Keeping Your Ears Safe From the iPod

MP3 players are truly one of the most amazing innovations of modern technology. It was nearly incomprehensible when I was in school to think we could store so many hundreds of hours of high-quality audio in a device that weighed a few ounces.

One of my favorite uses of MP3 players is to convert my exercise time to learning time. It is a marvelous opportunity to exercise not only your body but your mind. After all, it always seems that there is never enough time to learn all the exciting things that life has to offer.

However, like most technologies there is a dark side of these awesome gadgets. If you use them to listen to music (which I rarely do) they can easily harm your ears permanently, if you're not careful.

You may recall Colleen Huber's awesome piece last fall about all the things that conspire to impair our hearing, including the iPod.

Noise-induced hearing loss is on the rise among the young; some 65 percent of those with hearing problems are below retirement age. Audiologists believe that part of the problem is the number of gadgets that send amplified sound directly into the ear canal, such as cell phones and MP3 players.

The methods of preventing this kind of hearing loss are mostly common sense:

• Limit your exposure to noisy activities, and take breaks of silence to recuperate.
• Turn down the volume of your MP3 player, and purchase noise-reduction earphones so you can hear it at quieter volumes.
• Avoid drugs that can impair your hearing.

Researchers have also found that vitamin E can aid in the prevention and restoration of hearing loss. A study found that hearing loss patients who received a treatment that included taking vitamin E had a 75 percent hearing recovery rate, whereas those who received the same treatment without the vitamin E had only a 45 percent recovery rate.