As we get older we tend to think that hearing loss only has an affect on the older generation. You might have had older people around you struggling to hear conversations or wearing hearing aids.
As you begin to get older, you start to understand that there is a further cause of hearing loss in addition to aging.
Feeling old is the leading reason why many people can’t admit they have hearing loss.
It Doesn’t Make A Difference What Your age is, you May Still Have Hearing Loss
By the age of 12, hearing loss is apparent in 13% of cases. You’ll agree, this isn’t because 12-year-olds are “old”. In the past 3 decades there has been a 33% increase in teen hearing loss.
What’s at work here?
2% of 45 – 55-year-olds and 8% of 55 – 64-year-olds presently have debilitating hearing loss.
The difficulty is not with aging. It’s totally possible to avoid, despite the fact that most people may think of it as an aging problem. And you have the ability to drastically decrease the advancement of your hearing loss.
Age-related hearing loss, recognized medically as sensorineural hearing loss, is most typically instigated by loud noise.
For ages hearing loss was considered to be inescapable as you age. But today, scientists knows more concerning exactly how to safeguard your hearing and also restore it.
How Hearing Loss is Caused by Loud Noise
The initial step to protecting your ears is recognizing how something as “innocent” as loud noise can cause hearing loss.
Sound is made up of waves of pressure. Traveling down into your ear these waves go past your eardrum and into the inner ear.
Within the inner ear little hairs vibrate. Which hair cells vibrate, and how quickly or frequently they vibrate, become a neurological code. Your brain can turn this code into conversations, the sound of wind, a car horn, a yell or anything else you may hear.
But when the inner ear is exposed to noises that are too loud, these hair cells vibrate too quickly. The noise shakes them to death.
Without them, you can not hear.
Hearing Loss Caused by Loud Noise is not Reversible
If you cut your body, the injury heals. But when you damage these little hair cells, they cannot heal, and they will not ever grow back again. The more frequently you’re subjected to loud noises, the more little hair cells you lose.
As they die, hearing loss advances.
Common Sounds That Cause Hearing Injury
Many people are shocked to discover that everyday activities may cause hearing loss. You may not think twice about:
- Going to a concert/play/movie
- Wearing earbuds/head phones
- Turning the car stereo way up
- Mowing the lawn
- Using farm equipment
- Riding a motorcycle/snowmobile
- Driving on a busy highway with the windows or top down
- Working in a factory or other loud industry
- Hunting
- Playing music in a band
These activities don’t need to be given up. Thankfully, you can take positive measures to reduce noise-induced hearing loss.
You Don’t Need to Feel old Just Because you Have Hearing Loss
If you’re already suffering from hearing loss, acknowledging it does not need to cause you to feel older. In fact, failing to acknowledge it can guarantee faster development and complications that will certainly cause you to you feel a lot older in only a few years like:
- Depression
- Anxiety
- Dementia/Alzheimer’s
- Increased Fall Risk
- Social Isolation
- More frequent trips to the ER
- Strained relationships
It’s considerably more likely for people with untreated hearing loss to have problems with one or more of these.
Prevent Further Hearing Injury
The first step is to learn how to to counter hearing loss.
- Discover how noisy everyday sounds really are by using a sound meter app on your smart-phone.
- Damaging volumes should be avoided without proper hearing protection. More than 85 dB (decibels) will cause irreversible hearing loss in 8 hours. 110 dB takes around 15 minutes to cause permanent hearing loss. 120 dB and higher causes instant hearing loss. A gunshot is around 140 to 170 dB.
- You should know that you have already caused hearing damage if you have had a hard time hearing, or if your ears were ringing, after a concert. Over time it will get worse.
- Put on earplugs and/or sound-dampening earmuffs when appropriate.
- Comply with work hearing protection procedures.
- Reduce your exposure time to loud sounds.
- Avoid standing close to loudspeakers or turning speakers up when listening at home.
- Purchase earbuds/headphones which come with built-in volume control. They never go higher 90 decibels. Most people would need to listen practically non-stop all day to do irreversible damage.
- High blood pressure, low blood oxygen, and several medications tend to cause you to be more vulnerable at lower volumes. To be certain, don’t ever listen to headphones at above 50%. Car speakers differ.
- Use your hearing aid. Not using a hearing aid if you actually need them causes the brain to atrophy. It’s the same as your leg muscles. If you stop walking, it gets much more difficult to start walking again.
Call a Hearing Professional for a Hearing Test
Are you in denial or procrastinating on it? Make the right decision sooner than later. The faster you make the smart decision the less damage you will continue to do.
Speak to Your Hearing Professional Concerning Hearing Answers
There are not any “normal cures” for hearing damage. If hearing loss is extreme, it may be time to purchase a hearing aid.
Do a Cost-Benefit Analysis of Hearing Aids
Many sufferers are either in denial about hearing loss, or, they make the decision to “tough it out.” They feel that hearing aids make them feel old. Or perhaps they believe they are too expensive.
But when they understand that hearing loss will worsen faster and can cause several health and personal problems, it’s easy to be certain that the pros well outweigh the cons.
Call a hearing care professional today about getting a hearing test. And if hearing aids are advisable, don’t worry about “feeling old.” Hearing aids at present are much more streamlined and more advanced than you may think!