Hearing Loss

[Alex Miller90]

My brother tried to enlist into the Navy and he got rejected because of his Mid-Range Hearing Loss. and I was wondering if it is inhereded through your genes or is it from him listening to Heavy-Death Metal music(thats what he does). This is a legitimate fear that has become awakened inside of me because every time I hear a loud noise or the TV or radio is too loud I kind of have a panic attack so to speak haha. But i'm just wondering Is it possible that it is passed down? or what.

Because I don't want to have a reason to need a Waiver.

thank you for reading and responding!

[RYDERKUR]

Is Dr. Chili in the house? Haha, man, we aren't doctors or hearing specialists.

[Alex Miller90]

Which Is understandable, I was just thinking maybe my chance someone knew anything about it. You know, like Former recruiters or someone who maybe worked with MEPS, or even someone who went through the same thing I am.

[RYDERKUR]

No, I know, it just made me chuckle. I'm also a little confused about the post actually. If you hear rifle fire you like spass out or what?

[Alex Miller90]

No, nothing of the sort. I can see how you got that out of reading my post.

Well, let me try to explain as good as I can.
When I hear loud noises (TV, Stereo, Radio, ETC..) I will just get scared that I'm going to ruin my hearing and not be able to get into the Military. I don't spazz out or anything I am completley natural but all of the things just kind of race through my mind.

Do you understand a little better now?

[Zulu 36]

Prolonged exposure to loud noise can cause hearing loss. That includes loud music, gunfire, explosions, jet engine noise, machinery noise, etc. If you're a grunt in combat, you will end up with at least some high-frequency hearing loss eventually.

Thanks to gunfire and jet engine noise I have a nice high-frequency hearing loss. I have a hell of a time understanding people talk, especially kids and women. Any kind of background noise will wash voices out. I have to wear hearing aids to function without saying, "Huh?" all the time.

The military won't take you if your hearing loss is already profound. It's their job to ruin your hearing. :p

[RYDERKUR]

Ahhh, got you. To tell you the truth I have no idea, but you should be fine, only the hearing test will tell I suppose. The more experienced Marines will have better answers for you.

[Alex Miller90]

Thanks everyone for your input it really helps.

This is to ZULU 36.

I deffinatley understand what your saying( I'm the Son of a Naval Aviation Ordnanceman) and He has the High frequency hearing loss as well.

but me losing my hearing deffinatley isnt the problem, i could really care less. I just want to keep it until I am able to get into the Military lol.

[rvillac2]

But i'm just wondering Is it possible that it is passed down? or what.

Lucky for you, part of my graduate studies was in hearing.

Vulnerability to hearing loss is inherited, but you're likely to be born with a fresh pair of ears and hair cells.

So, the answer is that your brother most likely did this to himself. Listening to anything loudly is bad for your ears. Today's kids are setting up to be the deafest generation in history. For those of you listening to iPods through earphones and have enormous bass's in your cars, enjoy it now while you can. You'll be first in line to try out the latest in hearing aids when you're in your late 40's and early 50's.

The body has natural defenses to the outside world. The ear can actually protect itself from sudden noises like gunfire or loud crashes (the startle reflex protects the body from all sorts of unexpected damage). However, when you PERSISTENTLY bombard the ear with harsh sounds, like metal music (high to mid frequency noise) or the steady high amplitude bass of rap/hip hop (low frequency noise), you are forever killing your inner ear's hair cells. Once those cells are gone, they don't grow back and you'll be deaf in that range of frequencies.

Now here is the tragic thing that you'll discover when you're older. As your hearing ages naturally, you will start by losing the ability to hear high frequencies. The high freqs are where most of the detailed information from human speech is coming from. This is why grandma is always saying "huh?" when you talk to her but she still complains about the dog barking too loud. But now, kids are killing at an early age, their lower and mid level hearing by subjecting themselves to what I call, largely crappy, music.

If you're worried about your hearing, treat your ears with care. Don't use earphones too often and never listen to music louder than it needs to be in order to be enjoyable. Wear earplugs in noisy environments. Hopefully, unlike your brother, you haven't completely killed a range of hearing.

I love saying these things to kids and have them look at me like I'm some old killjoy who doesn't know what he's talking about. We'll see who's right in 30-40 years. I'll be the one who can hear himself laugh.

[Alex Miller90]

I use headphones almost always.. but so does every other person in the world right?? thank you for your HIGHLy usefull input Sgt. I will deffinatley start taking proper care of my Listening devices!