The Benefits Of Exercise And Physical Activity For Those With Hearing Loss

Everyone knows that exercise is good for them. It helps you to lose weight, gives you something to focus on, improves your heart health, lowers your blood pressure, improves your muscle mass, lowers your stress levels – the list goes on and on. Yet despite knowing all of this, many of us still don’t get as much exercise as we should.

That’s because exercise is hard work, and a lot of the time, we’re busy with other things – which could be why we’re stressed or unhealthy in the first place. Or we’re just not motivated enough to go to the gym or even for a walk around the block. Motivation can disappear after a busy day, when it’s raining outside or when something interesting catches our eye on the TV.

Yet, the more of a routine you can get into when it comes to exercise, the more good it will do you, and the more good you can see it doing, the more motivation you’ll have to keep going.

If you’re struggling to get started, there is one more piece of information that might help you find the energy you need to go for a run or join a dance class; exercise is good for your hearing and can help those with hearing loss. It might sound strange, but it’s true.

Age-Related Hearing Loss

One of the most common types of hearing loss is age-related hearing loss. As you get older, the hair cells in your inner ear, which are responsible for your hearing (or lack of it), become worn and tired. They don’t work as well as they did, which means you might develop hearing loss – and this is something that can happen to everyone. Statistics suggest that around 50% of people over the age of 75 will have some level of hearing loss because of this.

Exercise And Age-Related Hearing Loss

Recently, the University of Florida conducted a study about age-related hearing loss and how it can be slowed down by regular exercise. In some cases, regular exercise was shown to prevent age-related hearing loss altogether.

The study showed that those who live a more sedentary life and don’t partake in any – or at least very limited – exercise had more problems with the hair cells within their ears. Those who exercised less had fewer working hair cells than those who exercised more. Since you need hair cells to hear, it stands to reason that when many of them aren’t working, the result is hearing loss. The final results of the study were that seniors who exercised for just 25 minutes a day had much less chance of developing age-related hearing loss than those who did not.

How Does Exercise Help?

It’s clear that exercise does help to protect your hearing and can reduce or even eliminate age-related hearing loss, but how does this happen? What are the reasons behind the findings? When you exercise, you improve your blood flow because your body needs more oxygen. Better blood flow means that more oxygen gets where it needs to be, and that includes your ear hair cells. The more oxygen they have, the better they can work.

Yet this is only one reason why exercise is good for hearing loss. Another reason is inflammation. When you exercise, you can protect yourself against inflammation. Inflammation in small doses can be good because it helps the body fight against infection, but when it is chronic, it can cause cell death – when that happens in the ear, hearing loss can be a result. Chronic inflammation can happen for a variety of reasons, but being overweight is one of them, so exercise, which will help to keep your weight in check, will certainly help.

What Exercise Is Best?

Any kind of exercise that raises your heart rate (even a little) is good because this means your blood will be flowing faster, which is great for preventing or reducing hearing loss. You might prefer something structured like an exercise class, or perhaps you like going to the gym where you’ll have people around you to help you learn how to use the equipment; you might even choose to hire a personal trainer.

However, you don’t have to do any of these things if you don’t like them; you can find another kind of exercise that you prefer. This will help keep you exercising and give you something to look forward to. Some examples of other exercise ideas include playing sports, gardening, running around with your children or grandchildren, walking your dog, doing housework, and more. In fact, as long as you are moving and not sitting still all day, you’re making a good start.

To find out more about hearing loss and how our audiologist can assist you, please don’t hesitate to contact the Quality Hearing Aid Center at (248) 430-8791.