 Hearing loss is the number one birth defect in the world!
Unfortunately, we live in a noisy world and our hearing just gets worse. Loud sharp noises like rock concerts, fire crackers, guns, chainsaws all destroy hair cells which produce hearing (How Loud is Too Loud - Quicktime Movie). Once damaged, we lose our hearing and those haircells are never replaced by nature.
Roughly ten percent of the U.S. population suffers from hearing loss. By the time we become senior citizens about half of us have damaged haircells and if we live long enough we will probably all have hearing problems. But, not all is lost!
Rotary International via the International Fellowship of Rotarians Affected by Hearing Loss Rotarians for Hearing Regeneration has undertaken the fundraising efforts. Click Here to view our Windows Media video that explains hearing loss and the regeneration process.
Birds Do It, Why Can't We?
Scientists Restore Hearing in Deaf Guinea Pigs
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How Do We Hear?Provided by National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders Hearing depends on the following series of events that change sound waves in the air into electrical impulses that the auditory (hearing) nerve carries to the brain. The ear has three major parts, described as the outer ear, middle ear, and inner ear. Sound waves enter the outer ear (pinna) and travel through a narrow tube (ear canal) that leads inside the ear to the eardrum (tympanic membrane). The eardrum vibrates from the incoming sound waves and transmits these vibrations through three tiny bones called the ossicles (the malleus, incus, and stapes) in the middle ear. They amplify the sound and send it through the entrance to the inner ear (oval window) and into the fluid-filled hearing organ (cochlea). The vibrations create ripples in the fluid that bend projections from tiny hair cells in the cochlea, causing electrical impulses that the auditory nerve, or eighth cranial nerve, sends to the brain. The brain translates these impulses into what we experience as sound.
Educational Online Movies
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Interesting Hearing Loss Links
Rotarians for Hearing Regeneration
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Wouldn't it be wonderful if our hearing got better instead of worse as we went through life?
Researchers at the University of Washington are leading the investigation into a highly promising approach to restoring lost hearing. Through the Hearing Regeneration Initiative, launched by the UW's Virginia Merrill Bloedel Hearing Research Center, they plan to bring speed the progress of science in solving this difficult problem that affects so many of us as we age. The initiative will bring together leading researchers from many disciplines - with the goal of achieving haircell regeneration in five to ten years.
