When many people think of post-combat injuries among veterans, they think of missing limbs, post-traumatic stress, and brain trauma. Hearing loss, though, may not often come to mind. Here are 5 facts you may not know about hearing loss among veterans.
When many people think of post-combat injuries among veterans, they think of missing limbs, post-traumatic stress, and brain trauma. Hearing loss, though, may not often come to mind. Here are 5 facts you may not know about hearing loss among veterans. Hearing loss is the most prevalent injury among post-combat veterans. – Hearing loss beats out PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) as the number one service-connected disability. Loud explosions from bombs aren’t the only threat to hearing – general combat and everyday military noise can cause harm as well. The deafening sounds of tank, plane, and ship engines contributes to temporary to permanent hearing loss and tinnitus, as do explosive devices and other loud weapons. Hearing loss is especially common among post 9/11 veterans. In fact, 414,000 post 9/11 soldiers have come home with some form of tinnitus or hearing loss.
Soldiers are more likely to suffer hearing damage than civilians. – Veterans are 30 percent more likely than nonveterans to suffer hearing loss of the severe kind. Even more concerning is that among those who served from September 2001 to March 2010, veterans were four times more like to suffer hearing loss than nonveterans.
Hearing loss may be more prevalent now than it was for soldiers in the past. – With the advent of improvised explosive devices and more powerful combat technology, more veterans are coming home with hearing loss than their predecessors. Intensely loud field generators, bombs such as “bunker busters,” and even modern helicopters can cause hearing impairment if soldiers don’t take precautions.
Unfortunately, many of the soldiers who come home with loss of hearing do not seek help. – Most soldiers with hearing damage or tinnitus avoid seeking out help for their injury upon returning home, according to experts. They often let it go for long periods of time. Incredibly, the average time between someone noticing hearing damage and getting help for it is 7 years.
Breakthroughs in neuroscience may help those who suffer severe tinnitus. – Tinnitus cannot be cured completely at this time. However, it’s severity may be linked to maladies caused by serotonin loss, such as depression, sleeplessness, and anxiety. Tinnitus therapies combined with antidepressants have aided some veterans who are chronic sufferers of tinnitus.