It’s been known for some time that listening to your MP3 player too loudly can, and will, cause you to damage your hearing. However what may not have always been apparent is that the damage to your ears will come on gradually. So gradually in fact that you won’t notice any difference, until becomes too late.

The problem has escalated since companies like Sony and Apple with their Walkman and iPod brands have improved the sound quality on their devices to such as extent that music fans have been spending more time listening to them.

When personal stereos were all the rage, cranking up the volume merely made the sound distort so that you couldn’t hear the music over the muffled sound of the speaker system. Now that sound is crystal clear music fans can increase the audio levels to as high as they wish, without losing any quality… except in terms of their future hearing.

Hearing damage is also irreversible!

Hearing loss comes about when the hair cells in cochlea are damaged as a result of the increased volume. Those hairs are used to transport the sensation of sound from your ears to your brain.

If you have ever experienced muffled sound or ringing in your ears after visiting a club or concert, that’s a short term effect of the damage your ears have suffered. Exposing your ears to constant levels of noise over a period of time will damage your hearing irreparably.

Experts claim that a third of all people who have experienced hearing loss have done so through sustained exposure to loud noises.