4 ms·

Serious question from the article though…why do Americans account for an outsized percentage of hearing loss sufferers?

hammyhavoc 3y ago
Big country, "louder is better", teens blasting their hearing with in-ears, concerts that leave your ears ringing for days, inadequate safety in the workplace, heavy use of drugs like Viagra (yes, hearing loss and tinnitus are a side effect in some users with high blood pressure). Diet-related hearing loss too as a lot of people eat crap. Probably other reasons too.
- colanderman 3y ago
  Also, stupidly loud cars and motorcycles on city streets, and ineffective vehicle noise laws / enforcement thereof.
- hydrok9 3y ago
  military cases are huge
- hanniabu 3y ago
  > Diet-related hearing loss too as a lot of people eat crap Cases like this where it's caused by another issue are theoretically reversible though, right?
  - hammyhavoc 3y ago
    To a point—potentially, to some extent, maybe. Depending on what you've lacked, for how long, your age—these are all variables. The younger you are, the lower the chances of reversing it as kids need a decent diet, period. How long you've been subsisting of off crap is the important one. There was one highly publicized case about a kid who had gone deaf and blind from bad diet: https://edition.cnn.com/2019/09/03/health/poor-diet-blindness-scli-intl/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2019/09/03/health/poor-diet-blindnes... With all the above said, one of my born-blind friends has started going deaf due to bad diet, and whilst changing his diet hasn't improved his hearing, it has massively improved his overall health and importantly halted the hearing loss at the rate it was going, so it's not been a pointless exercise to make a lifestyle change that'll benefit him in the years to come. Wishing anyone reading this good health for them and theirs.
- justinclift 3y ago
  > heavy use of drugs like Viagra (yes, hearing loss and tinnitus are a side effect in some users with high blood pressure) Oh wow. The Manga/Anime trope of male characters spontaneously bleeding from the nose when they get er... excited might actually have some real world examples. Pretty sure "bleeding from the nose and ears" would kill the mood completely though. For most of the population anyway. ;)
  - hammyhavoc 3y ago
    Anecdote: Sudafed used to actually make my dad's nose bleed, but not just internally, from the external pores of the nose, and from the backs of his hands in terms of pores.
    - justinclift 3y ago
      Heh Heh Heh If it wasn't dangerous, that could be useful in some situations. ie. "I really don't feel like working hard today", so takes some Sudafed and gets on a Zoom/Teams call with work colleagues. ;D Would probably only work once per employer though...
aaron695 3y ago
It's wrong, they are comparing American hearing loss with the world wide disabling hearing loss. 1.5 billion people (nearly 20% of the global population) live with hearing loss; 430 million of them have disabling hearing loss - https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/deafness-and-hearing-loss https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/deafness-an...
newyankee 3y ago
Selection bias, more access to hearing tests, solutions, awareness. In developing countries like mine, we simply have to speak louder.

Big country, "louder is better", teens blasting their hearing with in-ears, concerts that leave your ears ringing for days, inadequate safety in the workplace, heavy use of drugs like Viagra (yes, hearing loss and tinnitus are a side effect in some users with high blood pressure). Diet-related hearing loss too as a lot of people eat crap. Probably other reasons too.

colanderman 3y ago
Also, stupidly loud cars and motorcycles on city streets, and ineffective vehicle noise laws / enforcement thereof.
hydrok9 3y ago
military cases are huge
hanniabu 3y ago
> Diet-related hearing loss too as a lot of people eat crap Cases like this where it's caused by another issue are theoretically reversible though, right?
- hammyhavoc 3y ago
  To a point—potentially, to some extent, maybe. Depending on what you've lacked, for how long, your age—these are all variables. The younger you are, the lower the chances of reversing it as kids need a decent diet, period. How long you've been subsisting of off crap is the important one. There was one highly publicized case about a kid who had gone deaf and blind from bad diet: https://edition.cnn.com/2019/09/03/health/poor-diet-blindness-scli-intl/index.html https://edition.cnn.com/2019/09/03/health/poor-diet-blindnes... With all the above said, one of my born-blind friends has started going deaf due to bad diet, and whilst changing his diet hasn't improved his hearing, it has massively improved his overall health and importantly halted the hearing loss at the rate it was going, so it's not been a pointless exercise to make a lifestyle change that'll benefit him in the years to come. Wishing anyone reading this good health for them and theirs.
justinclift 3y ago
> heavy use of drugs like Viagra (yes, hearing loss and tinnitus are a side effect in some users with high blood pressure) Oh wow. The Manga/Anime trope of male characters spontaneously bleeding from the nose when they get er... excited might actually have some real world examples. Pretty sure "bleeding from the nose and ears" would kill the mood completely though. For most of the population anyway. ;)
- hammyhavoc 3y ago
  Anecdote: Sudafed used to actually make my dad's nose bleed, but not just internally, from the external pores of the nose, and from the backs of his hands in terms of pores.
  - justinclift 3y ago
    Heh Heh Heh If it wasn't dangerous, that could be useful in some situations. ie. "I really don't feel like working hard today", so takes some Sudafed and gets on a Zoom/Teams call with work colleagues. ;D Would probably only work once per employer though...

aaron695 3y ago

It's wrong, they are comparing American hearing loss with the world wide disabling hearing loss. 1.5 billion people (nearly 20% of the global population) live with hearing loss; 430 million of them have disabling hearing loss - https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/deafness-and-hearing-loss https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/deafness-an...

newyankee 3y ago

Selection bias, more access to hearing tests, solutions, awareness. In developing countries like mine, we simply have to speak louder.