Your hearing health is important for you to pay attention to. While you may not realize it, there are some bad habits that are causing you to need hearing aids. Knowing what they are and breaking them will help you tremendously.
Smoking or Vaping
Research has shown that nicotine will restrict the blood flow to your ears. This has the potential to damage the delicate cells in your ears. The more cigarettes you smoke, the higher your risk of doing a lot of damage to your ears is. Unfortunately, this isn’t only true for your own hearing, but your smoking can also damage the hearing of your loved ones. According to research, adolescents who’ve been exposed to second-hand smoke are about two times more likely to have low-frequency hearing loss than those who weren’t exposed to cigarette smoke at all.
While you may think that the simple solution to this would be to start vaping or using e-cigarettes instead, unfortunately you’re wrong. These can also impact your ear’s hair cells in a similar manner. Furthermore, the “e juice” (flavored fluid) contains hundreds of chemicals that doctors don’t yet know the full health impact of. What they do know for sure is that the propylene glycol that’s in it has been linked to sudden hearing loss.
Drinking too Much Alcohol
Over-indulging in alcohol throughout your life won’t only damage your liver, it’ll also negatively impact your hearing health. This is because it interferes with your brain’s ability to interpret sounds, especially those with low frequencies. Alcohol also creates a toxic environment for your inner ear by damaging the cochlea’s hair cells. Your brain’s central auditory cortex may also start to shrink. When this happens, you’re negatively impacting the nerve that’s responsible for processing sound.
Poor Oral Health
You may not think about your teeth being related to your hearing. However, healthy teeth and gums protect you from having bacteria that can cause infections and swelling. Otherwise this bacterium will enter into your bloodstream. Once there your body will become inflamed and your arteries will grow narrow. This results in poor circulation – something that’s detrimental to your hearing health.
Don’t Ignore Your Hearing Health
When you notice that you’re having hearing issues, don’t wait to seek help from Countryside Hearing Aid Services. While the stigma associated with wearing hearing aids may make you not want to seek their help, this will have a long-term negative impact on your hearing health. Think about it this way: When your brain can’t hear all the sounds that it once was able to hear, you put yourself at serious risk of developing cognitive decline. This means that you’re at a higher risk of developing issues like dementia.
Anyone who suspects they are suffering from any type of hearing loss (regardless of how minor it may be), should schedule an appointment for a hearing evaluation as soon as possible. This isn’t something scary. In fact, many people have already had these hearing tests while they were still in school. Also, remember that today’s hearing aids are much smaller than in the past, which helps diminish the stigma that was traditionally attached to them.
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