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Headphones are a device that best reflects the modern human condition. Modern wireless headphones, AirPods, and earbuds permit you to link to a global community of sounds while simultaneously enabling you to isolate yourself from everybody you see. You can keep up on the news, watch Netflix, or listen to music anywhere you are. It’s pretty amazing! But the way we generally use them can also be a health risk.
This is specifically true with regards to your hearing health. And the World Health Organization confirms this also. That’s exceedingly worrying because headphones can be found everywhere.
Some Dangers With Earbuds or Headphones
Frances loves to listen to Lizzo all the time. Because Frances loves Lizzo so much, she also cranks up the volume (most people love to listen to their favorite music at full volume). Frances uses high-quality headphones so she won’t bother other people with her loud music.
This kind of headphone use is fairly common. Needless to say, headphones can be used for lots of things but the basic concept is the same.
We want to be able to listen to anything we want without disturbing people around us, that’s the reason why we use headphones. But this is where it can become dangerous: our ears are exposed to an intense and prolonged amount of noise. After a while, that noise can cause damage, which leads to hearing loss. And hearing loss has been connected to a wide variety of other health-related illnesses.
Safeguard Your Hearing
Hearing health, according to healthcare experts, is a critical part of your general health. Headphones are easy to get a hold of and that’s one reason why they create a health hazard.
So here is the question, then, what can you do about it? Researchers have offered numerous solid measures we can all take to help make headphones a bit safer:
- Restrict age: Nowadays, younger and younger kids are wearing headphones. And it may be wiser if we reduce that a little, limiting the amount of time younger children spend wearing headphones. The longer we can stop the damage, the more time you’ll have before hearing loss takes hold.
- Pay attention to volume warnings: Most mobile devices have warnings when the volume becomes dangerous. So if you use a mobile device to listen to music, you need to heed these warnings.
- Take breaks: When you’re jamming out to music you really like, it’s difficult not to crank it up. Most people can relate to that. But you need to take a little time to allow your ears to recover. So every now and again, give yourself at least a five minute break. The idea is to give your ears some time with lower volumes every day. By the same token, monitoring (and limiting) your headphone-wearing time will help keep higher volumes from damaging your ears.
- Don’t turn them up so loud: 85dB is the maximum volume that you should listen to your headphones at according to the World Health organization (for context, the volume of an average conversation is around 60dB). Unfortunately, most mobile devices don’t measure their output in decibels. Try to be certain that your volume is lower than half or look up the output of your particular headphones.
You may want to think about lessening your headphone usage entirely if you are at all concerned about your health.
It’s Just My Hearing, Right?
You only get one set of ears so you shouldn’t dismiss the impact of hearing damage. But your hearing can have a big impact on a number of other health factors, including your overall mental health. Issues like have been connected to hearing impairment.
So your total wellness is forever linked to the health of your ears. Whether you’re listening to a podcast or your favorite music, your headphone could become a health risk. So do yourself a favor and turn the volume down, just a little bit.