Reporting by Brian Crannell
Photo by Getty Images
In recent years, a confluence of factors has shined a spotlight on hearing issues. Perhaps one of the most noticed was the flood of press surrounding the release of the U.S. FDA draft regulations for creating an over-the-counter (OTC) class of hearing aids, which included the oft-cited World Health Organization statistic that more than 1.5 billion people live with some level of hearing loss. According to the WHO, about 70% of these people are not “debilitated.” But that doesn’t mean they are unaffected. For example, many of us added “Zoom fatigue” to our vocabulary during long days of internet meetings as a result of increased listening effort. Whether in the form of our family and friends pulling away from social situations, or whether we ourselves occasionally struggle to follow a group conversation, everyone is touched by hearing loss at some point in their lives.
Hearing loss typically happens when the parts of the ear that bend and respond to sound waves gradually become damaged and less pliable, causing higher-pitched treble sounds to become difficult to pick up on. However, since degradation begins in the treble, it affects the perception of music before causing noticeable difficulty in understanding speech.
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Read the original article on Forbes here.
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