When we’re young we don’t often give much thought to our hearing. We turn up music as loud as possible and go to nightclubs and concerts without thinking of the consequences.

Looking after our hearing health is about more than learning the proper way to clean our ears. It’s also important to protect our ears from hearing loss as we age.

Hearing loss can result in a cognitive decline and therefore affect our mental wellbeing– potentially leading to social isolation, depression and even dementia.

If you’re worried about your own hearing then you should take action before it becomes worse. The earlier an issue is detected, the earlier it can be treated.

This is why it’s so important to have your hearing checked regularly. Start by booking a free hearing test online today with The Hearing Care Partnership (THCP). You can even do their FREE online Hearing Health Check to determine your hearing health in one minute.

Natural ways to avoid hearing loss

It’s really important to take steps throughout our lives to prevent hearing loss and the further problems to our health and wellbeing it can sadly cause.

There are some ways we can naturally take care of our hearing and ear health by ourselves throughout our lives.

Follow these tips to naturally prevent hearing loss as you age:

Take your vitamins

All images – Canva

Folic acid, magnesium, zinc and B vitamins all play a role in helping our ears and hearing function properly.

Make sure you are consuming a nutritious diet rich in plant-based foods packed with vitamins and minerals.

You can also support a healthy diet with some natural multivitamins supplements.

Quit smoking

We all know that smoking is not cool and there are numerous benefits to quitting, including for our hearing health. Study after study has proven a link between smoking and our hearing health.

Even being exposed to second-hand smoke is a risk factor, so it’s best to avoid smoking or being around smokers as much as possible.

Smoking is also linked to tinnitus, a condition which causes a ringing, buzzing or hissing sound in the ears when there is no such external sound being made.

Remove earwax

A small amount of earwax is perfectly normal and even beneficial, but an excessive build-up can begin to cause problems such as mild hearing loss.

Most of the time we can leave our ears to clean the wax out by themselves, it’s a natural process that they are designed to do. A couple of drops of olive oil in your ear canal twice a day can dislodge the ear wax, but if not, it can build up and become an issue.

Book an ear wax removal appointment with your nearest THCP practice to allow their expert audiologists to professionally and safely remove earwax using a variety of pain free methods. This is generally only needed if you have a lot of excess ear wax in your ears, but their audiologists will advise this upon your appointment.

Avoid loud noises

To avoid noise-induced hearing loss then you need to avoid the amount you’re exposed to loud noises!

According to the NHS a noise is too loud if:

You have to raise your voice to talk to other people
You can’t hear what people nearby are saying
It hurts your ears
You have ringing in your ears or muffled hearing afterwards

In fact, any continual sound above 85 decibels can result in permanent hearing impairment – that’s equivalent to the noise of a busy motorway. Any exposure to this level of noise can result in hearing problems such as tinnitus or hearing loss. The length of exposure determines how much damage it will cause.

To protect your ears from loud noises you can use custom-moulded earplugs from THCP to help lower the volume but keep clarity and tone. Noise cancelling headphones can also be useful, not listening to music through headphones for more than one hour at a time and making sure headphone volume is at 60% or less.

Regular hearing checks

Having your hearing checked should be as regular as your vision checks, allowing you to always be aware of the status of your hearing and vision. This allows you to pick up on any changes overtime and treat it before it’s too late.

Monitoring your hearing is an important part of managing your overall health and well-being and contributes to a more full and happy life.

Live life to the full

Taking care of our hearing and ear health is important to improve the quality of our life as we get older. It’s something most of us don’t think about until it’s too late, but with a few precautions in our younger years we can protect our hearing for later in life too.

Contact The Hearing Care Partnership today to start your journey to better hearing.