Everybody wants to stay young for as long as possible. We spend countless hours trying everything we can to stay young. From special diets to fad workout programs to Botox to wrinkle creams. Still, with all that time and effort, we commonly avoid doing one easy thing that could really work: protecting our ears.
Hearing impairment is often one of those “signs of aging” that we tend to consider to be inevitable. But it’s not that simple. By safeguarding your ears (and treating them with a bit of kindness as you go), you can help prevent damage and keep your hearing in good condition. And as time goes by, strong hearing can have significant anti-aging rewards.
Aging And Hearing
The actual passage of time is not usually what we are describing when we speak of aging. Rather, “aging” generally describes the appearance of certain emotional, mental, or physical characteristics that we associate with getting older. Joint pain is a perfect illustration of this. You might associate sore knees, for instance, with “growing old”. But lifestyle has as much to do with this as age does.
Many kinds of hearing loss fall into this category. There’s a build-up of damage as you get older. The build-up of damage, in most instances, is the real cause of hearing degeneration. And it’s typically downhill from there. Several other indications of aging have been connected to hearing loss:
- Studies have shown a strong connection between untreated hearing loss, anxiety, and depression.
- Self isolation from friends and family can be the consequence of untreated hearing loss.
- In some situations, the mental burden associated with attempting to hear can lead to issues like memory loss or insomnia. And that might make you feel like you’re getting old in an especially intense way.
- The onset of mental issues, including dementia, can often be accelerated by neglected or unnoticed hearing loss.
What to do About Age Related Hearing Loss
You’re really emphasizing damage prevention when you combat the “signs of aging” in your ears. And fortunately, there are quite a few ways to achieve that. Here are some things you can do:
- As much as you can, avoid loud noises. And when you can’t stay away from high volume places, wear hearing protection. So when you go see that concert with your favorite band, be sure to use earplugs.
- Become more aware. You can still suffer harm to your hearing even if sounds are not painfully loud. Your ears can also be injured by moderate noise if you are exposed to it for long periods of time.
- Wear hearing protection to work if your job exposes you to loud noise. With modern high quality ear muffs, loud sounds are filtered out while voices are still able to be heard with clarity.
Your ears can be protected by all of these steps. But in order to keep your hearing in good shape you can do one more thing: make an appointment with us for a hearing test. Making sure you undergo hearing screenings regularly can help you discover hearing loss before it’s even recognizable. Even if your hearing is perfectly fine, an exam will still be able to provide a useful baseline to compare against future results.
Wear Hearing Aids to Keep Your Ears Healthy
We live in a loud world. Even with your best effort to take care of your hearing, you still may ultimately detect some hearing loss. You need to get help as soon as possible if you do detect any symptoms of hearing loss. A good pair of hearing aids can help lessen some of the so-called age-related concerns related to hearing impairments.
You can maybe think of hearing aids as a facelift for your ears: something to make your ears to work a little more youthfully. And dementia, depression, and other problems can be prevented. This analogy only goes so far since a facelift is cosmetic and hearing aids are essential. You might look younger if you use wrinkle cream. But if you actually want to combat aging and feel somewhat more youthful, your best bet is to protect your hearing and treat your hearing loss.