{"id":3930,"date":"2024-03-17T21:40:13","date_gmt":"2024-03-17T20:40:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.deejayplaza.com\/en\/?p=3930"},"modified":"2024-08-19T21:09:33","modified_gmt":"2024-08-19T19:09:33","slug":"tinnitus-hearing-loss-dj","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.deejayplaza.com\/en\/articles\/tinnitus-hearing-loss-dj","title":{"rendered":"The dark truth about why every DJ gets Tinnitus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hearing loss has become a occupational hazard for DJs, regretfully.<br>It&#8217;s not a question <strong>IF <\/strong>it will happen to you, but <strong>WHEN<\/strong>!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Before I dive into how you can protect yourself against Tinnitus, let me explain the difference between &#8220;hearing loss&#8221; and &#8220;tinnitus&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n<h2 class=\"simpletoc-title\">Table of Contents<\/h2>\n<style>html { scroll-behavior: smooth; }<\/style><ul class=\"simpletoc-list\">\n<li><a href=\"#what-is-hearing-loss\">What is hearing loss?<\/a>\n<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#what-is-tinnitus\">What is tinnitus?<\/a>\n<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#my-personal-experience\">My personal experience<\/a>\n<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#causes\">Causes<\/a>\n<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"#prevention\">Prevention<\/a>\n<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n<h2 id=\"what-is-hearing-loss\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">What is hearing loss?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hearing loss is the diminished capacity to hear things properly<br>Hearing loss is a very natural process of becoming older.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In contrast to popular belief, someone suffering from hearing loss does not need louder sounds to be able to hear properly.<br>Someone suffering from hearing loss hears less frequencies on the top and bottom of the frequency spectrum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the reduced frequency specturm, only <strong>some <\/strong>of the frequencies are effected, but not by equal amounts.<br>Some frequency ranges are practically unaffected, others are diminished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For someone suffering from hearing loss, it is harder to distinguish different frequencies.<br>So, for them it is harder to understand speech.<br>Especially in a large group of people or with a lot of background noise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To someone suffering from hearing loss, the world sounds more harsh and sharp than to someone without it.<br>High pitched sounds especially, are perceived as painful, much more than other frequencies at the same volume.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The sounds of cleaning out the dishwasher are extremely painful.<br>Also the sound of the train wheels on rails even more so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"what-is-tinnitus\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">What is tinnitus?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The words &#8220;tinnitus&#8221; and &#8220;hearing loss&#8221; are often used interchangeably.<br>Someone with hearing loss doesn&#8217;t always have tinnitus.<br>But someone with tinnitus always suffers from loss of hearing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My grandmother suffers from hearing loss (because of age), but she doesn&#8217;t have tinnitus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tinnitus is the 24\/7 ringing sound in your ear around around a certain frequency.<br>Tinnitus is caused by unnatural damage to my cochlea due to hard sounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Someone with tinnitus also has a diminished hearing capacity around that frequency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Someone with tinnitus will experience music differently that someone without tinnitus.<br>This isn&#8217;t necessarily a problem for DJ, but it is for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.deejayplaza.com\/en\/articles\/difference-dj-music-producer\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">music producers<\/a>, because they don&#8217;t hear what their listeners hear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"my-personal-experience\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">My personal experience<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"960\" height=\"636\" src=\"https:\/\/www.deejayplaza.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/hearing-loss-tinnitus-djing-960x636.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3969\" style=\"width:414px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.deejayplaza.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/hearing-loss-tinnitus-djing-960x636.webp 960w, https:\/\/www.deejayplaza.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/hearing-loss-tinnitus-djing-300x199.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.deejayplaza.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/hearing-loss-tinnitus-djing-150x99.webp 150w, https:\/\/www.deejayplaza.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/hearing-loss-tinnitus-djing-768x508.webp 768w, https:\/\/www.deejayplaza.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/hearing-loss-tinnitus-djing.webp 1000w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The reason I know so much about hearing loss and tinnitus, is because I suffer from it myself.<br>My tinnitus frequency is 4000 Hz.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Weirdly enough, DJing didn&#8217;t cause my tinnitus.<br>I didn&#8217;t even know I had tinnitus, until I started DJing.<br>I thought my ears where &#8220;sensitive&#8221; &#8230;. (remember that I talked about the harsh sounds earlier?).