/DC, Aerosmith, Alice Cooper, Allman Brothers, Anthrax, Greatful Dead, Guns 'N Roses, Metallica, Megadeth, Nirvana, Pink Floyd, Prong, Queen, Rolling Stones, Sex Pistols, Slayer, Testament, Van Halen, Twisted Sister, The Who, Whitesnake.

90's - Aerosmith, Cannibal Corpse, Crytopsy, Deicide, Distemper, Entombed, Greatful Dead, Guns 'N Roses, Hypocricy, Incantation, Massacra, Metallica, Megadeth, Nirvana, Pantera, Possessed, Queen,  Rolling Stones,  Sinister,  Suffocation, Tool, Vader, Whitesnake, and a whole bunch of others.

2000 - Red Hot Chili Peppers, Smashing Pumpkins, Nine Inch Nails, Rolling Stones (I think they are still alive in wheelchairs) + too many to list

If I have missed some of your favorite loud bands, please forgive me.

Now, if you can remember, try to count the number of times you did the following:

1. Listened to a friend's album of any of these bands with the stereo cranked up. How many times?
2. Bought the album, and listened to any of these bands with the stereo cranked up. How many times?
3. Shoplifted the album and listened to any of these bands with the stereo cranked up. How many times?
4. Went to a concert and was: (choose one) sober as a judge, drinking, absolutely drunk, tokeing just a little, stoned and/or absolutely tripping. How many times? (Deadheads don't count)
5. Downloaded any of these bands from Napster/ Grokster/Kazaa and cranked up the PC or ripped a CD to listen. How many times?
6. Downloaded any of these bands from Itunes onto your IPOD and cranked up the sound. How many times?
7. Sat in your/your friend's car rigged with all of Circuit City's speaker and amp U.S. inventory and cranked up the sound till the bass cut your breath off. How many times?
8. Stole a car rigged with all of Circuit City's speaker and amp inventory and cranked up the sound till the bass cut your breath off. How many times?

Add them all up. If your answer is "3 or More", you absolutely have a hearing loss. Maybe a little, maybe a lot. But you have a hearing loss. I'm sorry if you also happen to be brain-fried or in jail.

Most singers and performers nowadays wear ear monitors to keep down the levels of sound they absorb on the stage while performing. They look like hearing aids but they’re not. They have wires attached to them, so that each musician has his or her own loudspeaker made for the ear, and they are able to precisely control how loud it is in their ear

OK, So you went to the symphony orchestra Instead

You're not off the hook even if you went to symphonies. A study was done in 1991 where members of the the Chicago Symphony were given an audiology exam. The results? The test results found more than 50 per cent of the musicians had significant hearing loss.

You Need Your Hairs!

You only have 3,500 teeny hairs in your inner ear that translate sounds into chemical and electricity messages for the brain. Kill those and you are stone deaf. Pete Townsend of The Who is. Crank up the IPOD/stereo/PC to more than 120 decibels, and those hairs start to die off. You can never get them back. You may have killed a few, or you could have taken a lawn mower to them and already be profoundly deaf. At the same time you could be faking your deafness with close family and friends (You may think you have them fooled but you don't). Or, you could have bitten the bullet and bought a hearing aid. Congratulations if you did. You are one of only 25% of the hard of hearing population who are smart enough to have done it. In the USA there are over 30 million hard of hearing persons - 10% of the population, But only about 8 million of them are wearing a hearing aid. What are the other 27,000,000 hard of hearing people doing? Doh!?

Is Hearing Loss An Epidemic?

Is a disorder that affects 10% of the population an epidemic? Most epidemiologists at the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) would say "yes". Is there a cure? No, but you can alleviate the damage that has been done so far.  If you still have all or some reasonable part of your hearing, keep the volume control down below 90 decibels. If you are already cranking up the sound on the TV to listen to the dialogue, or your favorite words are "Whaaa?" "What did you say?" " Speak louder, I can't hear you!"  then do yourself and your family a big favor. Get a hearing aid. Lose the vanity. Tell everyone it's a new Bluetooth cell phone model.

Phil Wyatt

Phil Wyatt is the CEO of Hearing Central LLC, and sells hearing aids on the Internet at www.hearingcentral.com. He can be reached at phil@hearingcentral.com.