Part 1: Checking Your Ears
1. Talk to your doctor about hearing problems. Noticing hearing loss or changes? Make an appointment with a healthcare professional who can examine your ears for any obvious abnormalities and ask pertinent questions, like your medical history and lifestyle. Most problems that affect your hearing are not dangerous and can be reversed, so don't be afraid to seek professional advice. Don't try to self-diagnose or let friends or family members who aren't medically qualified pull out your ears.
A healthcare professional may be able to refer you to an ear specialist for a more in-depth examination.
2. Make an appointment to see an ear specialist for a hearing test. An otologist (ear, nose, and throat specialist) or audiologist can perform a more comprehensive ear exam, including a hearing test, which tests how well the auditory system functions to transmit sound to the brain. The entire process is fairly quick and painless, and is crucial in determining if a hearing problem is permanent. An ear, nose, and throat specialist can determine whether your problem is a sensorineural hearing loss, or a conductive hearing loss.
3. Understand the diagnosis and treatment options. Make sure your doctor gives you a clear explanation of the diagnosis and tells you about the various treatment options. If it's sensorineural hearing loss, it's usually treated by an ear, nose and throat specialist. If it's conductive hearing loss, your options are more varied and may include some simple, safe home remedies (depending on the cause). Search online about hearing loss to get a general idea of what treatments may be available, especially for conductive hearing loss. Trust only trusted medical websites.
Part 2: Treating sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL)
1. Understand that sensorineural hearing loss cannot be cured naturally. People with sensorineural hearing loss cannot be restored to normal hearing by natural methods, or home remedies, but advances in medicine and technology have certainly helped their condition. About 360 million people worldwide suffer from hearing loss, and about one-third of the elderly population over the age of 65 has a hearing disability, with more men than women, the most common being sensorineural hearing loss.
Long-term exposure to noise is the most common cause of sensorineural hearing loss, especially high-frequency hearing loss.
2. Getting a hearing aid. This is a small electronic device worn inside or behind the ear. When sound enters the ear and meets the eardrum, it vibrates, and a hearing aid amplifies the audio vibrations, making some sounds louder. A hearing aid has three main parts. It captures sound waves through a microphone, converts the sound into an electronic signal, sends it to an amplifier that amplifies the signal, and then sends it to the cochlea through a tiny speaker. Hair cells in the cochlea vibrate in response to the sound, stimulating nerves that send signals to the hearing center in the brain. Today's hearing aids are quite small and difficult for outsiders to detect, so you don't need to be too concerned about being noticed if the best treatment option for you is to wear a hearing aid.
Hearing aids are divided into analog and digital circuits, and the 2 types of electronics work in slightly different ways.
3. Cochlear implants. If the hair cells in the cochlea have been severely damaged by infection, tumor, or head injury, then wearing a hearing aid won't help. Instead, you'll need invasive surgery to restore functional hearing with a cochlear implant. A cochlear implant is an electronic medical device that transmits sound signals to the brain instead of the damaged cochlea. Cochlear implants are more expensive than hearing aids.
4. Use hearing aids. There are many other aids on the market that utilize electronic amplifiers, electromagnetic energy transmission, radio signals, or infrared waves that can enhance sound alone or in combination with a hearing aid or cochlear implant.
5. Schedule surgery. You may need surgery to drain an inner ear infection, remove a tumor, or modify a genetic deformity to help restore your hearing. But surgery carries some risks, and it's a good idea to be well-informed before choosing this treatment option.
Part 3: Treating conductive hearing loss (CHL)
1. Clean out the outer ear canal. Blockage of the ear canals with earwax or other debris is a common cause of conductive hearing loss. A small amount of earwax is beneficial to the ear, providing protection, lubrication and antibacterial properties. Most of the time, the ear canals have a self-cleaning function. But sometimes, they get clogged and you may experience ear stuffiness (a feeling of blockage in the ear), itchiness or tinnitus, or even partial loss of hearing. It is not recommended to insert cotton swabs deep into the ear canal to clean it. Consider using a safer method, like putting a few drops of mineral oil, baby oil or glycerin into the clogged ear canal. Hydrogen peroxide or carbamide peroxide drops can also safely dissolve earwax. The ear may experience a tingling or burning sensation that lasts a few minutes, but it is not life-threatening.
Your doctor can irrigate or flush your ear canals. There are also many inexpensive irrigation kits on the market so you can clean your ear canals yourself at home. Remember to use warm salt water for best results.
Doctors do not recommend ear candling to clean the ear canals because it can burn and puncture the eardrum.
2. Clean the Eustachian tube. The Eustachian tube connects the middle ear to the nasal cavity. With colds, sinus infections and allergies, fluid and mucus can block the Eustachian tubes, causing ear pain, a sensory popping sound and hearing loss. A blocked Eustachian tube will usually clear up on its own, but you can help it get better faster. Try closing your mouth, pinching your nose, and exhaling gently as if you were blowing your nose. Yawning or chewing gum may also help unclog the Eustachian tube.
When the Eustachian tubes open, you may feel as if you hear a popping sound, meaning that the pressure is equal on both the inside and outside of your ear.
