Hearing is a life-enhancing sense so ingrained into our daily experience that it's easy to undervalue its many benefits. But we shouldn't. We hear to communicate, experience music and nature, educate ourselves and others, work, preserve our mental health, and protect ourselves from danger. In a word, amazing!
Given the value hearing provides, we should give our ears all the tender loving care they deserve. However, it might surprise you how easy it is to damage them.
Why it matters
When you jeopardize the health of your ears, you jeopardize your hearing ability. For example, exposure to loud noise causes sensorineural hearing loss, which, if untreated, harms you in various ways. The Big Four are —
- Strained communication
- Social isolation
- Increased risk of falling
- Increased risk of cognitive decline and dementia
What to do
Avoid doing the following nine things. Individually and combined, they undermine the wellness of your ears.
- Using cotton swabs to clean them — Cotton swabs push the wax further down the ear canal.
- Always sleeping with earplugs — Similar to the cotton-swabs problem, earplugs also push earwax and other debris further into your ear canal.
- Flying with an ear infection — This can cause discomfort, inability to balance ear pressure, and in severe cases, permanent ear damage and hearing loss.
- Letting tinnitus increase your stress level A strong stress response to tinnitus can intensify tinnitus. Learn ways to manage your stress.
- Setting the volume on your earbuds too high — To prevent noise-induced hearing loss from high sound levels, adjust the volume to less than 60% of the maximum volume.
- Not protecting your ears at live events — If you wear earplugs at loud events (>85 decibels) you will prevent noise-induced hearing loss.
- Not covering your ears while swimming — Earplugs and swimming caps reduce the risk of swimmer's ear (otitis externa), an irritating infection caused by moisture in the ear canal.
- Skipping hearing screenings — The earlier an audiologist diagnoses hearing loss, the earlier they can treat you, which limits the amount of permanent damage to your brain.
- Putting off getting a hearing aid — If you have hearing loss, wearing hearing aids will improve the quality of your life by making communication with friends, family, and colleagues easier, not to mention reducing your risk of falling and cognitive decline.
Need help with your hearing?
Schedule a free, 15-minute hearing screening performed by an audiologist. It's easy to find out if you have hearing loss. Don't guess. Find out.
If you have hearing loss, your audiologist will explain —
- How much hearing you've lost
- Whether your hearing needs treatment now or later
- How hearing aids mitigate the risks of social isolation, falling, faster cognitive decline, and dementia.
