Baby Boornes and Early Hearing Loss
Think of hearing loss and it may conjure up the image of an aged grandparent leaning forward, cupping a hand behind one ear and shouting: "What did you say?" While gradual loss of hearing is a common occurrence as we pile up the birthdays, it's no longer an affliction only of those in their senior years. Baby boomers are also beginning to join the ranks of the hard of hearing - and they don't like it one bit.
"Hearing loss is something that naturally happens as you grow older, people thinking older meaning age 80-plus," says Richard Bowring, Senior Program Manager for the Hearing Foundation of Canada. "Now baby boomers who are 50 are thinking, "Well, I don't feel old. I don't look old. Therefore these things that happen to old people shouldn't be happening to me until I'm 80,"" says Bowring, "So they don't want to admit that they have a hearing loss."
Age-related hearing loss, or presbycusis, occurs when the roughly 15,000 hair cells in the cochlea of the inner ear are no longer as good as they once were at their job: translating sound vibrations into signals that are transmitted to the brain. Signs that one's sound sense is waning include the belief that people are mumbling, needing people to repeat themselves and having others complain that one has the TV or radio volume deafeningly high.
"It normally starts happening around 60 years of age," notes Bowring. "It's simply a matter that the hair cells in the cochlea have gone through their lifetime and they're being worn down, as it were." A recent U.S. survey suggests there is 26 per cent more hearing loss among Americans now aged 46 to 64, compared with their parents' generation. "What has happened is that with baby boomers doing the whole rock 'n' roll thing - going to concerts and doing all the loud things they love to do, they have progressively damaged the hair cells in the cochlea, so that the hair cells have died earlier," Bowring says. "So they are getting hearing loss earlier. And in fact, it has been documented that the age has dropped around 20 years, so around the 40-year-old mark."
Losing one's hearing acuity in what many would consider the prime of life can be a terrible blow. Reluctance to address hearing loss can also cause havoc in relations with family and friends, as well as leading to personal distress, says Rex Banks, chief audiologist at the Canadian Hearing Society "Ultimately, it can lead to depression, isolation, frustration. You can experience anxiety over communicating because you know it's going to be a stressful situation."
But what stops many people from getting help - once they admit they have a hearing problem - is the thought of wearing a hearing aid or another form of assistive hearing device. For those who want to cover their ears at any suggestion that they need a hearing aid, audiologists say we've come a long way from the ear trumpet and the more recent clunky, pinky-beige contraptions that hooked over the ear. Manufacturers have made hearing devices smaller, less obtrusive and customized to suit individual clients. "Not only are the hearing aids better in what they can pick up in sound and distance, but they also are able to be directionally angled," explains Bowring. Ironically, it is the potential market of the economically powerful boomer generation that has led to advances in hearing aid technology, as manufacturers and retailers anticipate the next huge wave of customers.