Hearing is how you stay in the room. The movie you’re watching together, the grandkid screaming, the argument about politics during a Sunday dinner. All of it is connection, and losing it is quieter (pun intended!) than you’d think. That’s the problem. Hearing loss doesn’t come on strong like throwing your back out. It just slowly turns down the volume on your life.
And the research is pretty scary about what happens next. If left untreated, hearing loss is linked to cognitive decline. Straining to hear is exhausting, so people stop going to dinner, stop answering the phone, and the isolation that follows is its own risk factor for dementia. I currently live with my grandma, who has dementia. Consider me extremely motivated.
We got into all of this — along with our dad Jake and his ultra-high-tech hearing aids in Episode 3 of the Spry Podcast. Our position is that hearing aids are like gray hair. Sexy and cool.
But the best version of hearing loss is the kind you never get, and noise-induced hearing loss is preventable:
- Loud environments add up. Concerts, loud music in the car. The damage is gradual, which is exactly why nobody notices until it’s done. Earplugs are cheap. Carry them. Wear them.
- Headphones have a volume limit for a reason. Noise-canceling headphones actually help here. When the background is quiet, you don’t crank the volume to compete with it like you have to do with an ear bud. But be sure to take listening breaks. Silence is golden.
- If your job is loud, protection isn’t optional. This is for the construction workers, factory employees, musicians.
- Tinnitus is the warning you can’t unsubscribe from. Know that ringing or buzzing often follows prolonged loud exposure? Yea. Prevention is the best way to avoid that. Treatment can help, but nothing turns it off.
Protect what you’ve got. And if some is already gone, get the hearing aids. Episode 3 makes the full case, but the short version is: your brain, your dinner invitations, and your family would all like you to hear them.