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So the Fourth is coming and people are very excited, especially in my town where we haven't had them for budget reasons for several years. But this year they're ba-aack and residents can't wait.  However, there's just one small thing.  They can damage your hearing. According to newswise.com, a new study has found that fireworks, construction and being in a marching band can cause to lose hearing permanently. I come from a family where both my mother and grandmother went deaf at early ages.  My grandmother, who was a concert pianist, never learned sign language so she and my mother never had a conversation till my mom was 16 -- when she finally got a hearing aid. I recently took a hearing test and scored "slightly below normal."  They didn't really need to tell me because I already knew, having trouble hearing people sometimes with soft voices in a noisy background.  In my case, it's probably age! But the study found that outdoor concerts, pa...

As we baby boomers continuue to age, hearing loss is often a part of it.  I know I have to strain sometimes to hear when I'm in a nosy room.  Both my mother and grandmother went deaf at early ages so it's possible it's in my destiny, too.  (It irritates me no end when my husband can hear the song playing on the restaurant's sound system, and I can't!) But even more upsetting than hearing loss is what it could lead to.  Big-time memory loss. According to a story at The New York Times, people who have to struggle to hear spend so much brain power just trying to make out the words that the other parts of their brains wear out,and shut down.  http://well.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/02/11/straining-to-hear-and-fend-off-dementia/