Listen up!
You may be experiencing hearing loss without
realizing it.
The signs can be subtle, so take our easy quiz below (created with the help of Dr. Annette Zeman, of New York Hearing Doctors) to learn whether you need to “listen” to what your ears are trying to tell you.
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If you checked off 3 or more of these signs, it’s time to make an appointment with an audiologist to have your ears checked. You could simply have wax buildup, but you’ll never know until a hearing specialist gets a good look. Unless, of course, you’d prefer to emulate your hard-of-hearing grandma, whose favorite word is “eh?”
NOTE: As we get older, some things just don’t work as well as they used to. Hearing is one of those things for many of us. “Age-related hearing loss can have many causes, but it’s most often due to changes in the inner ear, which is full of tiny cells covered in tiny hairs that help us to hear by converting sound waves into nerve signals that are interpreted as sounds in our brain,” according to Dr. Zeman. Aging can cause these cells to become damaged or die, which results in hearing loss. Family history; smoking; repeated exposure to loud noises; and certain medical conditions, such as diabetes, can each affect the quality of our hearing over time. Often, we may not notice any difference, but others do.