As with so many facets of our health, boosting and protecting your hearing is about being proactive, smart, and developing a routine. There are strategies you can use in your everyday life that can boost your hearing health, protect your ears from damage, and generally reduce your risk factors for hearing loss.
There are several factors that can lead to hearing loss later in life. Age can lead to the loss of hair cells in your inner ear, genetics can lead to natural hearing loss, exposure to noise can damage your inner ear, medical conditions such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease are associated with hearing loss, and consistent stress can result in muscle tension and blood pressure that impact your hearing health.
These practices and exercises combine smart strategies for protecting your hearing and improving your hearing health.
Cardiovascular Exercise
Physical exercise has many benefits for the human body, and it’s associated with a number of positive health outcomes. Cardiovascular exercises will improve your blood circulation, which is one way that you can reduce the risk of hearing loss. Improved blood circulation improves the flow of oxygen throughout your body, including the inner ear’s hair cells, which are responsible for your hearing. By delivering more oxygen to these cells, you protect their ongoing health.
Daily walking or jogging are among the easiest cardiovascular exercises available. You can also go for a swim, cycle, hit the treadmill, or do anything to get your blood pumping.
Get Your Hearing Examined
A hearing test can identify hearing loss or establish a baseline level of hearing against which future tests can be compared. Hearing loss is a very regular occurrence, especially with age.
Schedule your hearing assessment with an audiology clinic to undergo a series of tests that will identify loss in your inner, middle, or outer ear, as well as speech recognition testing that will evaluate your ability to follow conversations at normal volume.
Sound Focus with Meditation
Sound focus exercises give you the opportunity to pay attention to your hearing and improve your brain’s ability to encode sounds and detect or distinguish certain noises in a busy environment.
Start by going to a pleasant, safe public place like a park, the beach, or a ravine that gets lots of traffic. Sit down and take a deep breath that you release slowly. This starts a meditative process from which you can start to focus on specific sounds. Listen to the sound of the baseball game going on at the diamond, water trickling through a creek nearby, or the sound of dogs playing nearby.
Neck Stretches & Deep Breathing Exercises
Other physical exercises that can help with your hearing include deep breathing exercises and neck stretches. Stretching your neck can reduce muscle tension, which is associated with tinnitus – a constant ringing sound in your ears. Improving blood circulation through neck stretches can ease that tension and reduce the symptoms of tinnitus. Follow a safe, vetted neck stretching routine to avoid injury and get the most from the exercise.
Deep breathing can also improve blood circulation, protecting cells from damage and reducing tinnitus symptoms.
Incorporating these practices into a regular health routine will give you the best chance at reducing your risk factors for hearing loss.
