Losing your hearing?

Hearing loss is more common than you may think. In the UK, around one person in seven is deaf or hard of
hearing. There are several ways to tell that your hearing is going.
Watch a video on tinnitus
The most common cause of hearing loss is ageing. Three-quarters of people who are deaf are aged over 60. According
to the charity Deafness Research !" age-related hearing loss normally #egins at around $0. %ut it&s not 'ust older
people who are affected.
%eing e(posed to too much loud noise is an important cause of hearing loss. )t is thought that loud noise is #ehind the
increasing num#ers of young people who are losing their hearing. The popularity of i*ods and other personal music
systems" and pu#s and clu#s that play very loud music" all contri#ute.
hat hearing loss feels like
+ost of us ta,e our hearing for granted" so it&s easy not to notice at first when it goes.
)t&s usually a gradual process. %ac,ground noises start to sound a little #lurry" you can&t ma,e out quiet voices and you
don&t hear announcements at airports and train stations.
-e(t" you have difficulties hearing what people are saying if there&s #ac,ground chatter" especially if it&s a child spea,ing
or someone who.s quietly spo,en.
Then you find that in a #usy setting you have to concentrate really hard on what the person you&re tal,ing to is saying
and you start to pay more attention to people&s lip movements and e(pressions to read what you can&t hear.
!an you hear properly?
Try answering these eight questions to gauge whether you could #e losing your hearing.
Do other people seem to mum#le rather than spea, clearly to you/
Do people often have to repeat things for you #efore you understand what they say/
Do you have difficulty understanding what is #eing said in noisy places" such as pu#s or restaurants" even
though other people manage to have conversations/
When you are tal,ing to people in a group" is it hard to ,eep up with the conversation/
Do you find it tiring to listen to conversations #ecause you have to concentrate hard/
Do other people thin, your television or music is too loud #ut you can.t hear it properly if they turn it down/
Do you often have difficulty hearing on the telephone/
0ave other people told you that you don&t hear well/
)f you answered yes to most of these questions you could #e losing your hearing.
The ne(t step is for you to have a hearing
test
. Read more a#outgetting your hearing tested.
1ind out a#out the hearing impairment and deaf support servicesin your local area 2#oth -03 and charita#le4.
Read more a#out hearing impairment.