As We Get Older, Why Do We Lose Our Hearing?

As we get older, many struggle with the issue of losing our hearing, leaving us feeling frustrated, confused and handicapped. As with most issues, getting a grasp on why it happens and how to deal with the problem is the best way to carry on. There are innumerable causes that can be tied to presbycusis, hearing loss that is directly attributable to aging, and it can be difficult to peg it to any particular one. Some of these reasons are ones that we can change and others are causes that cannot be controlled.

We may find ourselves losing our hearing if there are members of our family that previously have lost their hearing due to age related reasons. You may find yourself with increased odds of hearing loss if your parents or grandparents experienced the same type of issues when they got older.

You may be more likely to deal with this type of issue if your job or life requires you to spend a lot of time being around loud noises. Similarly, if you listen to music at a high volume for extended periods of time you will increase your risk.

Other issues that can put you at a greater risk for hearing impairment is your age, gender or race. You will rarely find a person under the age of fifty that gets diagnosed with hearing loss that is age related, though there is no set age where it begins. The chances of suffering from hearing impairment increase with age, to some extent, and it is believed that 50% of people over 65 suffer from this issue.

Women are less likely to experience hearing issues that are blamed on age when compared to men. The variance between the sexes increases notably with age, and according to studies conducted by the National Academy on Aging Society 60% of all people that have hearing impairment are men.

Race may also provide a crucial link as whites have a higher risk than do similarly aged blacks and the gap only increases with age. If you look at the population of those that deal with being hearing impaired, 91% of them are Caucasian, according to the National Academy on Aging Society.

What brings about the hearing loss are minute and subtle alterations that occur over time in the mechanics of the inner ear. One of the more frequent alterations that may occur is in the part of the inner ear that allows us to hear high-pitch frequencies, the cochlea. The cochlea functions by having the minuscule hairs within it gather vibrations and transforming them into nerve impulses that our brains can understand. We lose some of these hairs and nerve endings as we get older, which is very normal. This hearing loss is irreversible because the hairs will never grow back once they are lost.

The acoustic nerve may get damaged over time, and the cochlea also becomes less flexible, both making presbycusis more likely.

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