1 00:00:01,920 --> 00:00:06,520 Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff production of I Heart Radio. Hey 2 00:00:06,559 --> 00:00:09,280 Speaker 1: brain Stuff, I'm Lauren Vogelbaum and as I record this, 3 00:00:09,360 --> 00:00:12,760 Speaker 1: we're in the throes of music festival season. These multi 4 00:00:12,840 --> 00:00:15,880 Speaker 1: day concert art debauchery parties can be a blast, but 5 00:00:16,040 --> 00:00:17,959 Speaker 1: research shows that they can also be a bummer for 6 00:00:18,120 --> 00:00:21,920 Speaker 1: your ears. The sheer length of some music festivals, for example, 7 00:00:21,960 --> 00:00:24,680 Speaker 1: each weekend of Coachella runs three days with ten plus 8 00:00:24,720 --> 00:00:27,520 Speaker 1: hours of music every day, a plus the widespread use 9 00:00:27,520 --> 00:00:30,520 Speaker 1: of alcohol and drugs can inflict serious damage on your hearing, 10 00:00:30,560 --> 00:00:35,040 Speaker 1: with potentially permanent consequences. We spoke with Marshall Chasen, an 11 00:00:35,040 --> 00:00:38,880 Speaker 1: audiologist from Toronto who specializes in hearing last prevention for musicians. 12 00:00:39,280 --> 00:00:41,760 Speaker 1: He says that there's nothing inherently bad about going to 13 00:00:41,800 --> 00:00:44,280 Speaker 1: the occasional loud concert or cranking your headphones up to 14 00:00:44,280 --> 00:00:46,720 Speaker 1: Mack's volume to listen to your favorite song, as long 15 00:00:46,760 --> 00:00:49,440 Speaker 1: as you do it in moderation. That's where three day 16 00:00:49,479 --> 00:00:52,760 Speaker 1: music festivals become a problem. There's a point at which 17 00:00:52,800 --> 00:00:55,360 Speaker 1: all sounds above eighty five deciples equivalent to the dial 18 00:00:55,400 --> 00:00:59,200 Speaker 1: tone on a telephone, can inflict permanent hearing damage. Exposure 19 00:00:59,240 --> 00:01:01,920 Speaker 1: to eighty five deciples of noise seems harmless enough, but 20 00:01:02,040 --> 00:01:04,160 Speaker 1: if you listened to a dial tone forty hours a 21 00:01:04,200 --> 00:01:06,680 Speaker 1: week for a full year, you'd suffer some level of 22 00:01:06,680 --> 00:01:09,360 Speaker 1: permanent hearing loss. And if you turn up the volume 23 00:01:09,400 --> 00:01:11,720 Speaker 1: to ninety four decibles, which is about halfway to full 24 00:01:11,800 --> 00:01:14,080 Speaker 1: volume on an MP three player, all it would take 25 00:01:14,120 --> 00:01:18,200 Speaker 1: is five hours a week to damage your hearing. Jason said, 26 00:01:18,560 --> 00:01:21,480 Speaker 1: it's the total dose that matters, much like a radiation dose. 27 00:01:21,640 --> 00:01:23,520 Speaker 1: A single X ray here and there won't hurt you, 28 00:01:23,680 --> 00:01:25,720 Speaker 1: but thirty seven X rays in a short period could 29 00:01:25,760 --> 00:01:29,759 Speaker 1: be problematic. Rock music at a live concert can easily 30 00:01:29,760 --> 00:01:32,520 Speaker 1: reach a hundred and ten decibls. At that volume, your 31 00:01:32,520 --> 00:01:35,440 Speaker 1: ears start to sustain permanent damage after only two minutes 32 00:01:35,520 --> 00:01:39,080 Speaker 1: of daily exposure. It's especially important to give your ears 33 00:01:39,080 --> 00:01:41,480 Speaker 1: a rest once they've suffered some short term hearing loss 34 00:01:41,840 --> 00:01:44,560 Speaker 1: that buzzing, ringing, or numbness in your ears after attending 35 00:01:44,560 --> 00:01:47,680 Speaker 1: a loud concert. There's a recovery period of sixteen to 36 00:01:47,760 --> 00:01:50,600 Speaker 1: eighteen hours, during which your ears are particularly sensitive to 37 00:01:50,640 --> 00:01:54,280 Speaker 1: further loud noises. Jason said, there's nothing wrong with going 38 00:01:54,320 --> 00:01:56,640 Speaker 1: to a rock concert on Friday night, just don't mow 39 00:01:56,640 --> 00:01:59,960 Speaker 1: the lawn on Saturday morning, and be careful about a 40 00:02:00,040 --> 00:02:03,040 Speaker 1: tending yet another rock concert on Saturday. If you don't 41 00:02:03,080 --> 00:02:04,920 Speaker 1: let your ears rest, there are several ways they can 42 00:02:04,960 --> 00:02:07,920 Speaker 1: suffer lasting damage. The inner ears smaller than the tip 43 00:02:07,920 --> 00:02:11,120 Speaker 1: of your pinky finger and contains the cochlea, a fluid filled, 44 00:02:11,160 --> 00:02:14,840 Speaker 1: stale shaped chamber lined with thousands of hair cells. Prolonged 45 00:02:14,880 --> 00:02:17,280 Speaker 1: exposure to very loud noises can disturb the fluid in 46 00:02:17,320 --> 00:02:20,360 Speaker 1: the cochleas so violently that the hair cells bend or break, 47 00:02:20,639 --> 00:02:24,160 Speaker 1: never to grow back. Another source of permanent hearing damage, 48 00:02:24,200 --> 00:02:27,160 Speaker 1: says Chason, lies deeper in the brain, where nerve cells 49 00:02:27,200 --> 00:02:31,040 Speaker 1: carry signals from the ear to neurons the process the sounds. Growing. 