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Because &#8220;I had sensitive ears&#8221; I wanted in-ear monitors to protect myself against hearing loss.<br>It wasn&#8217;t until I talked with the company that sold me my hearing protection that I probably suffered from hearing loss.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The guy told me to get tested by my doctor.<br>The doctor referred my to a hearing care professional.<br>She did some tests with tonal beeps at certain frequencies, and confirmed I had tinnitus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The exact cause of my hearing loss I don&#8217;t know.<br>I suspect is was the noise of loud groups of people.<br>At that time I was working in corporate events with groups of 100, sometimes 250 people shouting and yelling at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For a while, the tinnitus drove me crazy.<br>Imagine hearing a constant tone of 4000 Hz whatever you do, even when you are in bed trying to sleep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">By now I got used to it.<br>I can literally hear when I&#8217;m tired, because the volume of the tinnitus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 1.6rem\">Free DJ tips in your inbox?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As a bonus gift I will send you a <strong>FREE <\/strong>E-book on how to kick-off your DJ career!<\/p>\n\n\n<!-- MailerLite Universal -->\n<script>\n(function(m,a,i,l,e,r){ m['MailerLiteObject']=e;function f(){\nvar c={ a:arguments,q:[]};var r=this.push(c);return \"number\"!=typeof r?r:f.bind(c.q);}\nf.q=f.q||[];m[e]=m[e]||f.bind(f.q);m[e].q=m[e].q||f.q;r=a.createElement(i);\nvar _=a.getElementsByTagName(i)[0];r.async=1;r.src=l+'?v'+(~~(new Date().getTime()\/1000000));\n_.parentNode.insertBefore(r,_);})(window, document, 'script', 'https:\/\/static.mailerlite.com\/js\/universal.js', 'ml');\n\nvar ml_account = ml('accounts', '1691580', 't0j5q7h5d7', 'load');\n<\/script>\n<!-- End MailerLite Universal -->\n\n<div class=\"ml-form-embed\"\n  data-account=\"1691580:t0j5q7h5d7\"\n  data-form=\"6052713:y7m2e8\">\n<\/div>\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"causes\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Causes<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"700\" height=\"525\" src=\"https:\/\/www.deejayplaza.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/hearing-loss-tinnitus-club.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3971\" style=\"width:363px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.deejayplaza.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/hearing-loss-tinnitus-club.webp 700w, https:\/\/www.deejayplaza.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/hearing-loss-tinnitus-club-300x225.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.deejayplaza.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/hearing-loss-tinnitus-club-150x113.webp 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tinnitus is caused by loud sounds over a prolonged period of time.<br>The louder the sound, the less time you can be exposed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Here are safe listening times per 24 hours.<br>Exceeding these limits is almost a guarantee to get tinnitus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td>80 dB<\/td><td>8 hours<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>83 dB<\/td><td>4 hours<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>86 db<\/td><td>2 hours<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>89 dB<\/td><td>1 hour<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>92 dB<\/td><td>30 min.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>95 dB<\/td><td>15 min.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>98 dB<\/td><td>7 min. &#8211; 30 sec.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>101 dB<\/td><td>3 min &#8211; 45 sec.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>104 dB<\/td><td>1 min &#8211; 52 sec.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>107 dB<\/td><td>56 sec.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>110 dB<\/td><td>28 sec.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>113 dB<\/td><td>14 sec.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>116 dB<\/td><td>7 sec.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>119 dB<\/td><td>3.5 sec.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>120 db<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>pain limit<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><tr><td>122 dB<\/td><td>1.7 sec.<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>125 dB<\/td><td>0.8 sec.<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There are apps for your phone to see how loud music is.<br>This way found out that some clubs in Ibiza are playing at <strong>107 dB<\/strong>.<br>It takes an average person only <strong>56 seconds to get tinnitus<\/strong> in Ibiza without hearing protection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While the high pitch sounds are often painful for people with tinnitus, the tinnitus is caused by lower frequencies.<br>In practice that means for us DJs, the kick and bass of music.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The hairs the cochlea in our inner ear translate vibration into electrical current that the brain interprets as sound.  (See the complete explanation on <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Cochlea\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Wikipedia<\/a>.)<br>When the low frequencies get too loud, the hairs vibrate too much and start to lie flat.<br>They either break or stay flat, thus don&#8217;t vibrate anymore, so you hear less.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The hairs touch each other because they lie down, this causes a short.<br>This short is translated into you tinnitus frequency, we perceive as sound.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Older people are much more susceptible to tinnitus than younger people.