Alka Yagnik’s hearing loss: How to keep ears safe from loud music

Singer Alka Yagnik, best known for her Bollywood tracks in the ‘90s, revealed today that she has been diagnosed with a rare sensorineural nerve hearing loss caused by a sudden viral attack. 

“A few weeks ago as I walked out of a flight, I suddenly felt I was not able to hear anything,” Yagnik wrote on her Instagram adding, “I would add a word of caution regarding exposure to very loud music and headphones.” 

Headphone safety is not a new problem

While headphone safety has been an important issue ever since personal music playback grew popular in the ‘90s, the issue has become a big concern in the last decade. Today, technological innovations like TWS earphones allow one to be plugged in all the time, without the restraint of wires, without any breaks.  

ALSO READ: What is headphone safety feature on your iPhone? 

You don’t need to be an ENT specialist to know that this is not good for your ear health, especially if you listen to your music and podcasts on high volumes. It is a well-known fact that exposure to high volumes for extended periods not only result in hearing loss, but is among the leading causes for it.  

A World Health Organisation (WHO) report suggests that nearly 60 per cent of hearing loss in children is due to avoidable causes, including exposure to loud sounds. The same report also speculates that by 2050, over 700 million people (1 in 10 people) may have some form of hearing loss.  

How hearing loss due to high volume occurs

Noise-Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL) can be caused due to intense impulse sounds (like explosions), or by continuous exposure to loud sounds over an extended period of time (like listening to music loudly).  

In numbers, sounds below 70dB (decibels) are considered safe, and are unlikely to trigger hearing loss, even over time. It is sounds over this that pose a risk. However, the decibel level of sounds are also not the only factors involved. Movie theatres can cross the 100dB mark, while a fireworks show will usually output about 140-160dB. However, these events are usually not everyday occurrences, and hence are instances you can get by.  

The human ear works through a complex network of bones and membranes, and it is the tiny hair cells inside the average human ear which are responsible for your brain making sense of external vibrations as ‘sound’.  

However, constant exposure to high noise levels (and high vibrations) can damage these hair cells over time, leading to various levels of hearing loss. In many cases, this hearing loss can also be permanent in nature.  

What is the normal decibel hearing range?

The safe decibel levels for humans is below 70 dB. However, as mentioned above, the noises around us may cross this limit in day-to-day life, like during watching a movie in a theatre. It is extended exposure to these higher noise levels that pose a risk of damage.  

How to keep ears safe from loud music

Hearing loss due to loud volumes is a serious issue, but it is very easy to prevent. While several high-volume moments like festive celebrations or movie theatres may not always be avoidable, there are several steps you can take to maintain healthy hearing over time. 

1. Wear earplugs

2. Turn down the volume of your audio devices

3. Don’t turn up the earphone volume when you’re in loud environments

4. Invest in Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) products

5. Consult a physician

1. Wear earplugs

Earplugs like these Anomeo earplugs at concerts and clubs have been the rage for a while in the West and the trend has been catching on in India too. Spaces such as live music venues or dance floors have music blasting at anywhere between 95 and 105 decibels.   

In India, everyday commute and sounds of the streets too can be quite high. This kind of continued exposure is bound to have an adverse impact on your ears over time.  

Thankfully, earplugs technology and design have come a long way from the time you just stuffed foam in your ears. There is literally no reason to not consider earplugs today. 

2. Turn down the volume of your audio devices

This might sound like an obvious thing to say but it is easy to lose track of the volume on your audio devices. An action film sounds amazing on your surround sound home theatre system, Diljit Dosanjh’s latest drop most definitely needs that extra bass, or that latest game you just landed on PS5 is hyper realistic in part because you’ve turned the volume up all the. way. Look, we get it. But continuous exposure to loud sounds will lead to hearing damage. So maybe our mum was right; maybe it’s not that bad an idea to turn down the volume of your audio devices as a default setting.  

3. Don’t turn up the earphone volume when you’re in loud environments

Several of us also increase the volume on our earphones or headphones when we are in louder environments so we can hear better. However, the loud noise around you does not drown out the heavy vibrations you send towards your eardrums by turning up the volume. In fact, it may even add to it.  

4. Invest in Active Noise Cancellation (ANC) products

Of course, the seemingly logical thing to do is to avoid loud environments. But that’s not always possible. In which case, consider investing in audio products with Active Noise Cancellation (ANC). This feature takes the sounds in your environment and digitally cancels them out.  

ALSO READ: How to keep your ears safe when using earphones 

This lets you hear your own music clearly at lower volume levels, keeping your ears safe. Once a premium feature, ANC is today very accessible, and found even on affordable TWS earphones.   

5. Consult a physician

At the first sign of discomfort, make sure to consult your physician. 

The role of technology, and the way forward

Today, many audio and smartphone brands recognise the threat of loud volumes, and hence, a number of features have been introduced to mitigate these. Most iPhones and Android phones today also have built-in volume monitoring features that alert users when they are raising the volume to unhealth levels.  

Earbuds like the Apple AirPods Pro Gen 2 also come with features like automatic lowering of loud noises around you when in Transparency Mode (above 85 dB) to prevent sudden noises from damaging your ears.  

Bone conduction technology, used in earbuds like the SHOKZ OpenRun wireless earphones are also quickly growing in popularity. These earphones don’t actually go into the ear canal, and instead transmit sound by bone conduction. This works by using a transducer that converts audio data into vibrations that travel through a user’s cheek bones to reach the cochlea, or the part of the inner ear that transmits information to the brain.  

In the future, more tech innovations and features will help users better manage higher volumes and extended playback, but until then, good hearing ability is something we all must work towards maintaining.