Tips to Improve Your Hearing

The ear is a marvelous and well-constructed organ. It is perfectly created to funnel sound in to the head, with built-in sensors that channel that sound to the brain. Unfortunately, many people find it harder and hard to hear, as they grow older. Here are some tips on recovering some of that hearing loss. Regular Maintenance Taking steps to protect the ears helps, including making sure to avoid loud and jarring noises. This means not listening to music at the highest setting, wearing earplugs when at a concert or around loud machinery, and avoiding jobs with loud constant noises. It also helps to avoid earplug type headphones, instead opting for the type that lay over the ear and are cushioned with foam pads. Remove earwax Built up earwax can reduce hearing by quite a bit. Removing earwax with a cotton swab can hurt the ear more than help it, since the swab just pushes the wax farther in to the ear. Either consult a doctor to have the wax professionally removed or find a do-it-yourself method. One of the easiest remedies is to soak a cotton ball in water or saline solution. Tilt the head back and drip the solution in to the ear. Keep the head tilted for over a minute, so the solution to flow through the wax. After the time is up, tilt the head the opposite direction to let the solution drain out. This should clear out a good majority of the built up wax. Vitamins and medication Certain types of vitamins and medications can help stop the deterioration of hearing. These vitamins don’t restore hearing that is already lost but will help to prevent more hearing loss. These vitamins include Acetyl-carnitine, alpa-lipoic acid, glutathione, and coenzyme Q10. Consult a physician for exact dosages to help prevent hearing loss, and remember, although we've done research, this is not a doctor's direct recommendation. Hearing exercises Two simple exercises can help hearing. One is a filtering exercise. Grab a friend and two source of music or other sound. Turn on the music but keep the volume at medium level. Carry on a conversation with the friend, but don’t raise or lower the voices in any way. After talking to a bit, add the other source of music and keep the conversation going. This will help the ear start to pick filter out different ambient noises. The second exercise is about sound location. A friend is needed again as well as some type of noisemaker. Find a nice quiet place and have the friend go around the room making noises for two or three seconds at a time. Every time the noise stops, point at where the friend is. Doing this exercise on a regular basis will help build up both hearing and location memory. Prevention the Best Bet Although all of the above tips can help with hearing, the real best way to prevent hearing loss is to never put yourself in harms way in the first place. Rarely do you hear about a Buddhist who lives in silence who can't hear - instead it's the drummer in a band, or some other person who lives in a high-noise environment. Intelligence when living and using your lobes will be the best bet to make sure you don't regret your life decisions in the future.