Lifelong musicians ‘have better hearing’

Playing a musical instrument throughout your life protects your hearing in old age, a Canadian study suggests. The study, published in Psychology and Aging, carried out hearing tests on 74 adult musicians and 89 non-musicians. It found a 70-year-old musician’s hearing was as good as that of a 50-year-old who did not play.

Action on Hearing Loss said all people – including musicians – should try to prevent hearing damage in the first place.

Hearing normally declines as people age. By 60, 10-30% of people have moderate hearing loss. By 80, that goes up to as many as 60%. Problems are particularly seen in the central auditory processing system, which is associated with understanding speech, especially when there is background noise – often described as the “cocktail party problem”.

via BBC News

Gramilano( Editor )

Graham Spicer is a writer, director and photographer in Milan, blogging (under the name ‘Gramilano’) about dance, opera, music and photography for people “who are a bit like me and like some of the things I like”. He was a regular columnist for Opera Now magazine and wrote for the BBC until transferring to Italy.

His scribblings have appeared in various publications from Woman’s Weekly to Gay Times, and he wrote the ‘Danza in Italia’ column for Dancing Times magazine.