How to spot hearing loss as you get older

Hearing loss can sneak up on us – so gradually that many of us don’t notice the change. You might be thinking, Wow, was that restaurant loud? I couldn’t hear anything. My TV is probably broken. I keep having to turn up the volume.

But it may not be the TV or the restaurant; it could be you.

A classic symptom, says Jennifer Gonzalez, an audiologist at the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix, is a feeling that everyone around you has suddenly decided to mumble. When older patients come to her — usually by an irritated family member tired of repeating themselves — “they’ll say, ‘Oh no, I can hear just fine.’ Everyone else just needs to speak more clearly,” explained Dr. Gonzalez out.

Age-related hearing loss, or presbycusis, is incredibly common, affecting about 13 percent of adults in their 50s and more than half of Americans over 70. While you can’t prevent it, there are ways to improve your hearing right now. to protect.

Know the symptoms.

Research shows that people wait an average of 10 years before getting help for hearing loss. But the quality of our hearing affects our overall health as we age, says Frank Lin, director of the Cochlear Center for Hearing and Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. Hearing loss has been linked to conditions such as dementia, depression and falls. So it is important to know the signals.

Some early signs include trouble hearing conversations when two or more people are talking, or difficulty understanding if there is background noise, such as in a crowd, said Dr. Lin. You may also have more difficulty hearing higher pitched sounds (such as children’s voices) because we lose the ability to hear higher frequencies first, he explained.

Kelly Dwyer, chief of audiology at Emory Healthcare in Atlanta, says someone else usually notices it first. “The majority of patients who see me will say, ‘My wife thinks I can’t hear,’” she said.

Another warning sign, added Dr. Dwyer added, is that you “start to get nervous about situations where it might be harder to hear,” she said. “Patients will say, ‘I don’t go to church anymore,’ or ‘My grandchildren don’t even try to talk to me because I can’t hear them.’”

The National Institutes of Health has a list of questions to ask yourself if you think you are losing your hearing.

Get tested (especially if it’s been decades).

Dr. Gonzalez said she asks patients in their 60s when the last time they had their hearing checked was, “And they’ll say, ‘Oh, I haven’t had my hearing tested since I was in school.'”

If you have symptoms, make an appointment with an audiologist, Dr. Gonzalez said. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also recommends that you ask for a hearing test during your annual check-up with your doctor.

If you prefer to test yourself at home, the Cochlear Center for Hearing and Health will refer you to a free one hearing number test who assesses your hearing. (It’s only available for iPhones, Dr. Lin said, but the Center is developing a similar app for both Android and iOS, which will be available this fall.)

You can also use your computer to do the National hearing testdeveloped by the NIH, for a fee of $8. (It’s free for AARP members.)

Monitor your noise levels.

Your hearing ability can be worsened by routine noise exposure, Dr. Lin said. Prolonged noise above 70 decibels can damage your hearing, according to the CDC (a whisper is 30 decibels, while a siren sounds at 120 decibels).

And if you listen to music or watch videos on a smartphone, the CDC warns that the maximum volume allowed on these devices, 105-110 decibels, can cause hearing damage within five minutes.

“The rule of thumb is that if you’re listening through headphones and someone else can hear it, it’s too loud,” said Dr. Dwyer.

You may even be able to set your smartphone and wearable devices to alert you if your music is too loud, or set a limit on how loud they can go, said Dr. Gonzalez.

Use protective clothing.

Whether you have hearing problems or not, don’t use lawn mowers, power tools or leaf blowers without hearing protection, Dr. Lin said, and keep protective clothing on hand. Playing music in your earbuds doesn’t count and can make the situation worse. “I have a pair of ear muffs in my garage, near my lawn mower, so I just put them on,” he said.

And carry earplugs in your bag for noisy environments, said Dr. Dwyer. (“Just the small, soft earplugs from the drugstore,” she explained.)

Dr. Gonzalez, a music lover, uses so-called musician earplugs when she goes to concerts, which protect the ears of people playing music without distorting their perception of pitch, she said. “If you’re at a wedding reception or in a bar where there’s a lot of noise but you still need to communicate, that’s a great option.”

Hearing aids can improve your quality of life.

Hearing aids have improved significantly over the past decade, said Dr. Dwyer: “They have better technology. They don’t squeak. They are not big and beige.” And some connect wirelessly to other compatible Bluetooth devices, she said, so you can answer your phone or stream a podcast directly to your hearing aid.

They are also more accessible. In 2022, the Food and Drug Administration announced new regulations allowing the sale of over-the-counter hearing aids, which the American Academy of Audiology established. estimates will cost between $300 and 600compared to an average of $5,000 for a prescription hearing aid.

If you’re still a little hesitant to wear them, remember that hearing aids have proven that slow cognitive declinesaid dr. Gonzalez, so they may also be good for brain health.

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