How to protect your hearing as you get older

Your hearing declines with age, with children able to hear sounds at higher frequencies than adults. However, your hearing can also be damaged by repeated exposure to loud sounds. Over time, impaired hearing can negatively affect your mental health and wellbeing, and your ability to engage with the world around you. 

Here, we will look at three ways you can help protect your hearing health as you get older. But first, let’s take a closer look at what hearing loss involves.

Age-related hearing loss and noise-induced hearing loss

Hearing loss with age and hearing loss caused by loud sounds both affect your inner ear — this is one of three parts of your ear, specifically the part that contains your cochlea and your auditory nerve.

Your cochlea contains thousands of special cells called hair cells that move in response to sound vibrations. These hair cells convert sound vibrations into electrical signals and, through connections called synapses, pass these signals onto nerve fibres of your auditory nerve. Your auditory nerve then carries these signals to your brain where they are processed, allowing you to perceive the sounds around you. 

Both age-related hearing loss and noise-induced hearing loss damage and destroy the hair cells of your inner ear and the synapses they make with your auditory nerve. 

While you can’t slow down the ageing process, you can protect your inner ear from noise-induced damage by following these three tips. 

1. Get regular hearing check-ups 

If you work in a noisy environment, have a family history of hearing problems and you have noticed a change in your hearing, you should also have a hearing test. 

Regular hearing tests where indicated help detect any hearing impairments so you can get treatment and support as soon as possible. This is important to avoid or reduce the negative effects of living with hearing loss, which include social isolation, communication problems and, over time, a greater decline in your cognitive abilities.

2. Practice safe listening

Exposure to loud noises is a leading cause of hearing loss. The longer you’re exposed to loud noises, the greater the damage to your hearing. This could include attending concerts, fireworks displays or sporting events, or everyday activities, such as mowing the lawn or listening to music or watching TV With the volume turned up too high. 

The louder the noise, the shorter the length of time you can be exposed to it before you risk permanent damage to your hearing. For sounds around 80 decibels (eg a vacuum cleaner), you can listen to them safely for up to 40 hours per week; however, for sounds around 90 decibels (eg a hairdryer or power tool), you can only listen to them safely for up to four hours per week. 

To reduce your risk of hearing damage, make sure you protect your hearing in loud environments by wearing earplugs or ear defenders. Also, when listening to music or watching TV, make sure the volume is at no more than 60% of the maximum volume.

3. Act early if you notice hearing loss

Hearing loss can significantly affect your mental health and wellbeing and your cognitive abilities. Untreated hearing loss is linked to an increased risk of depression and dementia and can negatively affect your social life, relationships and performance at work. 

It is, therefore, important to have a hearing test as soon as you notice the signs of hearing loss. This includes finding it difficult to follow conversations, especially in noisy environments, having to frequently ask people to repeat themselves and turning the volume up higher on your mobile phone and TV.