It’s likely that you’ve already noticed that you don’t hear as well as you used to. Normally, we don’t even realize that our choices are negatively impacting our hearing.
With a few simple lifestyle changes, many kinds of hearing loss can be prevented. Let’s look at six unexpected secrets that will help you preserve your hearing.
1. Regulate Your Blood Pressure
It’s not okay if your blood pressure stays high. A study found that people with higher than-average blood pressure are 52% more likely to have hearing loss, not to mention other health issues.
Take steps to decrease your blood pressure and prevent hearing damage. Don’t neglect high blood pressure or wait to see a doctor. Management of blood pressure includes proper diet, exercise, stress management, and following your doctor’s orders.
2. Stop Smoking
There are plenty of good reasons to quit smoking, here’s yet another: Hearing loss is 15% more likely to impact smokers. What’s even more surprising is that there’s a 28% higher probability of someone experiencing hearing problems if they are frequently exposed to second-hand smoke. Even if you leave the room, smoke hangs around for long periods of time with harmful repercussions.
Think about protecting your hearing, if you smoke, by quitting. If you spend time with a smoker, take measures to decrease your exposure to second-hand smoke.
3. Manage Your Diabetes
Diabetes or pre-diabetes impacts one out of four adults. Unless they make some serious lifestyle changes, someone who is pre-diabetic will very likely get diabetes within 5 years.
Blood vessels that are damaged by high blood sugar don’t efficiently transport nutrients. Compared to a person who doesn’t have diabetes, a diabetic person has more than twice the chance of developing hearing loss.
If you have diabetes, take the steps necessary to correctly control it. If you are at risk of getting type 2 diabetes, safeguard your hearing by making lifestyle changes to avoid it.
4. Lose Some Weight
This is more about your health than feeling great about how you look. As your Body Mass Index (BMI) goes up, so does your possibility of hearing loss and other health disorders. The chance of developing hearing loss increases by 17% for a slightly obese woman with a BMI of 30 to 34. A moderately obese individual has a 25% risk of hearing loss if they have a BMI of 40.
Work to get rid of some of that extra weight. Something as simple as walking for 30 minutes each day can lower your risk of hearing loss and prolong your life.
5. Don’t Overuse OTC Drugs
Hearing impairment can be the outcome of some over-the-counter (OTC) medications. The more often these medicines are taken over a prolonged period of time, the higher the risk.
Drugs including acetaminophen, naproxen, ibuprofen, and aspirin are known to cause hearing loss. Take these medicines moderately and talk to your doctor if you’re taking them regularly.
Studies demonstrate that you’ll probably be okay if you’re taking these medications occasionally in the suggested doses. Taking them every day, however, increases the chance of hearing loss by as much as 40% for men.
Always follow your doctor’s recommendations. Your doctor may be able to suggest some lifestyle changes that will reduce your dependence on these medicines if you are taking them every day.
6. Eat More Broccoli
Broccoli is loaded with iron as well as essential nutrients like vitamins C and K. Iron is vital to blood circulation and a healthy heart. Iron helps your blood transport oxygen and nutrients to cells to keep them nourished and healthy.
If you’re a vegetarian or don’t eat much meat, it’s important that you consume enough plant-based iron. You’re more likely to be iron deficient because the iron found in plants is less bioavailable than the iron found in meat.
More than 300,000 individuals were examined by Pennsylvania State University. Individuals who have anemia (extreme iron deficiency) are twice as likely, according to this research, to experience sensorineural hearing loss than individuals who have normal iron concentrations. Age-related irreversible hearing loss is what the technical term “sensorineural hearing loss” refers to.
The inner ear has fragile hair cells that pick up sounds and communicate with the brain to transmit the volume and frequency of those sounds. If an iron deficiency or poor circulation causes these delicate hairs to die they will be gone forever.
You’re never too young to have your hearing examined, so don’t wait until it’s too late. Apply these steps to your life and prevent hearing loss.