It’s quite common to see old people suffering from hearing loss. According to the National Institute on Deafness and other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), about one in every three people in the age group of 65 to 74 in the US is suffering from hearing loss. But only some know the reason behind suffering from hearing loss in old age.
Causes of hearing loss in elderly:
It’s difficult to grab that one reason of hearing loss in elderly as there are multiple factors of its occurrence. Age-related hearing loss occurs in both ears with the same results in both the ears. One of the principal causes of hearing loss is when changes take place in the inner ear. Not only the inner ear changes results into the hearing loss; middle ear changes plus changes along the nerve pathways from the ear to the brain also results in hearing loss.
Other causes of hearing loss can include medical conditions and the medications associated with it.
It’s a tedious task to find the difference between age-related hearing loss from other causes such as long-term exposure to noise, which damages the sensory hair cells present in our ear that allows us to hear.
Older people mostly suffer from medical conditions like high blood pressure and diabetes, are also the causes of hearing loss. Age-related hearing loss may occur due to abnormalities in the outer or middle ear, but it happens rarely.
Elder people who have hearing loss have a combination of both noise-induced hearing loss and age-related hearing loss.
How to prevent yourself from age-related hearing loss?
Even in this advanced world, scientists couldn’t find a way to prevent people from age-related hearing loss till yet. However, one can prevent themselves from noise-induced hearing loss by avoiding noise polluted areas. You just need to protect your ears from loud music, snowmobiles, lawn mowers, firearms, and leaf blowers. And if you can’t avoid such sounds then use ear plugs or ear muffs. Using ear plugs, you can limit the amount of hearing you might lose as you get older. Wearing hearing aids will prevent further hearing loss or hearing damage.
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