Don’t allow lack of hearing get in the way of you feeling young. Seniors often fall victim to hearing loss and then it affects their lives in negative ways. Don’t let this happen to you as you age. Just as you would benefit from a healthier heart and fewer pounds by exercising and eating right, you can preserve your youth by protecting your hearing. Let’s see the many ways you can stay young through healthy ear care. This article will explore 10 ways in which good hearing can keep seniors like you young. These include increased attention to alerts, smoother daily interactions with others, and increased independence.
- Converse better with others. Did you know that hearing loss can alienate you from getting the information you need every day? Conversely, when you hear well, you can converse with others and get your point across, whether you’re speaking to the retail clerk or your boss.
- Be aware of your environment. When you can detect sounds like fire alarms and car horns, you can get out of the way of danger fast. With good hearing, your safety isn’t as threatened.
- Keep up with your job performance. If not, you risk becoming obsolete at work because you can’t communicate clearly or take orders. You need good hearing to listen to crucial instructions or safety precautions, plus it’s hard to be productive in coworker discussions or meetings when your hearing is sub par.
- Fewer hospital stays. Unfortunately, hearing loss can lead to more accidents, which can lead to more hospitalizations. Period of physical inactivity can then bring on depression and low self-esteem.
- Fall less often or not at all. You can trip and fall easier if you can’t hear well because of a lowered awareness of your surroundings. In fact, if you have a 25-decibel hearing loss, you’re are three times more likely to fall than others who don’t have hearing problems, says Johns Hopkins Medicine.
- Keep dementia from setting in. It’s well known that hearing loss and dementia are related. But the National Institute on Aging says that as seniors get older, their brains shrink, with the risk compounded when they have hearing loss. Dementia historically comes with brain shrinkage.
- Be a more attentive student. With bad hearing, you can’t understand what your teacher is saying and you can’t communicate with other classmates on projects.
- Enjoy a happier social life. This includes friendships and sexual relations. Hearing impaired seniors who use hearing aids have been known to experience an improved social life and sex life, along with improved mental health and independence.
- Increased confidence. If you have trouble with your hearing, you often experience a lack of self confidence or self-esteem. This is due to the fact that you can’t interact easily with others in social situations like parties and may start avoiding going altogether.
- Keep blood flowing to your ears. Every time you exercise, you send oxygen-rich blood flow to the ears. The ear canal needs a good flow of blood to stave off problems that may interfere with good hearing.