November is stress awareness month. How does stress affect your hearing health?
For many people, the past 18 months of pandemic life have been among the most stressful of their lives for a host of reasons.
With November the month of International Stress Awareness Week, it seems like a good time to remind everyone of the link between stress and hearing damage.
As well as being bad for the heart, circulatory problems can also put your hearing at risk. Good circulation is vital if the small sensory hairs of the inner ear are to work properly and do their job of translating the noise received by your outer ears into electrical impulses for the brain to interpret as sound. Deprive them of good circulation and they become damaged or die, leading to irreversible hearing loss.
If you’re under a lot of stress a lot of the time it’s important to find ways to eliminate stress from your life in the short and long term.
What can you do?
- Take regular breaks from whatever is causing you stress. This will help you to gain perspective and feel less overwhelmed.
- Exercise regularly. Even a walk around the block will enable you to get some free air and benefit from the release of ‘feel good’ hormones.
- Talk to someone. Chatting to a friend or some sessions with a professional counsellor can help you deal with the causes of your stress.
- Find a relaxation technique that works for you. This may be a form of meditation, yoga or just cuddling your cat, but it will lower your heart rate.
- Make time for you. Valuing yourself and creating space in your life to do something you love will help you to feel happier and gain perspective.
- Enjoy a balanced diet. Drinking lots of water, reducing caffeine and eating nutritious foods will help your body and mind to stay healthy.
- Stress affects your sleep patterns. If reading or relaxation techniques don’t help to calm you before bed, then talk to your doctor.
If you’re worried about your hearing, come and see us at The Hearing Clinic for a no-fuss hearing assessment. Give us a call on:
