The most variable parts of the system are the listener's ears. The ears are
infused by very fine blood vessels, including capillaries. Many years ago,
Dr. Paul Dudley White coined the phrase, "A man is as old as his arteries",
referring to the process of arteriosclerosis that is one of the causes of
loss of eyesight and hearing. However, in recent years, this has been
augmented by the discovery that blood vessel disease also affects the
smaller blood vessels. Small blood vessel disease is now considered a prime
candidate as a cause or contributor to Alzheimers disease. It also
contributes to retinal degeneration, and presbycusis. All of us, as we grow
older, are subject to this phenomena, to varying degrees. Some people do
retain hearing to 20 kHz late in life, but they are in the minority.

Part of small blood vessel disease is permanent, or possibly, semipermanent,
while the actual performance of the blood vessels is affected on a daily
basis by the level of blood lipids. After we eat, the level of blood fats
rises, increasing the viscosity of the blood. Reduced flow of blood through
the fine blood vessels, and reduced oxygenation, are the consequences of
either a big meal or a fine meal.

The degree of impairment depends upon the individual. To test how severely
your hearing is affected, try eating very lightly for eight hours or so, and
then listen. Avoid foods such as ice cream, which produce a large and rapid
increase in blood lipids.

Without hearing acuity, a hifi is a worthless hunk of iron. Give it a try.

wrote in message
oups.com...
Morein wrote:

"To test how severely
your hearing is affected, try eating very lightly for eight hours or
so, and
then listen. Avoid foods such as ice cream, which produce a large and
rapid
increase in blood lipids."

So Fats Waller must have been another Beethoven, virtually deaf. That
cat would eat 2-3 whole chickens at a sitting.

TB

How true. The love of music is not related to hearing acuity. It is a mind
phenomena.

Robert Morein wrote:

wrote in message
oups.com...
Morein wrote:

"To test how severely
your hearing is affected, try eating very lightly for eight hours or
so, and
then listen. Avoid foods such as ice cream, which produce a large and
rapid
increase in blood lipids."

So Fats Waller must have been another Beethoven, virtually deaf. That
cat would eat 2-3 whole chickens at a sitting.

TB

How true. The love of music is not related to hearing acuity. It is a mind
phenomena.

I think what these idiots are failing to understand is that listening
doesn't happen in a vacuum; you can't separate biology/the mind
from the listening experience. People here seem to think that ears come
as separate devices, bolted on to your head; and they either work or
they don't.

What you said about digestion and listening isn't anything new to me. I
know that there are a great many biological factors that can affect
listening, including diet, including mood (both are related). This is
why if I am doing a testing session and I eat or drink something
during, I always retest the control track before comparing it to
something different. In fact, I'm careful not to move anything in the
room in order to control changes. I think it might be stretching it to
call it a "tweak" though. It is at best a science trick. I consider a
"tweak" a permanent change you can make to upgrade your system. It's
not practical to either have to eat every time you sit down to listen
to music, or to plan going without food every time you do so.

A similar "tweak" that might also fall into this category of "science
trick" (although its probably more practical than starving...) is to
simply cross your legs or your ankles. You may notice that the
perception of sound improves when you cross your ankles.