Everyone knows they should take better care of their senses, but it is something that we think we can put off until the problems become a bit more apparent. While experiencing difficulties reading means we can get a pair of glasses or physical weakness means that we need to exercise certain muscles more, the biggest problem when we lose our hearing is that there’s not any way to build it back up. There’s a lot of information now about how to make your eyes stronger because your eyes are muscles, but your hearing relies on the tiny hairs inside your ears to transmit the frequency. But if you lose those hairs, you cannot grow them back. So if you are concerned that you are slowly losing your hearing, it’s now time to consider the following:
Making Sensible Lifestyle Choices
Nobody wants to change the things they do, but what we have to remember is that any change is difficult at first. If you are concerned you are losing your hearing, you should first go for a hearing test or consult medical professionals so they can perform an evaluation to determine the extent of your hearing loss. For example, if you are experiencing some form of tinnitus, a potential cause could be too much sodium, i.e. salt, in your diet. And therefore you may need to have less salt overall. But there’s also other little things that can help you to deal with any form of hearing loss.
There are many exercise benefits for hearing loss many people do not consider. Because you can improve your blood flow, this means that oxygen can get into your ear hair cells making them work better. Exercise can also protect yourself against inflammation so your body can fight infection. Lifestyle choices might seem like a shock to the system, but it’s something that we all need to do in light of any form of diagnosis.
Identify the Cause
Hearing loss can stem from a number of different causes. It could be getting older, but it could also be due to noise exposure or different medical conditions. It may very well be that you’ve had an ear infection, but when you identify the cause you can determine the best course of action. Because there are a variety of treatment options and a medical professional will help you to determine how to best deal with the problem.
Many people think they are losing their hearing when, in fact, they have a build-up of wax. A simple syringing of ear wax can make all of the difference. On the other hand, if you are exposing yourself to various noises on a regular basis, having good-quality earplugs can make a massive difference.
Coming to Terms with Losing Your Hearing
What we have to remember is that you are potentially losing aspects of your hearing, not the entire thing. Therefore, there can be a number of approaches to help you cope with it better. Hearing aids are one of the more obvious things, but you can also look at watching TV with a device that can help you hear it better. For example, many headphones now come with Bluetooth so you can connect directly to the television and watch your TV shows properly. It becomes trickier when you are watching TV with others, but you may benefit from just being closer to the television. This is only one example of how you can make simple adjustments to your life.
Face-to-face communication is always the best approach and you will need to position yourself where you can lip read or observe facial expressions. Ultimately, you need to let people know that there are aspects of your hearing that may not be as good as theirs so they can communicate more effectively with you. You also need to remember that coming to terms with it is about ensuring you maintain certain aspects of your health as we’ve already covered but you also should not fall into the trap of feeling like this is a hindrance in your life. You should be able to live life as best as you can and therefore remember that emotional support is always around the corner. In addition to friends and family, there can be support groups that help you to deal with the emotional aspects of hearing loss.
Certainly losing your hearing can be overwhelming and emotionally challenging. Seeking help as soon as possible can improve your ability to manage and adapt to this, but you can also take proactive steps to ensure that you are getting the most out of life regardless of what is happening inside your ear canal.