Hearing Health is Important
When we think about aging, we seldom spend a moment’s thought towards hearing loss. Even though it is well-known that untreated hearing loss gives rise to several other health conditions such as heart disease and dementia, people still take it lightly. It may be time to change this mindset and take your auditory health more seriously.
Aging is an inevitable process for even the best us, and hearing loss is lurking beyond the corner, waiting to strike at the unexpected moment. It is better to be prepared and take precautions rather than suffer from other health conditions due to hearing loss.
We often overlook our hearing health because our hearing is not as prominent a sense as sight, taste, or smell. We always hear, whether we want to or not, so we mostly take it for granted. Only after years of suffering from hearing loss do we finally take note that we are missing out on a good chunk of our daily sounds.
Hearing loss is a natural part of aging, but it can also occur to anyone at any point in their lifetime. We live in a noisy world and rarely do we take precautions to protect our hearing from these noises. Over time, this can result in hearing loss.
Untreated hearing loss puts you and your family at risk for dangerous threats that occur. You may be unaware of an intruder or a smoke alarm going off if you have hearing loss. You may even be at risk of sustaining injuries due to falling since hearing loss disrupts your sense of balance.
Hearing loss adds a host of other problems to our plate as we age. Dementia, depression, anxiety, diabetes, hypertension, and cardiovascular disease are only some of the medical conditions that are associated with hearing loss.
Thankfully, even though aging is inevitable, hearing loss does not have to be. You can take proactive steps to prevent hearing loss while you still can. In today’s world, hearing loss is irreversible, which is why prevention is your best option.
Take steps to protect your hearing by wearing earplugs before exposing yourself to loud noises. Invest in a pair of noise-cancelling headphones to drown out background noise and reduce the volume on your personal audio device to give you a safer listening experience. Never use cotton buds to clean your ears since this may actually damage your ears by pushing in earwax further into the ear canal, resulting in hearing loss or damage to the ears.
Always take a break from listening whenever you go out to loud events such as rock concerts. After an hour or so, step out to get some fresh air and give your ears a break. Do this if you work in noisy environments as well, and make sure you wear the auditory protective gear provided by your workplace.
Being able to hear is a wonderful thing. Let’s hope you will be able to experience the joy of hearing for many more years to come by practicing protective hearing techniques. If not, hearing loss can be effectively treated through the use of hearing aids. If you or a loved one has hearing loss, have your hearing examined by a qualified audiologist and get started on taking charge of your hearing health.