BY THE TIME Ludwig van Beethoven had turned 30, the celebrated virtuoso pianist had composed a couple of piano concertos, six string quartets and his first symphony. The prospect of a long, successful career as a composer and performer looked dazzlingly bright.

Then he started to notice a buzzing sound in his ears – and everything changed. By his mid-40s, Beethoven was almost totally deaf. He imagined rather than heard what his compositions sounded like, sitting at the piano with a pencil in his mouth, touching the other end of the piano to feel the vibration of the note. So, the Moonlight Sonata was composed.

In recent years, hearing loss is now recognised as a major public health issue, linked to mental health, heart health and risk of dementia. For many, hearing loss happens due to the wear and tear of old age.

The good news is that there are ways to restore hearing to those who are losing it. There are also promising new-generation drug therapies being developed for a condition that up to now has had none.

Hearing aids can support the brain while hearing loss is being managed. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

While we may not all be musical virtuosos, maintaining our hearing is essential to healthy ageing. When sounds of 20 to 25 decibels, such as rustling leaves, a ticking watch or a whisper from a few feet away, are no longer detectable, this is considered to qualify as a diagnosis of hearing loss.

What causes hearing loss?

There are three conditions that can cause a loss of hearing:

A blockage in the ear can be due to ear wax or infection, impairs sound waves from reaching the inner ear. This ‘conductive’ hearing loss can be fixed.

More complex is sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) due to damage to the inner ear, either the bones in the inner ear or the nerve pathways from ear to brain. A range of factors, including advancing age, genes, underlying disease, noise........

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