Notes from Health and Wellbeing Group presentation on Ears

The presentation was given by Fiona Barker an audiologist working for Windsor ENT. Below are the key things I noted as a reminder for those that attended and information on those that could not.

Your hearing starts to drop after the age of 30!

Fiona walked through all aspects of the ear, talking about what they were for, how they worked and what issues can occur. From your external ears important for the collection of compressed air, through the ear canal, the middle ear, including ear drum, bones and connecting tube to your throat and into the inner ear of the cochlea where air compression is turned into electrical impulses and the nerve to the brain where it is interpreted. Fiona passed around many models of parts of the ear as well as many different types of modern hearing aids.

What I learnt is that ears are amazing!

Things can go wrong if you damage your outer ear and so collection of noises is hindered. In the inner ear, you can break the bones, get glue ear or your ear drum stops stretching effectively. All can be treated.

The permanent loss of hearing is generally associated with the damage of the 30,000 hair cells in your inner ear. This is mainly due to wear and tear and they cannot be regenerated. Unlike in frogs! Loud noises impact them, and they only have to be damaged once to cause some hear loss. As you lose them, hearing loss is gradual and often missed. If you suffer some temporary loss of hearing not associated with a blockage in the outer ear, although the hearing comes back, there is likely to be some permanent damage.

Fiona stated that the sooner you so something about your hearing loss the better as just like eyesight, having the ability to use the senses well and link to your environment and those around you is good for your mental health.

She showed us by using our volunteer Ken, how they measure young peoples hearing and that nowadays they can tell if there is hearing problems within days of birth. Of course, we are all used to the headphones we put on but now we know why they are testing the frequencies in the way they do.

Tinnitus is thought to be caused when the brain is trying to fill in gaps where damage has been caused. There are products on the market to help your brain tune out of that noise such as pillow masks to help you sleep.

We then discussed balance which is Fiona’s speciality. You get your balances by three references, your ears, your eyes and your ankles/feet. If any of the balance references go wrong, you can be taught to use the other two better. Below are some exercises Fiona suggested are important because as we get older, we move our heads about less and this does not help balance. Simon volunteered to have a balance test which showed how eye movements tell professionals if you have ear balance issues and how removing the eye and then feet balance references can make you sway.

Positional vertigo was covered after a question from the floor. This is an inner ear problem and is caused when particles fall into the inner ear which make you more sensitive to gravity. There are simple exercises that can be done to rectify it, and amazingly the professionals can tell exactly in what ear, in what part of the ear the particles are, so if you are suffering first try the online exercises, if they don’t work, see a professional audiologist.

Flying and its impact on hearing was discussed. Fiona stated that swallowing helps to reset the pressure inside your ear when changing altitude, the ear plugs don’t help this but do help cancel out the noise,

Some interesting facts

1. Ear skin grows outwards so that it sloths off out of your ears and does not clog them up! Damned clever

2. The Stapes or Stirrup bones are the smallest bones in the human body and the temple bone is the strongest

3. There are 30,000 hair cells in the ear in the space of half a garden pea. They turn frequency into electrical impulse

4. There is NO causal effect between loss of hearing and dementia

5. NHS hearing aids now give as much frequency improvement as private but not as many add-ons as Bluetooth

6. People have their eyesight tested on average one month after losing some level of sight, the average for hearing test after noticing some hearing loss is 10 years!

Things we MUST NOT DO

1. NEVER put things down your ear canal, throw away those cotton buds immediately.

2. Wear hearing aids at concerts

Things we should/can do

3. Wash the outer ear

4. If you have excessive wax, use ear drops once or twice a month

5. Always have wax that impacts your hearing, removed by a professional

6. You should have your ears tested the same number of times as you do your eyes. Once a year.

7. Wear hearing protection whilst at concerts or around loud noises

8. To improve balance do the following:

a. Stand on one leg, alternating, every day when you brush your teeth

b. Go for a 20-30 minute walk outdoor. Use your eyes to look around and to improve eye/head co-ordination you can do the following:

i. Pick up litter

ii. Look for things that are the same colour, like purple or blue.

iii. Look for things that all start with the same letter, i.e.D

9. Sucking of sweets on planes is to make you swallow which helps reset the air pressure.

A fantastic talk but a really engaging speaker. I do hope you enjoyed it.