Presbycusis: Reduced Hearing
The human ears can no longer hear the sounds lying in the high frequency zone but are audible to humans with aging of people. The more the age, the more difficult it becomes to hear sound of frequencies above 10 kHz although human ear is capable of hearing sounds up to 20 kHz and even a little higher in exceptional cases. The onset of such decline starts from the age of 20 and gets worse with advancing age.
The Reality
The
human ears can no longer hear the sounds lying in
the high frequency zone but are audible to humans
with aging of people. The more the age, the more
difficult it becomes to hear sound of frequencies
above 10 kHz although human ear is capable of
hearing sounds up to 20 kHz and even a little
higher in exceptional cases. The onset of such
decline starts from the age of 20 and gets worse
with advancing age. This condition in humans is
medically termed as ‘Presbycusis’. The reality is
for the aged people the higher frequency sounds
are as good or bad as silence.
Causes
The
causes for presbycusis are many including
hereditary reasons. The faster the cochlea in
human ears ages, faster is the effect of
presbycusis. Also ‘Atherosclerosis’ that causes
depletion of oxygen supply to cochlea speeds up
aging of cochlea and faster presbycusis. Intake
of high proportion of fats with diet increases
the chance of atherosclerosis and consequent
presbycusis. Supply of blood to blood vessels of
cochlea gets reduced with diabetes as well as
smoking which are also causing factors. The
process of presbycusis accelerates if one is
suffering from hypertension or exposed
continuously to noise that stresses out the
cochlea. Aspirin is believed to have effects of
expediting presbycusis.
Symptoms
As
people age the process of presbycusis diminishes
their hearing. The basic symptoms are the fading
of the sounds both in terms of volume and
clarity. Hearing becomes difficult and the words
from other people tend to sound less distinct.
Hearing and differentiating high pitched sounds
especially become more difficult. Even the
slightest noise in the background makes hearing
others inconvenient. Sounds from women’s voices
are of higher frequency and are therefore more
difficult to hear than men’s voices. Presbycusis
is more pronounced for high frequency sounds.
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