NEWSWEEK COVER: 'How To Keep Your Hearing'

NEWSWEEK COVER: 'How To Keep Your Hearing'

28 Million Americans Suffer From Hearing Loss, But The Number Is Expected To Soar To 78 Million By 2030

iPod Generation: Up To 5.2 Million Kids In U.S. Have Some Kind Of Hearing Damage, According To One Study

NEW YORK, May 29 /PRNewswire/ -- More than 28 million Americans currently have some degree of hearing loss, from mild to severe, and the number is expected to soar in the coming years-reaching an astounding 78 million by 2030, Newsweek reports in its June 6 cover story (on newsstands Monday, May 30). While that looming surge is mostly a baby-boomer phenomenon, the threat of hearing loss-and the need for prevention-isn't limited to a single age group. One study estimates that as many as 5.2 million children in the U.S. between 6 and 19 have some hearing damage from amplified music and other sources. If they don't take steps to protect their hearing, the iPod Generation faces the same fate as the Woodstock Generation. Or worse, writes Senior Editor David Noonan.

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20050529/NYSU001 )

"We're seeing hearing loss from noise develop at an earlier age than we used to," says Dr. Jennifer Derebery, immediate past president of the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery. "It's a huge problem." The good news: though hearing loss can't be reversed, reducing your exposure to excessive noise, like quitting cigarettes, can improve your health and quality of life, no matter your age.

Newsweek reports progress is being made on many fronts. Awareness and prevention efforts-community-based, state and nationwide programs-are gaining support around the country as hearing loss is increasingly recognized as a public-health issue. Advances in digital technology have dramatically improved hearing aids; they are smaller than ever, with far better sound quality. And clinical trials are now underway on permanent, implantable hearing aids for the middle ear which will offer sound that is superior even to the best external aids.

On the biological front, scientists are busy trying to unlock the genetics of hearing to find a way to regenerate the sensitive hair cells, essential for hearing, that line the cochlea, the spiral, seashell-like structure located in the inner ear. And way out on the horizon of the cutting edge, researchers have created an experimental brain-implant system that bypasses the ear altogether and sends sound from an external receiver to the part of the brainstem that processes sound.

(Read Newsweek's news releases at http://www.newsweek.com/.
Click "Pressroom.")

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8017906/site/newsweek /

Photo: NewsCom: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20050529/NYSU001
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Source: Newsweek

CONTACT: Rosanna Maietta of Newsweek, +1-212-445-4859

Web site: http://www.newsweek.msnbc.com/

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