Protecting your hearing this #WorldHearingDay

The world is celebrating World Hearing Day today, 3 March.

The ability to hear and communicate well plays a critical role in our well-being as naturally sociable creatures. However, many of us take our hearing for granted which leads to us not taking enough preventative or corrective measures to protect and preserve our ability to hear as we get older.

CEO of Auria Senior Living Barry Kaganson said, “Hearing loss can have greater implications than you realise if left untreated. Research actually shows that people with impaired hearing can have higher rates of depression, social isolation and cognitive decline and they can be more prone to trips and falls.”

Reetal Jani, an audiologist at Kind2Hearing said hearing loss didn’t just occur in older people, in fact, it canould begin quite young in life. The environments we are in and the activities we undertake can play a large role in affecting the quality of our hearing over a lifetime.

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What are the symptoms of hearing loss?

It may seem obvious at first that diminished hearing should be easy to identify, but this is not the case. Jani offered the following early symptoms that one can look out for and they include:

• Struggling to hear clearly in environments where there is a lot of ambient noise
• Tinnitus (ringing in the ears)
• The need to turn up the volume on the TV or radio to hear more clearly
• The growing need to have subtitles on the TV to understand what is happening
• The tendency to isolate oneself or to move away from group settings is often a giveaway.

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When should one get one’s hearing checked?

Jani added that a certain amount of hearing loss was likely to occur as one aged, and age was still the strongest predictor of hearing loss in adults.

“Just as one is advised to visit the dentist or get one’s eyes checked regularly, audiologists recommend that anyone with normal hearing should have a hearing test once every year to 18 months. This allows any hearing loss to be identified early.”

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Don’t ignore it!

Jani advised that if you suspected that you or a loved one may be experiencing hearing loss, don’t ignore it. Untreated hearing impairment can have many negative knock-on effects for an older person and the sooner any of these can be prevented, the better.

How can one prevent hearing loss?

The best way to prevent hearing loss is to start early. “Use proper hearing protection and don’t put yourself in situations where there are loud noises on a frequent basis.”

How can friends and family help?

• “When speaking to someone with impaired hearing, speak at a normal volume but speak very clearly – articulate your words carefully and speak a little more slowly,” said Jani.
• “Get the person’s attention before you speak to them, and make sure they can see you so that they can read your lips and body language as well.”

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