Hear! Hear! Are you one of the millions headed for premature hearing loss? Here's how to keep your ears open and healthy in this noisy world

Lawn mowers, hair dryers, movie trailers, car alarms, jet engines, even squeaky toys ... there are so many perpetrators of acoustic turbulence that we barely notice them anymore.

Or is it that we can't notice them? At least 30 million Americans suffer from some degree of hearing loss, and about one-third of the blame can be directed toward noise. And because the environment is getting noisier, audiologists are seeing more--and younger--people with damaged hearing, according to the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association in Rockville, Md.

"People are starting to notice hearing problems earlier in their adult life," says Tina Mullins, ASHA's director for audiology practice and health care. "And there's more than just hearing that's affected by noise: It can reduce your ability to concentrate and learn, and it can result in poor social and emotional behaviors, such as anger, depression and anxiety."

Noise has also been linked to increases in blood pressure, according to the Journal of Occupational Health Psychology. It can even be bad for your waistline: Investigators at Pennsylvania State University found that women exposed to noise stress are significantly more junk food than their less stressed peers.

ear factor

Since the ears have no natural defenses, hearing loss can occur after one short, intense sound, such as an explosion. Typically, though, it happens over time after extended exposure to loud noise. The excessive sound over-stimulates the microscopic hair cells in the cochlea of the inner ear; when these sensory receptors are injured, they stop transmitting sound to the brain via electrical impulses carried by the auditory nerve.

Loud noise has become such a constant that you may not even be aware that a loss is happening. "Audiologists are seeing 20-year-olds with the hearing of 40- and 60-year-olds, because they are so surrounded by noise all the time," says Julee Sylvester, spokeswoman for the Sight & Hearing Association in St. Paul, Minn.

Hearing difficulty typically begins at high pitches. Sounds may seem distorted or muffled, and you may have trouble understanding speech. And when the damage is done, it's usually irreversible. "Unlike our eyes, where we can wear glasses or do LASIK and get 20/20 vision back, our ears are totally different," says Sylvester. "Once you start losing your hearing, you will never get it back."

If you think you may have hearing damage, talk to your doctor. Treatment options include "assistive listening devices" designed to increase the loudness of specific sounds, such as those from radio, television or telephones, and hearing aids, which are now very small and very sophisticated. While older, analog aids amplified every noise, new digital models are programmed and adjusted to the individual. Karen Shatzkin, who has had a hearing loss since childhood, recently purchased a digital aid customized to her impairment in the higher ranges. "It has just changed my life," says the New York attorney. "I don't think I recognized the degree to which I was missing things."

Digital hearing aids can be expensive, but you should never try to save money by buying a mail-order hearing aid, or use a device that hasn't been adjusted for your personal needs; a poorly programmed unit can inflict further damage on your inner ear.

cover your ears

No FDA-approved drugs are currently available to treat noise-induced hearing loss, says Kathleen Campbell, Ph.D., director of audiology research at Southern Illinois School of Medicine in Springfield. But personal choices may count: A high-fat diet and smoking have both been shown to increase the risk of noise-induced hearing loss in humans, she says, while animal studies indicate that vitamins A, C and E, as well as selenium, magnesium and the antioxidants D-methionine and N-acetylcysteine may help in reducing such risk. Still, Campbell cautions that it's too early to recommend specific meals or supplements beyond a healthy lifestyle and diet plan.

The only proven way to prevent hearing loss is to protect your ears from continuously excessive noise. Damage begins at approximately 85 decibels, about the volume level for trucks, lawn mowers and shouting. (See "Measuring Noise," at right.) Alternate loud activities with quiet times, restrict your contact with noisemakers like lawn equipment and power tools, and gradually replace your appliances with ones that produce fewer decibels of sound.

"Appliance noise is cumulative and additive, so all those appliances running at the same time add to the volume of noise you're experiencing; if you're running the dishwasher, don't use the vacuum at the same time," advises Mullins.

"Every effort you can make to reduce the amount of noise your ears are exposed to helps," she adds. So make sure your Walkman or iPod isn't so loud that the person next to you can hear it, and turn down your car radio. If you can't hear a person three feet away, there's too much noise. If you're in a nightclub or other setting, and your ears begin to hurt, throb, ring, buzz or feel full, then leave. For information on ear plugs and other hearing-protection products, visit earplugstore.com; another site, etymotic.com, offers "high fidelity" ear plugs designed for musicians.