Protect Your Ears From Hearing Loss

Even though age-related hearing loss generally begins in a person's fifties, it may happen sooner if hearing loss runs in your family or you've been exposed to excessively loud noises.

Noisy places are some of the most likely settings for age-related hearing loss. High-pitched conversation noise and rattling dishes will steal the words of your companions, and distractions may make it difficult for you to rely on a defense mechanism you may not even realize that you've been using: lipreading.

As we age, a change slowly takes place in a certain region of the inner ear, the cochlea, when hair cells that pick up high-pitched sounds begin to deteriorate. You'll think that you can hear, but you don't always understand, and that's because you're actually hearing only part of a word spoken, says Dr. House of the House Ear Institute. Environmental noise only adds to the damage done by age alone.

Whether you can still discern every word of every conversation or you've already noticed some loss of clarity, there are things that you can do to keep your hearing sharp and healthy. The most important thing that you can do to preserve your hearing is to protect yourself from loud noises, says Dr. House. Wear ear protection if you're mowing the lawn, riding in a noisy motorboat, or going to a monster truck rally, he advises. Be aware that the volume at concerts has gotten no less ear-splitting than what you remember. "We've seen people who suffered permanent hearing loss from one exposure at a concert or disco," says Dr. House.

Habitual exposure to noise is worse than the occasional blast of jet engine noise you hear as you climb the steps to your commuter flight. If you work in an area where people routinely have to raise their voices to be heard, you're at risk. Wear ear protection, and wear it consistently, says Dr. House.

If you have a hunch that you are beginning to suffer mild hearing loss, get it checked out. Hearing loss is not only a sign of age. "There are all kinds of causes of hearing loss, and sometimes they are treatable with surgery or medications," says Dr. House.

Otosclerosis, the hardening of bones within the ear, is a condition that is 90% curable with delicate surgery, for example. Other mimickers of age-related hearing loss include Menieres disease, which is treated by medication or surgery, or even a benign tumor on a nerve that lies within the ear. Even though such tumors aren't malignant, they need to be detected early. Besides causing hearing loss, they can grow, causing pressure on the brain.

The best specialist to see is an otolaryngologist, once known as an ear-nose-and-throat doctor, or an otologist, a medical doctor who specializes exclusively in diseases of the ear. Once you've been checked for potential physiological problems of the ear or other hearing-related health problems, you'll probably be referred to an audiologist, a specialist in the testing of hearing. You may take a test in a soundproof booth with special headphones while you use a device to indicate when you hear sounds of various pitches with each ear.

Hearing aids have become smaller, more inconspicuous, and vastly more sophisticated than they were even just a few years ago. Many are digital and capable of filtering out peripheral noise, so they selectively amplify the sounds you've been missing and most want to hear, like voices.