<br>The hairs in the cochlea of young people are much more vibrant and sometimes able to recover.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">If you have had that ringing sound in your ear after a night at the club, you had tinnitus, albeit short-term tinnitus.<br>Getting older, or exposing yourself too often to loud music are perfect precipices to get permanent tinnitus.<br>If that happens, the ringing won&#8217;t ever stop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The pitfall for DJ is, when they don&#8217;t hear the music, they turn up the volume.<br>Which causes even more hearing loss.<br>This is a never ending spiral!<br>You won&#8217;t fix hearing loss by turning up the volume.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong><span style=\"font-size: 1.6rem\">Free DJ tips in your inbox?<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">As a bonus gift I will send you a <strong>FREE <\/strong>E-book on how to kick-off your DJ career!<\/p>\n\n\n<!-- MailerLite Universal -->\n<script>\n(function(m,a,i,l,e,r){ m['MailerLiteObject']=e;function f(){\nvar c={ a:arguments,q:[]};var r=this.push(c);return \"number\"!=typeof r?r:f.bind(c.q);}\nf.q=f.q||[];m[e]=m[e]||f.bind(f.q);m[e].q=m[e].q||f.q;r=a.createElement(i);\nvar _=a.getElementsByTagName(i)[0];r.async=1;r.src=l+'?v'+(~~(new Date().getTime()\/1000000));\n_.parentNode.insertBefore(r,_);})(window, document, 'script', 'https:\/\/static.mailerlite.com\/js\/universal.js', 'ml');\n\nvar ml_account = ml('accounts', '1691580', 't0j5q7h5d7', 'load');\n<\/script>\n<!-- End MailerLite Universal -->\n\n<div class=\"ml-form-embed\"\n  data-account=\"1691580:t0j5q7h5d7\"\n  data-form=\"6052713:y7m2e8\">\n<\/div>\n\n\n<div style=\"height:30px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<h2 id=\"prevention\" class=\"wp-block-heading\">Prevention<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Hearing loss is irreversible<\/strong>!!!<br>There is no cure for hearing loss, so the only thing you can do is trying to prevent it, or prevent it from becoming worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Headphones<\/strong><br>Use headphones that completely encapsulate your outer ear.<br>This way they block background noise and you are able to hear the music in your headphone better.<br>This way you don&#8217;t have to put your headphones louder than they need to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>In-ear headphones<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"700\" height=\"467\" src=\"https:\/\/www.deejayplaza.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/hearing-loss-tinnitus-inear-headphones.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3962\" style=\"width:371px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.deejayplaza.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/hearing-loss-tinnitus-inear-headphones.webp 700w, https:\/\/www.deejayplaza.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/hearing-loss-tinnitus-inear-headphones-300x200.webp 300w, https:\/\/www.deejayplaza.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/hearing-loss-tinnitus-inear-headphones-150x100.webp 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But even better are in-ear monitors.<br>They completely seal off your hearing from the outside world.<br>You can still hear, albeit worse, because the only sound you will hear is vibration through your skull.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Put the monitors in <strong>before <\/strong>you go into the venue.<br>When you go into the venue you will still &#8220;scare&#8221; the hairs in your cochlea.<br>You still need to put the volume louder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">When you put the monitors in before you go into the venue, you are protected from the start.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Lifestyle<\/strong><br>Maintaining a healthy lifestyle by eating healthy and exercising helps to minimize the risk get get tinnitus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">They say that fish-oil tablets help to diminish tinnitus.<br>But thus far I haven&#8217;t heard any improvement with or without the tablets.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hearing loss has become a occupational hazard for DJs, regretfully.It&#8217;s not a question IF it will happen to you, but WHEN! Before I dive into how you can protect yourself against Tinnitus, let me explain the difference between &#8220;hearing loss&#8221; and &#8220;tinnitus&#8221;. Table of Contents What is hearing loss? What is tinnitus? My personal experience &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4601,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,68,83],"tags":[65,66],"class_list":["post-3930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-dj-equipment","category-dj-profession","category-worth-reading","tag-hearing-loss","tag-tinnitus"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.deejayplaza.com\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/thumbnail-v2-hearing-loss-tinnitus-dj.webp","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deejayplaza.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deejayplaza.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deejayplaza.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deejayplaza.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deejayplaza.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3930"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"https:\/\/www.deejayplaza.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3930\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5772,"href":"https:\/\/www.deejayplaza.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3930\/revisions\/5772"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deejayplaza.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.deejayplaza.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deejayplaza.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.deejayplaza.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}