Can Alcohol damage our hearing?

[musichal]

Effect, affect. The general effects of alcohol are familiar. How does it affect you? OTOH, you can effect change in your behavior, and some psychiatric diagnoses can cause a flat affect. So effect is usually a noun, and affect usually a verb, but not always with either. Clears that right up.

 

[heyraz]

I don't know...does alcohol affect your vision or any other senses?

 

[maxhifi]

Yes sure, yet more evidence that living is definitely the main cause of dying.

I wonder if they excluded from research that those who have drank more in their lives, may also have spent more time out in the world around noisy things, and less time protecting themselves in a quiet environment.

 

[Killer Fox]

Damn!
3.51am down under in the land of the plenty is not enough drinkers

Down here we tend to drink far too much as a population, don't know about you guys over there....I would guess you lot are in general more moderate? Many will agree it effects other senses, so why does hearing get off? I better get some sleep, not an early rise today but can't afford to sleep too far into the day.

Night all.

There is nothing "moderate" about the US. LOL.

 

[JoeESP9]

If you're drunk you can't really listen to anything. I speak from experience. Fortunately the effect is not permanent. Or, is it?

 

[CruzBay]

I drink to make others more interesting.

Probably works with music as well.

 

[jhtstone]

Alcohol definitely affects my wife's hearing. She claims that the more I drink, it degrades the quality of my singing to her ears.

 

[motorstereo]

Whew.....thank goodness I drink only when I'm alone or with somebody otherwise I wouldn't have any senses left and would not be able to listen to or see my rig

 

[petehall347]

i find drinking deafens people .. few drinks and the music has to be very loud and everyone needs to shout to communicate with each other

 

[Boozehound]

I would say yes long term, but that's not going to stop me. (As he shakes from the wagon)
Thank God I don't smoke.

Best-

Boozehound

 

[CT_Ohio]

All joking aside, I've probably had well more alcohol than I should the past 30 years, and yet I can't say I've noticed any adverse effect. I'm more concerned about environmental noise (aka my lawnmower, router and table saw for which I wear hearing protection), and something that website did not mention: certain classes of antibiotics have known adverse effects on the inner ear, some permanent. If you're still concerned, ask your doctor.

 

[jdurbin1]

My understanding (from reading about it many years ago) is that drinking or doing drugs (some drugs anyway) can result in the ear's defenses against loud noise being impaired. It's one of the reasons a lot of musicians end up with damaged hearing, the combination of that impairment and exposure to stage-level music causes damage over time. A lot of the inner ear solutions sold to the pro market are carefully designed to allow some of the external sound to pass so the musician can hear that in conjunction with what is being piped in directly via the earphones, but w/o being at such high levels they end up with hearing damage. Those solutions weren't really available back in the heyday of rock concerts though.

In my experience, the initial effect from drinking is one of enhanced aural appreciation (well-known in the audio biz that a buzzed customer will usually like what they hear when you demo a new system for them, but may not like it as much when the buzz is gone the next day) but that changes to ringing if the exposure is at high enough levels for longer periods. The ringing can be temporary or it can become permanent, definitely one of the variables.

It's not a bad idea to use your own protection if you're going to drink & listen at high levels, i.e. ear plugs etc.

John

 

[bob06]

I'm loosing my hearing because of old age not because I drink all the time. But maybe it's the alcohol making me think that.

 

[datafone]

Effect, affect. The general effects of alcohol are familiar. How does it affect you? OTOH, you can effect change in your behavior, and some psychiatric diagnoses can cause a flat affect. So effect is usually a noun, and affect usually a verb, but not always with either. Clears that right up.

This one always messed with my head, never have been good at written english even though It's my only language.

 

[musichal]

This one always messed with my head, never have been good at written english even though It's my only language.

Me neither, but I keep trying.

 

[M0therG00se]

I'd say that alcohol in retrospect diminishes hearing.

If I have a 3/4 beers I Jack up that volume. The hearing loss must be from jamming and not directly from inside.

 

[91r100gs]

Well if someone clubs you upside the head with a fifth of whiskey. I would say yes.

Regards
Mister Pig

 

[audiojones]

Can Alcohol damage our hearing?
Ain't but one way to find out!

 

[ETLS]

If drinking affects your hearing, you're pouring it in the wrong hole on your head.

 

[sanford12]

Everything in moderation will see you through. Remember the butter, egg, red meat, coffee scares and now their OK and a couple of them went back and fourth more than once. Dr. OZ ought to be jack slapped with every other purveyor of paranoia.