What are the Healthy Habits that Can Accidentally Hurt Your Hearing?

Image credit

Well, healthy habits are supposed to be the good guys, right? Like, start working out, start sleeping better, start being more social, start doing wholesome little routines that make life feel less heavy. And sure, all of that is great. But when you think of healthy habits, you’re probably not thinking about hearing health solutions either, right? Afterall, why would you? But as scary as it all sounds, yes, healthy habits can surprisingly impact your hearing health. 

Well, no, it’s not because the habit is bad, but because of the way it plays out in real life. Basically, it’s never intentional here. Like, nobody starts a new routine thinking, “Can’t wait to accidentally stress my ears.” It’s more like, “This is helping my mood,” then six months later, there’s a subtle issue that you just didn’t see coming. But what sort of healthy habits can impact this, though?

Lous Music and Fitness Go Together

While yoga might be known for being super calm and quiet, that’s one of the few fitness routines where it is quiet. Unless you’re working out from home (or outside), there’s probably a high chance you’re either wearing headphones with music blasting, you’re in a group class with music blasting (or shouting), or the gym itself is super loud and blasting too. While yes, being in group classes, well, even the gym is honestly such a good motivator. It’s scheduled, there’s an instructor, and there’s peer pressure in the best way, like, everyone’s here, so showing up feels easier. But of course, some studios treat volume like it’s part of the workout, and the speakers are doing the most.

But yeah, usually exercise facilities are really loud, not always, of course, but like a giant chunk of the time they actually are. Overall, exercise and hearing are tied to each other. They’re actually tied together in a good way because of the blood vessels in the ears, but at the same time, if you’re constantly in a loud room or constantly blasting music into your headphones, then you’re doing far more harm than good. 

Social Health is Good, But Loud Places are Everywhere

Yep, this one is so real. As you probably know, there’s this giant loneliness epidemic that’s currently happening. So it’s finally getting to the point where people try to get out more, see friends more, feel less isolated, and that’s a genuinely good health goal. But where do people go to be social? 

Well, it’s usually in loud restaurants where everyone’s talking over each other. Well, that, and bars with music blasting. You could say the same for weddings, sports games, and well, packed events. Basically, every place that requires someone to lean in and say, “What?” five times in a row. Oh, and top that off with alcohol because alcohol is also really bad for hearing health. The fix can be as simple as just wearing earplugs and avoiding alcohol. 

“Productivity” Can Mean Wearing Headphones for Half the Day

How relatable is this to you? Well, a lot of people work in noisy environments now. Be it cafés, coworking spaces, open offices, even just a house with other people in it. So headphones go on. Then the background noise gets annoying, so the volume goes up. Then it becomes the default setting for hours and hours. Actually, noise-cancelling headphones can help a lot, because they reduce the urge to crank the volume. So you might want to consider that.