Your ability to hear is precious – once you lose it, the likelihood of getting it back in its natural form is slim to nil. But for some reason, hearing loss frequently goes neglected and unchecked in the general population. In the US alone, one in eight people over the age of 12 copes with neglected and irreversible hearing loss.
While there are treatments that can help you regain your hearing, like hearing aids, it’s such a simple thing to protect your ears from the beginning to prevent avoidable hearing loss.
Safeguard your hearing with these five tips:
Don’t use earbuds
Earbuds are one of the biggest dangers to hearing health today since they’ve come packaged with mobile devices going back to the first MP3 devices in the early 2000s. These little devices fit snugly into the ear canal and pump sound directly into the inner ear and the majority of smartphones included them. Listening to music or a movie on your mobile device at maximum volume for just 15 minutes can result in irreversible hearing loss. Earmuff style headphones, especially the ones with noise canceling technology, would be a better choice. No matter what devices you use, you should stick to the 60/60 rule – keep the volume at 60% maximum and only use the devices for 60 minutes every day.
Keep your volume down
Earbuds don’t generate the only sounds that can harm your hearing. Loud noises from a radio or TV can do as much harm if you regularly listen to them over a prolonged period of time. You’ll also want to avoid situations where loud sounds are constant, like construction zones, concerts, and shooting ranges. It might be impractical to entirely avoid these environments especially if they’re part of your job. The next item on the list will be significant if you’re in this situation.
Hearing protection will be helpful
If you have hobbies or work in a loud environment, it’s essential that you make use of hearing protection. Hearing loss can happen in just 15 minutes at 85 decibels. Compare that to the following:
- The majority of concerts are between 100 and 120 decibels with headliners usually playing for around an hour and 20 minutes
- Jackhammers at a construction site produce 130 decibels, which could take their toll after a 40-hour workweek
- Over a one hour visit to the indoor gun range, your ears are repeatedly exposed to gunfire that clocks in at over 150 decibels on average.
The takeaway here is that you should get yourself some sort of hearing protection such as earmuffs or earplugs if you engage in any of these activities.
Take auditory breaks
Sometimes you simply need to give your ears a rest. Even if you use ear protection, if you are subjected to loud sounds like these for prolonged periods, you should take some quiet breaks to give your ears some time to recover. That means, you probably shouldn’t get into your car and start blaring loud music right after you come out of a 3-hour concert.
Check your medicine
Your medicine could actually have a significant impact on your hearing. There are certain medications that have been proven to cause hearing loss including some heart and cancer medicines, aspirin, antibiotics, and anti-inflammatory medicine. The good news is that medication-related hearing loss is not common and is more likely if you take two or more of those medications together making it easier to prevent.
Are you suffering from hearing loss and want to seek out new treatment? Make an appointment with us for a hearing exam.
Resources
https://www.cdc.gov/nceh/hearing_loss/how_does_loud_noise_cause_hearing_loss.html
https://armeddefense.org/hearing-protection
https://www.uofmhealth.org/health-library/tf3092