If you think about it, you realize you really can stay young by protecting your hearing. You can avert disaster when you can hear warnings, plus you can engage with others better in conversation, keeping you connected to the social world. Here are 10 ways you can grasp onto your youth a little longer.
Maintaining your youth with positive hearing health is not only possible, it’s fun.
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Maintain a sharp mind. Brain shrinkage puts you at increased risk of developing dementia in old age, and no one wants that. The National Institute on Aging has linked hearing loss with dementia, thanks to the brain shrinkage we experience as we get on in years.
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You won’t fall as much. Individuals who can’t hear well don’t have as much of a stable awareness of their surroundings, and can trip and fall easier. People with a 25-decibel hearing loss are three times more likely to fall than others with no hearing impairments, says Johns Hopkins Medicine.
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Faster reaction times to outside stimuli. When you have a healthy hearing level, you can better react to fire alarms and sirens so you can get out of the way and not get hurt
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Engage in productive interactions in daily life. Hearing loss has a tendency to alienate people from getting the information they need to go about their daily lives. It’s tough to effectively communicate with anyone from policemen to the check-out clerk when you suffer from hearing loss.
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Increase blood flow to your ear canals. Exercise is great for the ears. Via aerobic activity, you send oxygen-rich blood flow to the ears which protects them from additional hearing loss.
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Interact better in school. Do you find yourself back in school after many decades away? You won’t learn as well if you constantly have to sit up front and ask the teacher to repeat herself. Maintaining a healthy level of hearing means you can understand the teacher’s instructions more clearly. In addition, you can interact with your classmates and participate in projects much more easily.
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Stay out of the hospital. Hearing loss can boost your risk of going to the hospital due to falls and other events, can actually lead to inactivity, which in turn leads to depression.
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Have more frequent and higher quality sex. Hearing impaired seniors who wear hearing aids, along with seniors who have no hearing loss, tend to have an improved social life and sex life. They also experience better mental health and independence.
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Hear better at work. Improve your job performance with better hearing. If you can’t hear well, you obviously can’t pick up on important instructions or safety precautions. You certainly can’t readily participate productively in coworker discussions or meetings. The result? An impact on your job performance.
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Boost your self confidence. Those who have trouble hearing can have a lack of self confidence or self-esteem because they are afraid to engage in conversation with others. They fear they won’t be able to engage in a healthy back and forth discussion, so they tend to stay away from social situations.