Young african american woman wearing casual clothes smiling with

Start Your New Year with Better Hearing! 

In Hearing Health, Hearing Loss by Dr. Marcus Kolmetz

Dr. Marcus Kolmetz

The New Year Is a Time To Commit to Better Health Habits

It is probably true for most people that the holidays are a thrill, making time to see family and friends that you may have been trying to make time to see for months. It is not uncommon to allow ourselves a little bit of indulgences that we might otherwise forego, accepting the festive norms as an excuse to eat or drink a little too much.

And for many people the holidays can be exhausting for these exact same reasons. When we overindulge the bloating and the hangovers are a powerful reminder on why these are not our normal healthy habits. Add to that the pressure of finding just the right gifts for everyone on your list or the stress of mandatory time with family that you may not always see eye to eye with and it is simple to see how the holidays wipe us out.

But most importantly the holidays are a time to take stock of where we are at in our lives. It is only natural that the new year is a time to recalibrate and make goals for the next year. New year resolutions have become a cliche punchline thanks to how common it has become that one sets ambitious goals and then fails to see them through only to fall back into their own old habits.

But you know how important your health is to your overall sense of contentment. You know that it is fundamental to your sense of well-being. Maybe you are not the type of person who can muster the discipline to follow through with a new diet. But one major step you can take to invest in your overall health is to make an appointment to get your hearing checked. Doing so does not require you to change your ways of being day to day. But keeping on top of caring for your hearing health is in fact central to maintaining your overall health.

Your Hearing Health is Fundamental to Your Overall Health 

With proper treatment by a trained professional, hearing health is simple to maintain. When it is managed, hearing loss, poses very little risk to your overall health. You can live a perfectly normal life and do all the things that you would otherwise wish to do, from the mundane joys of spending time with your family to ambitious thrills like extreme tourism. Nothing is impossible with the proper care and upkeep. And proper care and upkeep begin with just one small step, making an appointment to see exactly where your hearing health is really at.

Consider how quickly and predictably hearing loss unravels your overall health when you do not take appropriate action. With the exceptions of people in extreme accidents, the vast majority of people who suffer from hearing loss feel it come on gradually. They are most likely to first notice it when out in public, especially in places with loud background noise and especially when trying to have a conversation with two or more people. This makes sense because at home, in controlled environments in which we can concentrate, of course we intuitively create the setting which is most comfortable to us. But when those conversations in public become difficult to follow, they become exhausting to keep up with. You are suddenly concentrating to follow along, filling in blanks of words you might miss.

The stress and fatigue of this trouble obviously makes you think twice before going out to see others at all. This leads to social withdrawal, which leads to loneliness. Loneliness causes depression and depression creates feelings of powerlessness and frustration. Sometimes this even provokes people to lash out in unpredictable behaviors just to regain some semblance of control and this erratic behavior leads to confusion and cognitive decline. This is precisely why it is so important that we do not minimize or downplay any inklings we may sense that we are beginning to have trouble hearing.

Do Not Minimize Hearing Health 

All kinds of reasons may inspire people to minimize their hearing loss when they first sense it coming on. In fact, it is incredibly difficult to even catch it coming on because its effects are so gradual. This is why it is so important to get a regular checkup with a trained audiologist. They can tell you objectively where your hearing health really stands and guide you toward the treatment options just right for you.

Make a simple commitment to yourself and your health this holiday season and make an appointment with one of our specialists today.