Skip to navigation | Skip to content  Ear 'pump' may help
protect hearing  Loud noise  Some people have 'tougher' ears
than others when it comes to tolerating loud noise(Source:
iStockphoto)  Sound dampener Chewing, talking or singing might
potentially help protect your hearing, suggests an Australian
researcher.   In a paper published in the Journal of Hearing
Science, Bell suggests conventional models of hearing don't
explain why contracting the muscles of the ear — which some
people do voluntarily — can reduce sound by 30 decibels.  The
answer, he says, lies in a discarded 19th century theory that
suggests the middle ear muscles work like a hydraulic pump.
This theory may explain why some people seem to have 'tough'
ears that are impervious to hearing loss while others are more
sensitive, he says.  "The sound of an opera singer singing can
be 100 decibels, so why doesn't an opera singer go deaf?," asks
Bell. "The explanation is that when an opera singer sings the
middle ear muscles contract."  The middle