50 00:02:31,080 --> 00:02:34,160 Speaker 1: Research shows that overloading those neural pathways with loud noises 51 00:02:34,160 --> 00:02:37,160 Speaker 1: can disrupt the connection, creating situations where the neurons can't 52 00:02:37,200 --> 00:02:41,200 Speaker 1: detect the signals coming from the ear. Luckily, the solutioned 53 00:02:41,280 --> 00:02:44,520 Speaker 1: noise induced hearing loss from music festivals is simple. We're 54 00:02:44,520 --> 00:02:47,920 Speaker 1: ear plugs. Lots of concert goers avoid wearing earplugs because 55 00:02:47,919 --> 00:02:50,200 Speaker 1: they think it will muffle the music and ruin the experience, 56 00:02:50,560 --> 00:02:54,080 Speaker 1: but that only applies to the cheap, foamy disposable kind, which, 57 00:02:54,120 --> 00:02:57,520 Speaker 1: to be fair, I've had perfectly fine experiences with. However, 58 00:02:57,600 --> 00:03:00,160 Speaker 1: there are excellent inobtrusive ear plugs on the mark to 59 00:03:00,200 --> 00:03:02,880 Speaker 1: protect the air from dangerous sound levels without distorting the 60 00:03:02,919 --> 00:03:05,600 Speaker 1: quality of the music. Professional musicians have been using them 61 00:03:05,600 --> 00:03:09,280 Speaker 1: for decades. These are designed to evenly lower noise levels, 62 00:03:09,320 --> 00:03:12,279 Speaker 1: some by as much as twenty decibels across the hearing spectrum, 63 00:03:12,320 --> 00:03:14,679 Speaker 1: not just the high frequencies. You can find them for 64 00:03:14,760 --> 00:03:19,320 Speaker 1: less than twenty dollars and they're reusable forever. Weirdly, drug 65 00:03:19,360 --> 00:03:22,000 Speaker 1: and alcohol use at music festivals has also been shown 66 00:03:22,040 --> 00:03:24,600 Speaker 1: to increase the risk of hearing loss. A study out 67 00:03:24,600 --> 00:03:26,920 Speaker 1: of the Netherlands tracked fifty one participants with the main 68 00:03:27,000 --> 00:03:29,480 Speaker 1: age of twenty seven years who attended an outdoor music 69 00:03:29,520 --> 00:03:33,160 Speaker 1: festival in half were given ear plugs and half were not. 70 00:03:33,720 --> 00:03:36,120 Speaker 1: All were advised to refrain from drugs or alcohol so 71 00:03:36,120 --> 00:03:38,320 Speaker 1: that their hearing could be accurately tested after the four 72 00:03:38,320 --> 00:03:41,120 Speaker 1: and a half hour show. As to be expected, not 73 00:03:41,200 --> 00:03:44,840 Speaker 1: everyone abstained. The resulting data showed the concert goers who 74 00:03:44,880 --> 00:03:47,000 Speaker 1: drank beer or used drugs like cannabis or m d 75 00:03:47,120 --> 00:03:51,200 Speaker 1: m A experienced worse short term hearing. Loss, and interestingly, 76 00:03:51,480 --> 00:03:55,160 Speaker 1: so did male subjects, whether on drugs or not. What's 77 00:03:55,160 --> 00:03:57,480 Speaker 1: not clear from the data is whether the increased hearing 78 00:03:57,520 --> 00:04:01,120 Speaker 1: loss linked to drugs, alcohol, and being male is biological 79 00:04:01,240 --> 00:04:05,320 Speaker 1: or behavioral in origin. Chasen, for one, is convinced that 80 00:04:05,400 --> 00:04:08,160 Speaker 1: drugs or male hormones chemically alter the inner ear to 81 00:04:08,160 --> 00:04:11,160 Speaker 1: make it more susceptible to damage. Patterns of behavior are 82 00:04:11,200 --> 00:04:14,640 Speaker 1: more likely at play, he said, using alcohol or drugs 83 00:04:14,680 --> 00:04:17,320 Speaker 1: decreases your ability to self monitor, so you're more likely 84 00:04:17,360 --> 00:04:18,960 Speaker 1: to put your head right next to a loud speaker. 85 00:04:19,080 --> 00:04:22,120 Speaker 1: Your judgment is off, by the way. As far as 86 00:04:22,120 --> 00:04:26,480 Speaker 1: professional musicians go, more than half of all classical musicians 87 00:04:26,480 --> 00:04:29,920 Speaker 1: experience hearing loss, compared with only thirty percent of rock musicians. 88 00:04:30,320 --> 00:04:33,240 Speaker 1: Jason says it's a dose thing, with classical musicians exposed 89 00:04:33,279 --> 00:04:36,560 Speaker 1: more hours of loud ish music over their career than rockers. 90 00:04:41,800 --> 00:04:44,040 Speaker 1: Today's episode was written by Dave Ruse and produced by 91 00:04:44,040 --> 00:04:46,400 Speaker 1: Tyler clayg. Brain Stuff is a production of I Heart 92 00:04:46,480 --> 00:04:48,840 Speaker 1: Radio's How Stuff Works from Onenness and lots of other 93 00:04:48,920 --> 00:04:51,200 Speaker 1: rock and topics. Visit our home planet, how Stuff Works 94 00:04:51,240 --> 00:04:53,799 Speaker 1: dot com, and for more podcasts for my heart Radio, 95 00:04:54,000 --> 00:04:56,480 Speaker 1: visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever 96 00:04:56,520 --> 00:04:57,760 Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.