3. Consider antibiotics. Antibiotics kill or inhibit the growth of microorganisms, including the pathogenic bacteria that trigger inner and middle ear infections. If your doctor diagnoses an ear infection, taking an antibiotic such as amoxicillin may be useful to help restore your hearing. Remember that some oral antibiotics can also cause hearing loss, such as erythromycin and tetracycline.
Part 4: Do exercises that can improve your hearing
1. Improve your hearing by exercising. Not suffering from sensorineural hearing loss, or conductive hearing loss, and purely want to improve your hearing? Then do aerobic exercise regularly to promote blood circulation in the ear and adjust your hearing.
2. Practice filtering out noise. Play music at a very low volume when talking to friends. Gradually add a second and third type of music, but continue to focus on the conversation. This trains the ear to filter out the sounds of the surroundings.
3. Practice determining the direction of the source of the sound. Close your eyes and let your friend walk on his own to a bit of distance from you, say 6 meters or more. Have him make a sound with a horn or bell that lasts 2 seconds, and then you point in the direction of the source of the sound. Have your friend change the direction and distance each time.
4. Practice recognizing various types of sounds. Close your eyes and listen to all the different sounds of your surroundings. One by one, recognize the sounds you hear that are far away or close. The more you practice, the more sounds you will learn to recognize.
5. Consider downloading software or apps specifically designed to improve your hearing, such as CLIX (to recognize word differences), Forbrain (to recognize related sounds in sounds), and Category Carousel (to associate sounds with images).
Part 5: Changing Your Diet
1. Eat foods that are good for your health and the proper function of your ears, including cold-water fish (herring, salmon, trout), most nuts, seeds, and whole grains, and virtually all fresh vegetables and fruits. Antioxidant ingredients that fight aging in the body include vitamins A, C and E. It neutralizes oxygen free radicals that accumulate in the body and cause damage.
Vitamin B3 (niacin) slightly dilates small blood vessels and improves circulation to the ears (and throughout the body). Vitamin B6 (pyridoxamine), on the other hand, is essential for maintaining proper function of the nervous system.
Insufficient vitamin B12 and folate (vitamin B9) can cause age-related hearing loss, so make sure you're getting enough vitamins B12 and B9 from food and supplements.
2. Don't eat foods that may affect your hearing. In addition to eating foods that are good for your health, avoiding certain foods can boost your health and improve your hearing. Foods high in saturated animal fat can trigger high cholesterol levels, which in turn increases the risk of clogged arteries. Blood flows properly so that the ears can function properly.
Consuming too much salt may lead to more fluid being trapped in the ears.
3. Avoid heavy metals such as mercury, arsenic (arsenic) and cadmium. Heavy metals are harmful to the nerves (especially the small nerves distributed in the inner ear) and eventually destroy them. The body can't get rid of heavy metals very well on its own, so over time they accumulate and become more and more dangerous. Fish have relatively high levels of mercury, such as sharks, swordfish, squareheads and big-eared mackerel.
Part 6: Preventing Hearing Loss
1. Take precautions so that loud noises don't further damage your hearing. While sensorineural hearing loss cannot be reversed, you can take action to prevent it from getting worse. As an example, reduce your exposure to loud, persistent noise, and if it's unavoidable, wear earplugs. Reconsider whether you must go to rock concerts or sporting events such as car racing.
When listening to your favorite music, you may want to lower the volume of your MP3 player.
2. Protect your ears from sharp objects. Do not insert sharp objects into your ears. Inserting large pins, pencils, knives, or other sharp objects into the ear can puncture the eardrum and cause permanent hearing loss. Perforated eardrums may be accompanied by pain, dizziness and ringing in the ears.
3. Medications may affect hearing. Some medications are undoubtedly life-saving and need to be taken regularly, but some medications for mild symptoms (such as headaches) can affect hearing. Salicylates (such as aspirin) have been shown to interfere with inner ear currents.
Medicines for high blood pressure and cancer also increase the risk of hearing loss.
Some chemotherapy drugs can even cause permanent hearing loss, including cisplatin, 5-fluorouracil, bleomycin, and nitrogen mustard.
High-dose aspirin can cause temporary hearing loss.
Anti-malarial drugs (such as quinine and chloroquine) can also cause temporary sensorineural hearing loss.
4. Treat other health problems promptly so they don't affect your hearing. Don't let colds, flu, sinus infections, or allergies get out of control or become chronic or recurring enough to affect your ears and reduce your hearing. Keep your immunity high and let your body fight off infections naturally. Getting enough sleep, drinking plenty of water, controlling stress and eating nutritious foods are all good for the immune system.
Some serious health problems can cause hearing loss, such as diabetes. If you have diabetes, try to manage the condition and seek medical attention as soon as your ears begin to hurt. This can be a symptom of necrotizing otitis externa, which can lead to loss of hearing and even death in patients.
TipIf you are losing your hearing, remember to speak at a lower volume than you think is normal. People who can't hear themselves often speak loudly, which is an overcompensating behavior.
Consider quitting smoking, as smokers are more likely to lose their hearing than non-smokers.
Tinnitus is one of the signs of inner ear damage and can be a precursor to hearing loss.