PROHIERAN Blog » iPod

An Opportunity to Educate About Exposure to Loud Music

Prohieran — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 20:31:59 +0000

The Journal of Pediatrics recently released a study on how much people understand about hearing loss and the intentional exposure to loud music.

The objective of the study was to compare awareness of music-induced hearing loss to the behavior trends. The article states that they believe that music-induced hearing loss is an unconsciously self-inflicted public health concern and it could evolve into an epidemic because of the appeal of loud music.

The results showed that hearing loss was considered a problem by 32% of the 2500 respondents compared with other health issues such as drug/alcohol use (62%). However, nearly half of the respondents admitted experiencing symptoms such as tinnitus or hearing loss after loud music exposure.

Seventy-five percent of respondents owned an MP3 player, with 24 percent listening to their music player for more than 15 hours a week. Nearly half of the respondents also said they use their player at 75 percent to 100 percent of its maximum volume capacity.

Most respondents could not remember learning about prevention of potential hearing loss, although the media has become the most informative source. Most respondents indicated that they would adopt protective ear behavior if made aware of hearing loss risk, especially if informed by health care professionals, revealing an educational opportunity.

This is an very telling study in that it show two things.

#1 – Respondents could not recall being informed about hearing loss risks.
#2 – Respondents would be in favor of using hearing protection if they were ever educated about the risks.

Help us spread the word about the risk of music-induced hearing loss. Listening to your portable music player is detrimental to your hearing wellness. Take a look at our blog post about putting a limit on your iPod volume.

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iPhone Apps Now Even Check Your Hearing

Prohieran — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:21:22 +0000

Nothing replaces a thorough hearing examination with an audiologist, a physician specially trained to evaluate, detect, and then treat various forms of hearing loss or hearing impairments. However, there are many tools on the market that help raise flags that hearing may be impacted and to serve as initial screens for hearing wellness.

Surprisingly, there are even iPhone apps for this very purpose. While screenings on phones or computers may be as much for entertainment as anything else, if taken properly according to instructions given, they actually can provide some initial insight to a person about whether their hearing may warrant getting checked out by a true professional. The uHear free application assesses hearing in the areas of hearing sensitivity to determine the quietest sounds you can hear, speech in noise in terms of measuring your ability to understand speech in the presence of noise, and a questionnaire regarding your performance in common listening situations.

For example, if you and several friends or family members take a series of hearing tests on the uHear application (or a similar screening tool) on their iPhones and you score much lower, it might be time for a hearing screening to determine your overall hearing wellness. Since it is a myth that hearing loss affects only older Americans, what do you have to lose?

Also, if you have regular physical checkups with your family doctor, ask for your hearing to be checked as part of the overall wellness exam. Unless you ask about it specifically, your doctor may not check your hearing — especially if you have not reported any problems or concerns.

YouTube link

Protect your hearing through safe practices from loud noises such as wearing ear plugs and having regular hearing examinations. You may also want to consider whether the all-natural hearing wellness supplement ProHieran is right for you!

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Protect Your Ears, How to Set Your iPod’s Volume Limit

Prohieran — Wed, 27 May 2009 18:14:54 +0000

With the popularity of portable music players like the iPod, many people have started to live their lives to their own personal soundtrack. However, the damage done to your hearing by playing loud music directly into your ears is a real danger. If you are in an area that is already loud you may be cranking up the volume on your headphones without even realizing how loud it really is. So today we want to show you how you can set your iPod to a volume limit.

Select Settings and then select Volume Limit
Use the Click Wheel to select the maximum volume
The blue triangle shows where the current maximum volume is set
Press the Center button to set the maximum volume limit
On the Volume Limit screen, click Set Combination to require a combination to be entered to change the maximum volume. Click Done if you do not want to set a password for the volume limit.
If you choose Set Combination, enter a combination
– Use the Click Wheel to select a number for the first position.
– Press the Center button to confirm your choice and move to the next position.
– Use the same method to set the remaining numbers of the combination. You can use the Next/Fast-forward button to move to the next position and the Previous/Rewind button to move to the previous position.
– Press the Center button in the final position to confirm the entire combination and return to the previous screen.

You can test the volume limit by playing a song on your iPod and turning the volume all the way up. You should see a lock icon to the right of the volume bar.

Take action today to protect your hearing for tomorrow and preserve your overall hearing wellness.

PROHIERAN.com

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