Your ability to hear is precious – once you lose it, the chance of getting it back in its natural form is not likely. But for some reason, hearing loss tends to go neglected and uncontrolled in the general population. As a matter of fact, permanent hearing loss impacts one out of eight people (nearly 30 million people) over the age of 12 in the United States alone.
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 perils to hearing health today since they’ve come packaged with mobile devices going back to the first MP3 players in the early 2000s. These little devices sit snugly into the ear canal and pump sound straight into the inner ear and most smartphones included them. You can get irreversible hearing damage by listening to a movie or music on your mobile device at max volume for just 15 minutes. The better choice would be to get a pair of earmuff-style headphones that go over your ears, which is made even better if you can find a pair that has noise-canceling technology. Following the 60/60 rule, which recommends a maximum volume of 60% for no higher than 60 minutes a day, is another safety measure to safeguard your hearing.
Keep your volume low
Your hearing can be harmed by other things besides earbuds. If you routinely listen to the TV or radio at high volumes over sustained periods, your hearing can also be harmed. You’ll also want to steer clear of situations where loud noises are constant, such as construction zones, concerts, and firearm ranges. It may be impractical to entirely avoid these settings especially if they’re part of your job. The next item on the list will be important if you’re in this situation.
Use hearing protection
If you have hobbies or work in a loud environment, it’s crucial that you utilize hearing protection. 85 decibels over a period of 15 minutes is enough to cause hearing loss. To put that in perspective:
- The noise of a construction site can be over 130 decibels and many workers spend 40 or more hours every week there
- The majority of concerts are between 100 and 120 decibels with headliners commonly playing for about an hour and 20 minutes
- 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 moral here is that you should invest in some sort of hearing protection like earmuffs or earplugs if you engage in any of these activities.
Take auditory breaks
Sometimes giving your ears a break is the smartest thing you can do. If you engaged in any of the activities listed above, you really should make certain to take some quiet time to yourself so your ears can rest and recuperate, even if you were using hearing protection. That means, you definitely shouldn’t get into your car and start blasting loud music right after you come out of a 3-hour concert.
Check your medicine
Your hearing could be significantly impacted by the medication you use. There are certain medications that have been proven to trigger hearing loss including certain heart and cancer medications, aspirin, antibiotics, and anti-inflammatory medication. Luckily, medication related hearing loss usually only happens when more than one of these medicines are taken together making it much less common.
Are you coping with hearing loss and want to seek out new treatment? Make an appointment with us for a hearing assessment.
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
