What to Know About Age Related Hearing Loss

Posted: 2/20/2018 9:58 AM by Interim HealthCare

Age-related hearing loss, or presbycusis, is the slow loss of hearing that occurs as people get older. Hearing loss starts when the tiny hairs in your ear damaged or die. These tiny hairs pick up sound waves, change them into nerve signals, and the brain interprets them. These hairs do not grow back, so most cases where the hairs are lost, the damage is permanent.

At Interim HealthCare, we understand how a hearing loss can impact your ability to participate in the world around you. Our Personal Care services offer in-home care that help to eliminate the social situation that can come with hearing loss. Services include companionship options such as conversation, reading and correspondence.

The three main types of hearing loss are conductive, senosorineural and mixed hearing loss. Conductive is the result of a problem in the ear canal or middle ear that doesn't allow sound to carry into the inner ear. Senorineural is more than an age-related hearing loss and is caused by damage to the hair cells in the inner ear. Mixed hearing loss is a combination of both and can be the result of an injury, infection or an inherited condition.

The following factors contribute to age-related hearing loss:

Family history (age-related hearing loss tends to run in families)
Repeated exposure to loud noises
Smoking (smokers are more likely to have such hearing loss than nonsmokers)
Certain medical conditions, such as diabetes
Certain medicines, such as chemotherapy drugs for cancer

It is important to visit your doctor at the first sign of hearing loss, so you can be properly diagnosed. Not all hearing loss is the result of aging. In addition to sense isolation, recent studies have shown that there may be a connection between hearing loss and falls in older adults. the study looked at participants in a 2001 to 2004 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey and found that those with 25 dB of hearing loss were three times as likely to experience a fall.
Symptoms of hearing loss include:

Trouble making out the details of conversations
Muffled sound that gradually fades Pain in one or both ears
Dizziness, vertigo
Ringing in the ears (tinnitus)

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