Aging Nation Faces Growing Hearing Loss

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The New York Times

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February 17, 2007

Aging Nation Faces Growing Hearing Loss

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 4:12 p.m. ET

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- An aging U.S. population faces a looming crisis in hearing loss, researchers said Saturday. Some research holds promise, but much is in the early stages.

By 2050, there could be as many as 50 million people in the United States with impaired hearing, Steven Greenberg of Silicon Speech in Santa Venetia, Calif., told the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Hearing loss results in social and psychological isolation, ''which makes their life hell,'' Greenberg said.

Thanks to loud music and a generally noisy environment, young people have a rate of impaired hearing 2 1/2 times that of their parents and grandparents, he said.

Stefan Heller of Stanford University said research in restoring damaged hearing cells ''is very much at the beginning and it's still a long, long road.''

Inner and outer hair cells in the ear pick up sound vibrations and send them to the brain. Damage to outer cells causes hearing impairment which can be helped by hearing aides, he said. Damage to the inner cells cannot be repaired and causes deafness.

Heller said ear stem cells have been isolated in laboratory work and grown into cells that resembled hair cells.

''They're not perfect,'' he said. When placed in the ear of chicken embryos, most of the cells died. A few survived and were implanted into the inner ear. The next step, he said, is to try the experiment in mice.

Gene therapy is being tested in an effort to produce more hair cells in the ear. The result so far has been a type of hybrid cells and researchers are unsure whether they can get these cells to survive.

Heller said scientists in Japan are experimenting with drugs that seem to help spur the growth of hearing cells in young mice. The results in older mice are far less promising.

There seems to be something not yet understood that prevents new cell development in the inner ear. This is an area where cancer is not known to occur, he said, and an indication that something prevents cell development.

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On the net:

American Association for the Advancement of Science:

http://www.aaas.org/

[BruceH]

Huh? What was that?

[7/4]

Eh?

[Chuck Nessa]

Not as important as the listening loss.

[alocispepraluger102]

Not as important as the listening loss.

amen!

... those not able to hear or tolerate beautiful moments of silence or near silence, musically and otherwise, have a deafness, as well.

[connoisseur series500]

Not as important as the listening loss.

[catesta]

Thanks to loud music and a generally noisy environment, young people have a rate of impaired hearing 2 1/2 times that of their parents and grandparents, he said.

Just one more reason to invent a time machine.

[Jazzmoose]

You people joke, but I'm sure regretting those hours laying on the floor stoned with my head between the speakers listening to Meddle at a ridiculously high volume. Of course, if I had any idea I'd be staring fifty in the face one day...

[Tom Storer]

Tell me about it. A hearing check recently revealed that I have lost more hearing in the upper registers than my fiftyish age would normally explain. The doc told me to give up the iPod before it's too late, so I did. My wife said, "You've been sticking those things in your ears for twenty-five years. You're surprised?" When she put it like that, I was surprised. But it's true, ever since cassette Walkman days I've been using these things. The chickens have come home to roost. I can almost hear them faintly clucking.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

Tell me about it. A hearing check recently revealed that I have lost more hearing in the upper registers than my fiftyish age would normally explain. The doc told me to give up the iPod before it's too late, so I did. My wife said, "You've been sticking those things in your ears for twenty-five years. You're surprised?" When she put it like that, I was surprised. But it's true, ever since cassette Walkman days I've been using these things. The chickens have come home to roost. I can almost hear them faintly clucking.

Hm - I stick things in my ears, too. Don't think I'll bother to have a test (yet).

MG

[Scott Dolan]

Kids these days with their 6 million watt car system that are powerful enough to stop the human heart will surely be deaf before they're 30.

I wonder what kind of spl's most of those stereos are putting out.

[Dave Garrett]

Kids these days with their 6 million watt car system that are powerful enough to stop the human heart will surely be deaf before they're 30.

I wonder what kind of spl's most of those stereos are putting out.

Wikipedia entry for dB drag racing

[Jazzmoose]

Wikipedia entry for dB drag racing

I don't know if it was the music or the volume, but a 70's Ted Nugent concert was louder than the threshold of pain...

[Dan Gould]

Kids these days with their 6 million watt car system that are powerful enough to stop the human heart will surely be deaf before they're 30.

My only comfort when one of the mo-fos is stopped next to me at a light or drives down the street just as I am starting to fall asleep.

I've dealt with hearing loss most of my life (it started around the age of 5) and I am probably lucky I got out of the radio biz and stopped spending so much time with headphones on. I'd probably be completely deaf now if I'd used the WalkMan the way Tom has.

And if I couldn't hear the music I love, I seriously doubt I'd have a lot of interest in living.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

And if I couldn't hear the music I love, I seriously doubt I'd have a lot of interest in living.

Indeed.

MG