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Fit Club

By Holly Miyasaki

One evening after catching a movie with a friend, we started discussing MP3 players and earphones that would fit my tiny ears.

“That will damage your ears!” he yelled at me in the parking lot where we were standing, as if emphasizing what my future hearing abilities will be like. He went on to explain that cilia are extra sensitive when you’re in motion and having music blasting through your ear canals will just make it worse.

This frightened me. In addition to all my other issues, being hard of hearing is not something I want to contend with.

So I decided to visit a specialist to hear the truth. Stacie Ratch is an audiologist with Okanagan Hearing, and she gave me her ear for a few minutes regarding my concerns.

First off, she dispelled my fear about cilia being overexposed to sound and movement at the same time.

She had conferred with her coworkers and none had heard of issues related to listening to music while in movement. But, when one is exercising, especially outdoors where there’s traffic and other outside sounds, it’s important to remember to keep the volume down.

Another important fact to remember is that the smaller the earbud, the louder it plays into your ear canal.

When exercising, regardless of if it’s indoors or out, many people will want to turn up the volume so they can block out other ambient sound–don’t do it.

Listen to this: if you keep your volume control at 60 per cent, the longest time period you should be listening is an hour. After that, hearing damage begins. If you insist on having louder music, take a break once in a while when you take your headphones off to allow your hearing system a rest.

Also don’t forget, when running outdoors, it’s a good idea to have just one ear filled with sound. You want to be sure you can hear if someone is calling you and be able to listen for traffic.

One of the best ways to tell your music is too loud is if you have to raise your voice to speak to someone.

entertainment@kelowna.com
250-575-0613

Tags: cilia, ear canal, hearing damage, hearing loss

This entry was posted on Friday, October 30th, 2009 at 5:16 pm and is filed under Fit Club. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.