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The generation that perfected rock and roll now find themselves smack dab in the middle of confronting a chronic health concern that disproportionately affects older people. Baby Boomers, currently between the ages of 58 and 76 years old, are perfectly placed to encounter age-related hearing loss.
You can blame cranking up the music too loud, but the truth is that aging itself can cause hearing loss. And, while roughly one third of people over the age of 65 live with hearing loss, it remains an undertreated and undiagnosed condition for a large majority.
Causes of hearing loss
The two leading causes of hearing loss are noise-induced hearing loss and age-related hearing loss. In cases of the former, a decline in hearing ability is the result of exposure to too loud noise. This can happen all at once or steadily over time.
Still, age continues to be the greatest predictor of hearing loss and age-related hearing loss accounts for most instances of challenged hearing. After you blow out the candles on your fiftieth birthday cake, you should be scheduling a hearing exam once every three years to monitor your hearing health.
How hearing loss works
Both noise and age contribute to the decline of the sensitive inner ear cells that are charged with receiving noise from the external world and turning it into sound information. Once translated, the sound information in the form of electrical signals travels from the inner ear to the brain via the auditory nerve. In our brain’s processing centers, we make meaning of this information where it becomes language, music and environmental cues.
When the inner ear cells decline, we are able to receive less noise from the world. It’s like trying to do a puzzle when you are missing some of the pieces. You can still get a majority of the information, but it will be an incomplete picture.
Symptoms of hearing loss
Because the symptoms of early hearing loss can be subtle, many people don’t realize that their hearing is becoming a problem. You might expect hearing loss to present in an overall lowering of volume, when the primary signals will actually relate to speech clarity. Conversations might become confusing because your brain is not getting pieces of what is said. We tend to lose access to high frequency sounds first, so speech will sound distorted.
You might find yourself asking ‘what?’ more frequently in conversations. Perhaps you are relying more heavily on the closed captioning function of your television to catch the dialogue in shows and movies. Phone calls become more difficult to participate in.
Self-diagnosis of hearing loss is notoriously tricky, which is why scheduling a regular hearing consultation is the best way to stay on top of changes in your hearing health as they happen.
The benefits of treating hearing loss
While most hearing loss is permanent and progressive (which means it gets worse over time), the great news is that hearing loss is also highly treatable. Hearing aids and even cochlear implants, which can be used to address severe hearing loss, are proven and successful solutions. They are shown to make listening easier, help alleviate the depression that often accompanies hearing loss and even helps to lower your risk of more complicated health conditions linked to hearing loss like dementia.
The average person waits a decade before deciding to face the issue. But, you don’t have to hit rock bottom, dealing with a sense of isolation or even depression, before deciding to confront your hearing loss. Treating hearing loss in its early stages can be an easier transition than waiting too long.
Why Boomers might disrupt a long held statistic
For the last half of a century, less than twenty percent of people with hearing loss have chosen to try hearing aids or other hearing solutions. But Boomers might disrupt that stagnant statistic. First of all, Boomers are a generation that has never accepted the stereotypes of aging, choosing instead to live youthful and vibrant lives in their older decades.
They’re also the first generation to live with high fidelity sound! Today’s hearing aids are more powerful, smarter and more stylish than they’ve ever been. It wouldn’t be surprising to see the Boomer generation embrace the benefits of modern hearing aids with enthusiasm.
Schedule a hearing consultation
To find out if you are living with hearing loss and might be a good candidate for hearing aids, schedule a hearing consultation today. Our highly trained team will lead you through a simple hearing exam and start you on the path to your most exceptional hearing health.