Are We Doing Enough to Prevent Hearing Loss?

Like most millennials, I like to joke that I get overstimulated by two people asking me a questions at once now, while 15-ish years ago, I could easily spend hours at an incredibly loud club, screaming over blasting music, keeping cool as multiple people bumped into me, and generally managing to have a good time in an incredibly loud, stick environment.

Now? One hour in that type of space and I'm struggling...which might be a good thing, at least where the noise intolerance piece is concerned.

A friend of mine recently threw a "2008" themed party, and it was loud — like, nightclub-blasting-Pitbul-during-our-partying-prime loud. I found myself thinking "wow, I really used to do this all the time"...which of course led me to wonder if I've messed up my long-term hearing health as a result. Because let's face it: I spent my 20s in a lot of very, very loud rooms, and that is...well, not the safest thing you can do to protect yourself from noise-induced hearing loss.

According to the CDC, if you need to shout to be heard over the noise around you, it's too loud. Yikes.

Of course, being in this type of atmosphere occasionally is better than being chronically exposed to loud noise, and the louder your sound exposure, the more dangerous is becomes. But noise-induced hearing loss is real, and it carries real risks. Hearing loss has been linked to dementia. According to materials from Johns Hopkins University, mild hearing loss doubles a person's dementia risk, moderate hearing loss triples it, and severe hearing loss can cause a five-fold increase.

So...yeah. We should be thinking about preventing hearing loss.

What's done is done. I can't go back and stop myself from spending so many nights at loud parties, but I can make sure I do what I can to protect my hearing going forward, as so can you. I can avoid super loud gatherings, use earplugs when appropriate, and most of all, just be mindful of this issue and the real risks that can come along with not thinking about noise-induced hearing loss.