It’s easy to take your hearing for granted, for the simple reason that it’s easy to take anything for granted, but your ears, while strong and robust, are not immune to damage — both from injury or as a side effect of getting older.

Your hearing deserves the same level of attention as you’d give any other part of your body. By taking a proactive approach to your hearing health, you’ll ensure that your ears work better, for longer. In this post, we’ll run through a few handy tips that’ll keep your ears working as well as possible. 

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Lower the Volume

It’s a noisy world, and sometimes, all we want to do is listen to our music in peace, without the manic noise of the world distracting us. But over time, listening to music at unhealthily loud volumes can cause damage to your ears, resulting in hearing loss. 

So be mindful of the volume at which you’re listening to music. The ambition should be to enjoy the song, not make it feel like the band is playing a private concert in your head. And talking of concerts — if you’re a regular concert-goer, then invest in some good earplugs. They’ll protect your ears without diluting any of the sound. 

Schedule an Appointment With an Audiologist

You can usually tell when your eyesight is deteriorating. It’s not so easy to tell when the same is happening to your hearing. Scheduling routine appointments with an audiologist to assess your hearing health. If your hearing capacity is decreasing, then they’ll make lifestyle recommendations, or perhaps even suggest that you wear a hearing aid. Today’s hearing aids are comfortable and discreet, and with smart hearing aid technology improving all the time, now come jam-packed with features, including directional microphones and noise-reduction capabilities. It’s best to schedule an appointment around the age of forty for a baseline hearing evaluation. 

Stay Away From Q-Tips

You want your ears to be clean, and your ears also want your ears to be clean. They’ll do a better job than you will. Q-tip use is so common that you would assume that this is a recommended health activity; in fact, the opposite is true. You can use them to clean the outer part of your ear if you like, but keep it away from the inner part (the canal bit). You’ll be more likely to push earwax further into your ear than to scoop it out, and in the process, you’ll run the risk of damaging your ear. Your ears are more fragile than you might think, so be careful with them. 

Lower Your Stress

Is there literally anything that lowering our stress levels won’t improve? Working to lower your stress levels can help to reduce hearing loss. Why is that the case? No one’s quite sure — all they know is that the data suggests it’s the case. Looking to lower your stress levels and do another ear-boosting activity at the same time? Then go for a run — it’ll help with blood flow, which can help with hearing.