Noise-your cochlear hair cells are lining up to suicide

Noise can cause permanent damage to the hearing system and is the most common occupational injury and hearing disability factor.In daily life, noise sources are very extensive, such as transportation noise, industrial noise, public activity noise, military environment noise, and so on.

How does noise damage our hearing?How does noise deafness happen?

Recent studies have found that noise exposure can cause a series of changes in the cochlea, including reactive oxygen species, reactive nitrogen free radicals, and metalloproteinases, DNA damage in hair cells, Caspase-3 activation, and AIF and EndoG metastasis. And mainly apoptosis.

It sounds esoteric, what does it mean?

Let’s talk about free radicals first

Everyone should be familiar with free radicals, especially women who love beauty.Free radicals can simply be called the “source of all evils” because it is the culprit that causes us to grow old.

Free radicals are a by-product of cellular activity, like the mess in the kitchen after the feast.Free radicals attack and destroy normal cells , which is also an important reason for the development of human diseases and accelerated aging .

There are more free radicals in the skin cells, and the skin begins to become dry and inelastic, and wrinkles and age spots appear; there are more free radicals in the blood vessels, arteriosclerosis, hypertension, and cerebral hemorrhage will appear; there are more free radicals in the five internal organs and tumors will come out.Similarly, more free radicals in the cochlea can cause damage to the ear.

The study found that after noise exposure, both the reactive oxygen radicals and reactive nitrogen radicals in the cochlea increased , and these radicals were generated much faster than the antioxidant enzyme system’s ability to scavenge.

At the same time, noise stimulation can also cause hypoxia, ischemia in the inner ear, and decrease in the activity of antioxidant enzyme systems and free radical scavengers. It also causes excessive accumulation of free radicals and damages the inner ear hair cells.

What damage can our hair cells suffer?

Studies have shown that noise exposure can cause nucleus damage to cochlear hair cells and produce ssDNA .The emergence of ssDNA is an early manifestation of cell death.

In addition, it can also cause mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) mutations.When the accumulation of mutant mtDNA in the cell reaches a certain level, and the ability to generate oxidative phosphorylation is lower than the threshold for maintaining normal cell function, tissues and organs begin to degenerate.

Yes, that’s right.This means that under the stimulation of noise, our “precious” and “non-renewable” cochlear hair cells are dying one by one .

When the number of dead hair cells reaches a certain level, we will have hearing loss, and the sound of a certain frequency band will never be heard.

Suicide or homicide?Who killed the cochlear hair cells?

What is interesting is that it is not the noise that kills our cochlear hair cells, but more that our cochlea hair cells cannot stand the noise and choose “suicide” .

Cell death can be divided into two major categories: one is a programmed death method called apoptosis; the other is a non-programmed death method called necrosis.

Apoptosis occurs because the cell actively activates its pre-set cell self-destruct device under various damage and stimulation conditions, and does not cause the inflammatory response of surrounding tissues.The necrosis is a passive process due to the pathological cause of death occurs, it tends to cause inflammation of the surrounding tissue and so on.

In order to facilitate understanding and differentiation, we can also consider apoptosis as a “suicide” action of cells, and necrosis as a “killer”.

A large number of experiments have confirmed that the main method of hair cell death caused by noise is apoptosis.

That is, without our knowledge, our cochlear hair cells may not be able to stand for a long time, and started to quietly activate the cell self-destruct device to self-destruct.

Therefore, many irreversible hearing losses occur more suddenly than expected.

How to protect our hearing in a noisy environment?

Now that we know the dangers of noise, we must take good measures to protect our hearing!Jinghao hearing aids summarize the following points for your reference:

1. Reduce contact time with noise and be isolated from noise during breaks.

2. People who have been working in a noisy environment for a long time should have regular hearing tests to find out early and get treatment in time.

3. People with sensorineural deafness and noise sensitivity should avoid working in a strong noise environment.

4. Take proactive measures or control sound sources.For uncontrollable noise, you can adopt ear sound insulation, and wear earplugs, earmuffs, soundproof caps and other soundproof equipment.

5. Avoid using the Walkman for a long time and turn down the volume.High volume audio sounds cause fatigue and damage to the hearing organs, resulting in hearing loss and even deafness.

6. Seek medical attention if you have difficulty hearing.