Every day, thousands of Americans are diagnosed with hearing loss. While age and wear may inevitably affect your hearing, you can prevent unnecessary damage. From musical training to personal hygiene, a few simple measures can keep your hearing in tip-top shape.
Healthy Hearing: Learn to Make Music
Recent research shows that musical training can actually prevent age-related hearing loss. If you have never even looked at an instrument your whole life, don’t despair: melody comes naturally to humans, and even older adults can prevent hearing loss musical training. So go ahead and boogie with the banjo—you’ll be doing your ears a favor and promoting healthy hearing.
Healthy Hearing: Less Swabbing, More Hearing
Cotton swabs may look fluffy and friendly, but don’t be fooled. While you may think these little swabs are cleaning your ear, they are actually damaging them. Cotton swabs push earwax deep into your canal, potentially causing damage. Additionally, while earwax isn’t too pretty, it is incredibly helpful for protecting your ear. Constantly cleaning removes the wax and leaves your ear vulnerable to infection, effectively avoiding the maintenance of totally healthy hearing!
Healthy Hearing: Eat Healthy, Reduce Stress and Stay Away from Ototoxic Drugs
Reduce your stress and anxiety levels and get an adequate amount of rest. Reduce your intake of alcohol and nerve stimulants (e.g. caffeine), as well as other day-to-day otoxic substances like Nicotine. Also, make sure you keep a healthy diet of antioxidants, Vitamin D, Magnesium and Zinc, to keep up that healthy hearing!
Healthy Hearing: Protect and Relax Your Ears
When you are reading or on your computer for long periods of time, chances are you occasionally take a break and rest your eyes. The same premise works for your ears. After any intensely loud or noisy situation, such as a concert, a construction site, or a hair salon, seek out a quiet place and rest your ears. If you have trouble finding a silent oasis, carry ear plugs or sound-isolating headphones around. This way you can take a sound break any time you need.
Healthy Hearing: Make Smart Headphone Selections
Headphones are incredible inventions that let us carry around the music we so naturally love. However, unhealthy headphone habits may be hurting your ears in the long run.
People may be more likely to heighten music volume with headphones, to drown out the ambient noise. As the music keeps playing, listeners become less sensitive to the loud volume. As such, limiting your maximum volume can keep portable music devices from damaging your hearing.
If possible, opt for noise-canceling headphones instead of in-ear buds (like those that come with the iPod) or regular earmuff types. Noise-canceling headphones help you hear your music without turning it up to dangerous levels.
With these five habits on hand, you are on your way to healthy hearing. To learn more about your sense of sound, check out the Audicus Hearing Aids Guide to Hearing.
Source: Audicus Hearing Aids