Pop a Pill, Save Your Hearing

powlow writes "People who've had their ears damaged by gunfire, jackhammers or punk rock have traditionally had two choices: get hearing aids, or suffer in silence. But a new set of drugs, about to be tested on Marine recruits, is showing promise as a way to protect ears against the din."

Comments

Re:some of us will need this sooner or later

[Anonymous DWord]

One factor that makes concerts more damaging is that consuming alcohol makes your ears more susceptable to damage. Wear your earplugs, folks! If you're that concerned about your appearance, get some flesh-coloured electronic suckers. I know it's badass to go see Motorhead without anything, but when your ears are ringing the next day, you've been through too much.

Re:A prophylactic, not a cure

[netfool]

In In the US Army you have earplugs everywhere you go, its a part of your uniform. They're in a small case that hang from your inner left breast pocket & will have the Insignia or Crest of the unit you're in.

Re:Ringing in my ears...

[fifedrum]

yeah, I'm in the same ringing boat after years marching snare drum in a fife and drum corps. Those old style rope tension drums can get quite loud. My left ear was the one that was damaged by ~20 years of drumming, as the snare drum hangs off the left leg and the sound mostly hits the left ear. Then switched instruments 4 years ago and now my right ear is taking a beating. I started wearing an ear plug in whichever ear I need. Right for fife, left for snare. Anyone who thinks the bass beat at a hot nightclub is deafening hasn't been around a bunch of rudimental drummers.

When one of my daughters screams, all I hear is ZTZTZTZTZTZTZTZTZT.

We have a fan in the bedroom at night to generate noise as much as to circulate air, to cover the ringing. I'm lucky though, at least it isn't painful like many who suffer this condition.

The point: Too many people ignore the need to protect the hearing starting from a young age. This stuff should be tought in school, and every adult that works with kids in loud situations should encourage good hearing protection (or suffer the wrath later!). I do now, I carry 50+ natural colored plugs in my haversack at each event and hand them out, and all our fifers learn to play the instrument with a plug in the right ear.

Re:H.S. Bands are the worst hearing killers

[eggoeater]

I played in HS band...never had a problem with the DB level, although my HS band was relatively small. I can see guys who play snare having problems. Those damn things were insanely loud.
I am also an experienced sound engineer. I remember talking with a sax player in a loud band. He always wore a hat that covered his ears for protection. He said plugs were impossible since the vibration from the mouthpiece went through his teeth straight into his skull and it was impossible to hear his "tone". I played sax in HS band so I knew exactly what he was talking about.
HS bands, (concert or marching), are incredibly dynamic (except for those snares...) compared to a rock band. I agree a HS band can get loud but playing with plugs would be impractical and,IMO, ruin the whole experience (not to mention the music being produced...."oh..was I playing too loud?")

This sig best viewed in a drunken stupor.

Re:Rush Limbaugh

[BluedemonX]

Actually, I know you were trying to be funny, but apparently the Society of Audiologists or whatever are furiously trying to get the word out about drugs like oxycodone, etc. and people who might be chronic heavy users, for legitimate reasons or not.

Apparently, they've been finding that people who take drugs in this class (vicodin, oxycodone, etc) can experience as a side effect sudden and near-total if not total and permanent hearing loss. Research is ongoing as to what's going on, but people who pop a lot of these pills for quite a while end up at risk for sudden deafness.

Naturally, if you're in enough pain that you need that kind of trank to go on living without curling up into a foetal ball and losing the will to live 24hrs a day (like when cancer REALLY takes a hold) you couldn't really give a rat's ass about this possibility.

But somehow I don't buy Rush's story about an auto-immune ear disease 86ing his hearing any more.