This holiday season, you could actually combat hearing damage by singing Christmas carols.
It sounds counterintuitive, but according to the Journal of Hearing Science, it's true. Experiments have revealed that when muscles in the middle ear are voluntarily contracted, the increased pressure on the fluids in your ears regulates cochlear sensitivity by stifling noise vibrations -- effectively helping to protect your hearing. The formal name for this effect is the Intralabyrinthine Pressure Theory.
It sounds complicated, but the breakdown is simple: by actively contracting the muscles in your middle ears, up to 30dB or more of sound attenuation can be achieved. That's about as much attenuation as a good foam earplug, and it's built right into your ears!
So where do the Christmas carols come in?
Well, flexing your middle ear muscles probably isn't something you've practiced at the gym. But if you've ever heard that soft roaring or fluttering sound in your ears when you yawned, you've already heard your middle ear muscles contracting. And in fact, a whole variety of common movements can cause this same contraction, including chewing gum and talking or singing loudly.
This means that when you sing loudly, you're actually tensing your middle ear muscles, blocking out other sounds. (This is one good reason to sing along with the band at concerts!)
So the next time you're out Christmas shopping, and you find yourself in a huge crowd at the mall, and it's so loud you can't hear yourself think -- consider bursting into one of your favorite Christmas carols! Those "fa-la-la's" and "jingle bells" not only help share the Christmas spirit, but they could also help protect your hearing, too.
Until next time, may your days be merry and bright!
--Tom "Dr. Earplug" Bergman
Comments