5 Surprising Facts About Your Ears and Hearing
Maintaining healthy hearing throughout life becomes easier when we understand how our ears function. This understanding empowers us to take proactive measures, such as wearing ear protection when necessary and adopting safe ear-cleaning practices, along with regular check-ups. Let’s delve into five lesser-known facts about ears and hearing. Ears Never Rest Your ears are always…
What To Know About Hearing Aid Technology in 2024
Hearing aids provide sound clarity and amplification, improving the quality of life for many; in fact, nearly 28.8 million Americans stand to benefit from using hearing aids. To provide that improvement to quality social connection, hearing aids must be consistently advancing their technologies. What’s to Expect If you’re a hearing aid user or considering hearing…
What To Know About Bone Conduction Tests
A bone conduction test is a hearing test used to indicate to a hearing specialist whether sensorineural hearing loss versus conductive hearing loss is present. The test works by presenting sounds that gently vibrate the skull to indicate where there is hearing loss present in the outer or middle ear. It is often used in…
How Are Stress and Hearing Loss Connected?
Stress can lead to various health issues long-term. Those overall health issues can also have an impact on your hearing health, making the management of chronic stress more important. How Stress Affects Hearing The inner ear is sensitive to blood flow. The inner ear hair cells that carry sound signals to the brain need healthy…
What Is Otosclerosis and How Can It Be Treated?
Otosclerosis is a condition caused by abnormal bone remodeling in the middle ear. Your ear bone tissue renews itself throughout your life, replacing old tissue with new. When the tissue grows abnormally, otosclerosis can occur. Affecting more than three million Americans, otosclerosis prevents sound from traveling through to the auditory center, leading to mild to…
Tips for Relieving Ear Pressure
Ear pressure is the uncomfortable feeling that your ears are full, stuffy or plugged. Ear pressure occurs when the Eustachian tubes, the tubes running from the middle ear to the back of the nose, become blocked. Common causes of ear pressure include but are not limited to: Less common causes of ear pressure include Ménière’s…
How to Protect Your Hearing While Cycling
Cycling, whether indoors on a stationary bike or outdoors on the road or in the mountains, can be a great way to exercise. Cycling is an ideal aerobic exercise if you have arthritis or other conditions which cause joint pain because it helps your heart without putting too much mechanical stress on your back, knees,…
What Is the Valsalva Maneuver & How Does It Relate to Your Ears?
Even if you haven’t heard the term “Valsalva maneuver,” you probably know what it is. It is a breathing technique used for several reasons: one reason is clearing your ears. What Does the Valsalva Maneuver Entail? There are only a few steps involved in the Valsalva maneuver. They are: You can maintain these steps for…
As the Weather Starts Getting Colder, Here’s How You Can Protect Your Ears
Think of the things that can damage your ears. You probably thought of loud noises and cotton swabs, but did you think of cold weather? Yes, cold, damp weather can, in fact, negatively affect the health of your ears. We review how you can protect them this fall and winter below. Wear Earmuffs Your outer…
Earwax 101
Earwax, medically known as cerumen, is a naturally-occurring substance found in the outer ear that is made up of oil, sweat, dead skin cells and dirt. While this may not sound pleasant, earwax plays an essential role in the ear’s health. We review everything you need to know about earwax below. What Does Earwax Do?…