A common issue that comes with aging is losing your hearing. At some point or another this will happen to everyone whether it’s gradually or suddenly gone.

People over the age of 65 are estimated to experience hearing loss and half of those people over the age of 75 will have extreme hearing loss. When you are having trouble with hearing you will face many challenges such as not being able to understand what someone is saying to you, difficulty hearing doorbells or warnings, trouble with carrying on a simple conversation. Often at times elders who have a hard time hearing will suffer from feelings of isolation because they are not able to engage in conversations like they use to.

Typically hearing loss with happen in both ears and it is gradual. Most people that slowly start losing their hearing don’t even realize that it is happening to them. When the television volumes are turned up usually people don’t think that it’s their hearing but a problem with the equipment. Also when someone is using the telephone and they are having a hard time hearing what someone is saying on the other end they will blame the machine for not properly working.

As we age our bodies go through many changes including changes from within the inner ear. Medications can causes changes as well to our ears. Finding the reason as to why you are experiencing hearing loss can be difficult, but a common reason is our long term exposures to loud noises. Gradual hearing loss can be caused by exposure to loud sounds that are too long. Once our hair cells inside our ears become damaged they will not grow back and it will eventually cause our hearing to diminish. If you have high blood pressure or diabetes this can also play a role in hearing loss because some of the medication that we take is toxic to sensory cells in our ears.

Preventing hearing loss or protecting yourself from harmful noises is important. Be aware of harmful noises like loud music, firearms, and fireworks. If you are going to be around loud noises or work around them be sure to protect your ears by wearing ear plugs or ear muffs. Wearing these will help protect your ears in the long run.

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