Hearing Does Fade, But There Are Ways To Keep it as Healthy as Possible
As we get older our hearing does begin to fade, it is a fact of life. At one stage we thought that this fading was just simply age related. Now, we aren't so sure, we think the cause of hearing loss with age is more complex than it just wearing out. Possibly there may be environmental factors, general health causes and even genetics in the mix. What we do know though, is that if you take steps to keep your hearing healthy. You can reduce the amount of loss that you experience. So how exactly can you keep your hearing healthy?
Protect your hearing from noise
Noise exposure has a dramatic effect on hearing, long term noise exposure normally causes high levels of damage to your high frequency hearing. Noise induced hearing loss is also a difficult loss to treat, it isn't un-treatable, it just takes more effort on the part of the sufferer to re-habilitate. What is even worse is that noise damage to hearing is completely preventable. Why suffer when you don't have to? When exposed to loud noise sources, whatever and wherever they are, wear hearing protection. There is any amount of hearing protection options out there ranging from simple foam earplugs to custom built electronic noise protection. They are also easy to get and use, there is no excuse, protect your hearing from noise. If you do, your hearing will thank you.
Keep to safe listening limits
There are safe listening limits for every sound level, to the right is an infographic from the World Health Organisation which details the level of sound and the time limit that is safe. It makes interesting reading.. At 80 dB, you can listen for up to twenty five hours safely, but just a 5 dB increase reduces that to eight hours.
At 100 dB we are down to fifteen minutes of safe listening, consider for a moment that most personal music players will easily get up to that volume. Not just that, most night clubs probably exceed 100 dB in ambient noise. Be aware of noise in your life and take steps to reduce your exposure to it. .Always remember that dependent on the noise levels you’re exposed to, there are certain time limits that are recommended as the maximum listening time before damage to your hearing can occur. The louder the sound- the less time you should spend around it, again your hearing will thank you.
Monitor your ability to hear
Most often when people think of health checks, they never consider hearing. In fact a hearing test is usually never considered until a loved one tells you they are tired of repeating themselves. We need to change that, untreated hearing loss is being linked to more and more neuro cognitive disorders almost on a daily basis. The evidence linking untreated hearing loss to dementia, Alzheimers, depression and other problems just mounts. It seems clear that identifying and treating hearing loss at an early stage could deliver health benefits beyond your hearing ability. So, even if you don’t suspect a hearing loss, it’s important to get a hearing test that sets your baseline-hearing.
We think it is also important to have further hearing tests on a semi regular basis in order that your ability to hear is tracked. The length of time between these tests can depend on the situation you find yourself in. If you are exposed to noise at work, or just exposed to noise on a regular basis, or if you are at risk for hearing loss, due to age or other common causes, a yearly hearing test is probably a good idea.
Do you have any questions or concerns about healthy hearing ? If you do, or if you would like a hearing test give us a call 0n 1800 501 501 or come and see us in our hearing aid centres in Cork, Waterford, Kilkenny & Tralee.
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