A lot of people tend to think of hearing loss as something that only impacts elderly individuals. However, the truth is that hearing loss can affect people of all ages. This is because it is not just brought on by any single thing. Instead, hearing loss is something that often occurs as a result of a variety of possible conditions, including overexposure to noises that are loud enough to cause damage to the inner ear components.
But since old age is still something that tends to play a large role in most cases of hearing loss, it should not be surprising that a lot of the individuals at a veteran’s medical center in Los Angeles suffer from some degree of hearing loss. In fact, it is even more common amongst the individuals at any VA medical center in Los Angeles as compared to the average senior community due to the fact that these individuals have often had a fair amount of exposure to guns. Since these are incredibly loud, even with sufficient hearing protection, they have the possibility of damaging hearing over time.
But regardless of whether or not someone is VA housing in Los Angeles or is around guns a lot, it is still valuable for someone to know about the various early warning signs of hearing loss. By being able to identify these symptoms, it lets them know where or not they are suffering from it and need to seek some family military medical support in California in order to try and control it before it gets worse. To make this easier, here is a list of the most common early warning signs that someone is experiencing some degree of permanent hearing loss.
It Becomes Hard to Distinguish Consonants
Believe it or not, different letters and sounds within the alphabet will be spoken at a different frequency. Generally speaking, consonant sounds will be communicated using a slightly higher frequency, which can be difficult for someone to understand if they have suffered hearing loss.
This is because the frequencies that someone can clearly understand will begin to slowly lower over time as the age-related hearing loss begins to take effect. This can cause a fairly big problem even within the average conversation since consonants account for letters like S, F, V, K, and P, as well as certain sounds like Sh and Th. Considering how often these are used at the beginning of words, it can pose a fairly significant challenge to someone who suffers from hearing loss.
Therefore, if someone starts to notice that they are no longer easily able to differentiate between words like “sight” and “fight”, then this is something that they should make sure to closely monitor. This will help them make sure that it is not progressively getting worse or just the first of multiple symptoms indicating that they are suffering from hearing loss.
The Average Day Seems Less Noisy
There are a ton of sounds that someone is exposed to on a daily basis. In fact, there are so many of them that the majority of these sounds don’t even stand out to someone. However, once they start to disappear, it will suddenly make a big difference in their day to day experience.
For example, sounds like the ticking of a clock or the chirping of birds are sounds that are not only common but also peaceful to some people. But softer sounds like this, as well as those sounds that are at a higher frequency, will be some of the first sounds to slowly disappear as someone begins to experience worse hearing loss.
So it is important for someone to realize when their daily outings seem to be getting progressively quieter. It isn’t actually going to be the world becoming less noisy but will instead be the fact that the individual is no longer to hear all of the sounds that they once could.
Hearing Conversations in Crowded Locations Becomes Increasingly Difficult
While hearing someone speak in a location with a lot of other noisy people is obviously going to be harder than listening to them in a completely silent room, there is a point where it becomes more difficult than it should be. When this occurs, it is often a sign that someone is experiencing higher levels of hearing loss and will need to get this checked out right away.
As the frequency at which someone can hear suddenly becomes lower, it means that sounds will begin to blend together more. Therefore, it won’t be the fact that their ears are not able to pick up what their companion is talking about but rather a situation that they are having trouble differentiating it from the other countless noises that their ears are picking up in the surrounding area.
There is Frequent Ringing in the Ears
The majority of people have heard that when the ears experience a high-pitched ringing, it is a sign that ear hairs are permanently dying. While this is not entirely correct, it does indicate that there is an issue with the ears. In fact, it is a condition called tinnitus and is quite common among individuals of any age, although elderly people experience it at higher levels.
The causes of tinnitus can be from a couple of different sources. One possibility is that it is the result of age-related hearing loss. However, younger people can also experience it if they have recently exposed themselves to extremely loud noise. Either way, it will manifest in the form of a constant ringing in the ears, which can often be very distracting to anyone experiencing it.
While scientists don’t fully know why the ears translate this damage in the form of constant ringing, it is generally believed that it is the result of the brain attempting to try and account for the frequencies that it is no longer able to process. So the more that this happens, the more severe the hearing loss usually is.
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