Table of contents:
- What should I do to avoid hearing loss?
- 1. Avoid noise
- 2. Wear protection
- 3. Routine check your hearing
- 4. Set a healthy diet: a diet low in saturated fat and calories
- When to see a doctor about hearing loss?
As you get older, you will experience a number of changes in the way your body functions. Hearing loss may be one of these changes. Aging hearing loss (presbycusis) is a common condition that predominantly affects older adults.
Having hearing difficulties can make it difficult for you to understand and follow your doctor's advice, respond to alert alerts, and hear phone calls, doorbells, and alarms. Hearing loss can also make it difficult to enjoy talking with family and friends, leading to feelings of isolation.
Age-related hearing loss occurs most commonly in both ears, affecting them in the same way. Because this disorder occurs gradually, if you have prebiscusis, you may not realize that you have lost some of your hearing ability. There are many causes related to hearing loss due to aging. Most commonly, it arises from noise and changes in the inner ear with age, but can also be the result of changes in the middle ear, or from complex changes along the neural pathways from the ear to the brain. Certain medical conditions and medications may also play a role.
Prebiscusis cannot be cured, because this condition is caused by degeneration of the sensory cells, which occurs with age. However, hearing loss is actually an avoidable part of aging.
What should I do to avoid hearing loss?
At this time, scientists don't know how to prevent age-related hearing loss. However, you can start protecting yourself from the risk of hearing loss caused by sound by protecting your ears as early as possible.
1. Avoid noise
Limiting your exposure to loud noises is the best thing you can do to help prevent presbycusis. Even a brief bout of a loud noise can contribute to your condition. Loud music, especially from speakers, headphones, earphones; Other sources of loud noise, such as firecrackers, engines or firearms, race cars, sporting events, motorbikes, motorboats, should be avoided. Do not listen to music through headphones or earphones at maximum volume for a long period of time.
2. Wear protection
If you know you will be around loud noises for more than a few minutes, consider wearing protection.
How loud is the sound classified as noisy? If you have to raise your voice to scream so that someone 1-2 meters away can be heard clearly, the noise could be a serious risk to your hearing. The potential for damage from noise is caused by the loudness of a sound and the length of time you are exposed to it. If you have tinnitus or have difficulty hearing after exposure to loud sounds, then you have been exposed to too much noise. You can prevent hearing loss by avoiding situations where there is excessive noise or by using ear plugs to protect your ears, if the situation does not allow you to move away.
The risk of hearing loss from noise exposure is particularly high among factory and heavy industrial workers, transportation workers, military personnel, construction workers, miners, farmers, firefighters, police, musicians, and entertainment industry professionals. If you work in a high-risk job, discuss with your boss to make sure that your workplace has an effective program to protect the hearing of its workers, and whether they meet local or state regulations.
3. Routine check your hearing
Have your ears checked by an ENT doctor (ear, nose, throat) for routine hearing tests, or if routine ENT checks are provided in your office facility. Make sure you know the results of your hearing tests, save the results, and track any changes from year to year.
- If earwax blockage is your problem, ask your doctor about ear treatments you can do at home such as mineral oil, baby oil, glycerin, neti pot irrigation, or commercial ear drops to soften earwax.
- If the hearing loss is caused by a hole in the eardrum, you should consult your doctor further before using an ear cleaner. The hole in the eardrum can cause hearing loss and discharge.
- Otitis media ear infections are most common in children, but adults can get them too. You can help prevent upper respiratory tract infections - and the ear infections that commonly follow them - by washing your hands frequently.
- Ask your doctor about how to help prevent ear infections associated with the flu. If you still complain of ear infections, consult your doctor immediately before they become more serious.
- If you are taking medication, ask your doctor if your medication is ototoxic, or has the potential to damage the ear. Also ask if other drugs can be used as a substitute. If not, ask if you can reduce the dose - although sometimes you can't. However, your doctor will help you get the medication you need while trying to reduce unwanted side effects.
4. Set a healthy diet: a diet low in saturated fat and calories
Many epidemiological studies around the world have shown a link between the incidence of coronary heart disease and blood cholesterol levels tend to be high, and saturated fat intake is also usually high. Based on this hypothesis, Rosen and a team of researchers in a study published in the journal Acta Oto-Laryngologica tested two populations aged 40-59 years, in two mental hospitals for a period of 5 years in Finland. One hospital (A) was given a saturated fat diet and a diet high in polyunsaturated fat for the second hospital (B).
At the end of the test period, the coronary heart event rate decreased significantly at the last hospital. Hearing loss also improved significantly at all frequencies. At the end of the 5 year period the diets at the two hospitals were exchanged. Four years after changing the diet, so were the results: the quality of hearing in hospital A (which was previously a high-fat diet) improved, and the quality at hospital B actually got worse. The incidence of coronary heart disease follows a similar pattern. Finnish researchers concluded that an important factor in the prevention of coronary heart disease may be a diet low in saturated fat. Someya's findings suggest that the same diet may play a role in delaying, or even completely eliminating, hearing loss.
Reporting from a study published in Cell by Shinichi Someya et al, a diet that limits the number of calories was also found to extend the life span and health span of the body, as well as delay the development of various age-related diseases such as cancer, diabetes, cataracts and hearing loss related to aging (prebiscusis ) - a common age-related disorder that results from oxidative stress. A large body of scientific evidence suggests that a low-calorie diet, especially if you have diabetes, reduces the accumulated age-related damage to protein, lipids, and DNA through reducing the oxidative damage to these macromolecules and / or increasing antioxidant defenses against oxidative stress.
When to see a doctor about hearing loss?
Hearing loss should be checked as soon as possible. This helps rule out other causes, such as earwax buildup or side effects of medications. Your doctor should make sure you get a hearing test.
Call your health care provider right away if you have sudden changes in hearing or hearing loss with other symptoms, such as:
- Headache
- Changes in vision
- Dizzy