How Longevity Experts Protect Their Ears
Longevity experts are more interested in preserving their hearing than you might think. While it could seem as ancillary, research shows that people who lose their hearing actually experience significant brain shrinkage — something you’ll want to avoid at all costs.
But what are these longevity experts actually doing to protect their hearing? How are they going about it?
Monitoring Noise Levels
One of the things they’re doing is monitoring noise levels religiously. They’re tracking everything in their environment and getting alerts when noise levels become too high.
Noise is actually the biggest cause of hearing loss in the majority of people. It’s not just about getting older. Noise damages the delicate structures in the ear when it goes over a certain level, leaving people less able to hear and interpret the world around them.
The maximum allowable noise exposure for a prolonged period is 80 decibels. It’s possible to go briefly higher than that, but it’s risky. That’s why many of the world’s top longevity enthusiasts are constantly measuring noise in their environments and getting alerts when it rises above allowable or acceptable limits.
Investing In Custom-Molded Earplugs
Another development among longevity enthusiasts is that they’re investing more and more in custom-molded earplugs. These are specially made to fit the shape of their ears and allow them to block out more sound. They’re also more comfortable, which encourages a lot of these enthusiasts to actually wear them.
These days, the cost of custom-molding is coming down. It’s something that can be done trivially in most labs or clinics, or by private companies selling solutions online.
Earplugs that have custom-molding tend to be able to block more incoming sound than generic options. For many in the space, that means being able to block up to 30 dB of incoming noise.
Just make sure you get your custom earplugs fitted by a professional who knows what they’re doing, like an audiologist. Medics will often have a better understanding of what you need and how to fit gear properly.
Using Active Noise Canceling Headphones
If you want to take your setup to the next level, use active noise canceling headphones. These actually cancel incoming sounds in the vicinity of your ears, completely changing the dynamic.
What’s nice about this option is that it lets you listen to things like music and podcasts at a lower volume. You don’t need to crank up the sound too much either to block out unwanted incoming noise. That’s all done for you natively on the devices.
It’s also a good idea to keep the volume under 60% of whatever the device allows. Laws prevent devices from emitting sounds that are immediately damaging, but keeping below this threshold with noise-canceling headphones is something longevity experts are doing to build in a further margin of safety.
Fuelling Their Ears With Nutrition
Another thing longevity experts are doing is fuelling their ears with nutrition. They’ve realised that food is one of the biggest determinants of overall ear health.
One of the biggest supplements doing the rounds right now is magnesium. Many enthusiasts are using this mineral at high doses to get ear health-enhancing effects.
However, you don’t need to pop pills. Just eating a healthy, varied diet with plenty of vegetables will also provide a significant portion of the magnesium you need for things like sleep and overall well-being. If you want to supplement with extra, that’s great, but it might not make a big difference to your overall ear health.
What foods should you be focusing on specifically? A lot of longevity influencers and enthusiasts tout the benefits of almonds, spinach, and dark chocolate. If you want to be extra healthy, you could opt for defatted cocoa instead. It’s totally up to you.
Then, to get more bang for the buck and ensure more magnesium goes into your system, you can pair it with EPA and DHA. These assist its transit to ear tissues where the body can put it to use.
Scheduling Regular Hearing Tests In Your 30s and 40s
Longevity enthusiasts are also taking the time to schedule regular hearing tests in their 30s and 40s. The purpose of this is to track their hearing over time and see how it might be going wrong.
Many of the top longevity gurus online test their hearing once a quarter or so. However, you can get away with it once per year.
What’s nice about audiologists is that they know how to help with hearing loss. If they discover a problem, they can recommend solutions you can use immediately, usually hearing aids. They can also help with things like working out why your hearing might be deteriorating so you can make lifestyle changes to prevent issues in the future.
You also need to be particularly careful post-menopause. During this period of life, hearing can decline significantly, which is why so many longevity influences focus on it.
Ditching Q-Tips
Another piece of advice from many longevity influencers is to ditch Q-tips and ban cotton swabs from their homes. That’s because these options can damage the ear canal and cause harm to the eardrum.
The good news is that there’s an easy solution, and we’ve already discussed it above. Irrigation avoids pushing wax deeper and increasing the risk of blockages and perforations. It can also be a great solution when you want to avoid ototoxic medications that can harm the ear even if they reduce the amount of inflammation.
Using Hearing Aids Proactively
Lastly, it’s a good idea to use hearing aids proactively, which is something that Peter Attia and Brian Johnson are looking into personally. Using hearing aids proactively can reduce mortality risk by reducing the cognitive decline associated with hearing loss. Many longevity experts also use AI-enhanced hearing aids that reduce external sounds and tidy up some of the incoming noise reaching their ears so that they can get a better understanding of what they’re hearing. AIs will sometimes warn them if they are in a noisy spot.
