|
Sex, Drugs, Rock 'n' Roll
By Sue Woodman, originally published in My Generation
|
ROCK 'N ROLL
Given all the healthy habits the baby-boomer generation has adopted, it's likely they'll achieve unparalleled longevity.
Yes, all that loud music damaged our eardrums. "We are beginning to see a lot of high-frequency hearing loss in forty- and fifty-year-olds," says Dr. Kenneth Einhorn, an Abington, Pennsylvania, otolaryngologist who treats many musicians for degrees of deafness. "Years ago, we didn't see these kinds of hearing problems till people entered their sixties or seventies." Noise-induced hearing loss happens gradually, as loud sounds blast the delicate cells of the inner ear and cause cumulative, irreparable damage.
After one loud concert, there may be a muffled quality to the ambient sound. After a few years of concerts, the muffle might not go away. By age 45, there may be some permanent high-frequency hearing loss—the kind that causes you to miss parts of conversations, particularly when there's competing background noise. Some people also develop tinnitus, or ringing in the ears.
There's no cure, but you can slow the damage and protect what hearing remains. Wear earplugs during any noisy activities, such as mowing the lawn, running an electric saw—or listening to loud music, recommends Einhorn.
If your hearing has been damaged, consider getting a hearing aid. Don't think they're just for fogies; Bill Clinton wears one. The latest models now use digital sound, a refinement that has noticeably improved their quality.
What should we make of all this information? Listed together, it makes for sobering reading. What it means, the professionals tell us, is that if we're still tempted to go home with strangers or to roll a joint when the kids are out, we shouldn't. There may be consequences we don't expect.
Although there's little we can do about the past, the most important prevention for the future, say medical researchers, is to give up (or limit) the two drugs we may have kept using all along: nicotine and alcohol. "These kill more people than all the illegal substances combined, particularly with prolonged use," says Seymour. Consider that about 434,000 people die of tobacco-related disease every year, and more than 100,000 are killed by alcohol.
Still, there's plenty of room for optimism. Sex and drug-taking—to the extent they went on in the '60s and '70s—are now just a distant memory to the boomer generation, says Rothenberg. "In fact, given all the healthy habits the baby-boomer generation has adopted, it's likely they'll achieve unparalleled longevity."
So forget the past, deal with the present and stop worrying. After all, Keith Richards is still alive and—despite any rumors to the contrary—doing remarkably well.
|
