12/5/2023 0 Comments Miracle ear listening earsThere's no clear escape route when your neighborhood is plagued with constant noise from cars or construction. In addition, the brain is always efficient - if there's less stimulation coming in from the ears, the associated processing resources will be allocated elsewhere, creating a downward spiral. If it is not addressed, over time people start to withdraw." "We are actually seeing a lot of connections between hearing loss and cognitive decline. Ray McNiven, a Spokane audiologist whose private practice is called Volume Hearing & Audiology, emphatically says that hearing loss does not cause dementia. Noise exposure can also cause tinnitus (persistent ringing in the ears), and there have been reports that for those in the later stages of life, hearing loss is linked to cognitive decline and dementia. It can completely derail their lives for many years to come." " can lead to learning disruptions and disorders. "If children experience prolonged noise exposure during speech development, they're more likely to have speech delays," says Walker. If that period of prolonged exposure happens early in life, the side effects may be life-altering. If somebody worked on a flight line, it could be one incident from a jet, but primarily it is years of exposure." "It doesn't have to be continuous noise," Bang says. He often works with people whose hearing was impacted by loud sounds such as gunfire or prolonged noise exposure in occupations like forestry or construction work. Jorgen Bang deals with hearing loss related to noise exposure daily as a hearing instrument specialist at Professional Hearing Healthcare in Spokane. That's the side effect that most people think of." But she adds, excessive sound exposure "can knock out your hearing. Her team has noted health issues related to a sound-induced persistent state of fight or flight, such as cardiovascular problems and even the increased use of antidepressants. Your heart rate increases, you sweat, your stomach turns and your body starts releasing stress hormones," Walker says. "Think of it like your body entering fight-or-flight mode. Walker defines noise as "unwanted sound." Any unwanted sound qualifies, not just loud things.ĭogs barking incessantly in the background, trains rushing by in the early morning, your neighbor's workout playlist blasting from a Bluetooth speaker, the construction of new homes in your general vicinity.Īn invasion of sound can have a physical effect on you. That question may seem straightforward, but it can differ from person to person and from community to community. Her research has shown not only that noise is downright annoying, but that it can also affect your body in ways you might not realize. Now Walker runs the Community Noise Lab out of Brown University's School of Public Health, where she and a team of students explore the relationship between noise and health by working directly with communities to support their specific issues. A close friend of mine encouraged me to get into the world of public health because they figured I might as well put all of this data collecting to good use and make some positive change out of my experience." I started collecting information on when the noise was happening, how loud it was and things like that so I could report it to my landlord. Then a family with two young children moved into the upstairs apartment. "My apartment was my studio, so I was living and working in the same environment." "It started when I was working as an artist," Walker says. Her own experience with sound inspired a lifetime of dedication to the topic. Well, those noises may be doing more than just making you a bit disgruntled.Įrica Walker, a researcher at Brown University, has been digging into this subject for almost a decade now. H ave you ever woken up to the sound of your neighbor mowing the lawn? What about a train horn? Or maybe the roar of power tools from that construction site across the street?
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