I Have Presbycusis: A Presbyterian's Nightmare
Presbycusis (also spelled presbyacusis, from Greek presbys "old" + akousis "hearing"), or age-related hearing loss, is the cumulative effect of aging on hearing. It is a progressive and irreversible bilateral symmetrical age-related sensorineural hearing loss resulting from degeneration of the cochlea or associated structures of the inner ear or auditory nerves. The hearing loss is most marked at higher frequencies. Hearing loss that accumulates with age but is caused by factors other than normal aging (nosocusis and sociocusis) is not presbycusis, although differentiating the individual effects of multiple causes of hearing loss can be difficult.Presbycusis is the most common cause of hearing loss, afflicting one out of three persons by age 65, and one out of two by age 75. Presbycusis is the second most common illness next to arthritis in aged people.
Primary symptoms:
sounds or speech becoming dull, muffled or attenuated
need for increased volume on television, radio, music and other audio sources
difficulty using the telephone
loss of directionality of sound
difficulty understanding speech, especially women and children
difficulty in speech discrimination against background noise (cocktail party effect)Secondary symptoms:
hyperacusis, heightened sensitivity to certain volumes and frequencies of sound, resulting from "recruitment" tinnitus, ringing, buzzing, hissing or other sounds in the ear when no external sound is present vertigo and disequilibriumUsually occurs after age 50, but deterioration in hearing has been found to start very early, from about the age of 18 years.
I knew about this a long time ago. I have often reprinted this pair of charts.
This got my attention: "difficulty understanding speech, especially women and children." For over 40 years, my wife has complained, "you don't listen to me." Now, I have a good excuse.
I am having trouble hearing my 8-year-old grandson in the car.
I have had increasing trouble hearing my wife's voice over the last year. But I really have had this problem for a long time. I can hear other people easily, but I have had problems hearing her voice. Then, in the last week of May, it got much worse. It was the speed of the loss that startled me. It was like going bankrupt: slowly at first, then very fast.
I have taken numerous online hearing tests over the last year. I have always passed the ones that measure background noise: signal-to-noise ratio. I still can. But the best test, which measures hearing loss at various frequencies, shows sharp loss in the high range. Then last week my left ear got much worse at 8k. The sound in my left ear is not as good as AM radio sound used to be, as I remember it. Sound is muffled. I recommend that you take the test. It works best with headphones.
You can print out the results, or save them as a digital file. Do this. Put them in your files. Come back once a year to see how you are doing.
There is nothing that medical science can do about this. We can buy hearing aids -- a great affront to our egos -- but they are expensive, and a lot of people are not helped much.
F. A Hayek was almost deaf in his left ear. I once heard him add that Karl Marx was deaf in his right ear. He said this matched their politics.
I now am afflicted with yet another manifestation of an ancient curse: the money/age paradox. I can afford the best sound system that money can buy, but I have AM radio ears.
There was an event in my life almost 50 years ago. I remember it as if it were yesterday. I was in grad school. I had gone to the campus health clinic and had my ears cleared of wax. Later that day, I inserted a key into a lock. I was amazed at how sharp the sound of that key was. I had not noticed the decline, because the decline had been slow. Then, with my ears cleared, the difference was startling -- permanently etched into my memory.
Little did I know that this decline would repeat itself. Too bad it's not the result of ear wax.
I now have greater appreciation for the chorus of John Prine's song, "Please Don't Bury Me."
Please don't bury me
Down in that cold cold ground
No, I'd druther have "em" cut me up
And pass me all around.
Throw my brain in a hurricane
And the blind can have my eyes
And the deaf can take both of my ears
If they don't mind the size.