Keep Your Hearing Healthy With These 3 Tips

You never really recognize how much you rely on your hearing until it is impaired for one reason or another. One ear infection, one unguarded head movement while showering, or even just popping in some earplugs for a bit of DIY can make you realize quickly that your ears are worth protecting.

It’s not just that healthy ears allow us to hear what people are saying or enjoy our favorite music. They’re also pretty vital in keeping us safe and secure in everyday life. Our ability to hear things without really focusing is often what alerts us to a potential danger on the road or to the fact that we are not alone while taking a walk. So it’s clear that without our hearing we’d be in a much worse position. That’s all the more reason why, in line with the following tips, we should pay close attention to the health of our ears.

Your earphones don’t need to be played at full blast

Most media-playing portable devices these days have a warning when you seek to turn your sound up past a certain point, and many of us have probably nodded at that warning before disregarding or even disabling it and turning the sound up anyway. In truth, we should pay more attention to the warning, because repeatedly ignoring it and playing loud music at full blast will harm your hearing. It’s also entirely unnecessary to have music up that loud – it’s already right next to your ears, so it’s going to drown everything else out.

If your hearing is muffled or dampened, take it seriously

Losing your hearing to any extent is something that you shouldn’t ignore. If you’re under the age of 65 and have had impaired hearing for any longer than a couple of days, there is a reason it’s happening and that reason can be dealt with. Thinking it will resolve on its own is a mistake. It’s possible that you’re experiencing hearing loss for a number of reasons. It could be that you are dealing with irreversible hearing loss, in which case new hearing aids are vitally important. It could be a blockage, which can usually be cleared but will be tougher the longer you leave it. Whatever the case, early detection and treatment will have better results.

Straining to hear is not a good move

Many of us, when unable to hear properly, will semi-consciously make the effort to listen “harder”. This usually means trying to focus in more thoroughly on what someone is saying, or to pick out a specific sound. The truth of the matter is that this doesn’t help a great deal with precision listening, and it is stressful and mentally tiring as well. The more you strain to listen, the harder it will be, and it can have repercussions the more you do it. So, by all means, ask someone to speak a little louder, turn down or shut out any extraneous noise, and give what you are trying to hear your undivided attention. Just don’t make a habit out of straining to hear – it’s bad for your hearing long-term, and it’s pretty inefficient anyway.