Hearing exercises: Brain games

There are two main components to your sense of hearing: the organs that relay data to the brain and the brain, in turn, organizing those messages into intelligible sound. As we age, our brains tend to slow down―a concept known as “neural slowing.” One side effect of neural slowing is that oftentimes our brains lack the ability to track the faster moving parts of speech. This degraded processing ability is especially heightened in environments with a lot of background noise. A study out of Northwestern University has demonstrated that specialized, auditory-based training for older individuals can help counteract neural slowing and improve the ability to successfully hear, remember, and understand sentences in noisy environment. 

Hearing exercises: Cardio

One of the most important connections between hearing loss and exercise is in the area of cardiovascular fitness. There are a number of studies, including a decade-long study from Miami University, demonstrating the correlation between cardiovascular and hearing health. In that Miami University study, it was shown that individuals over 50 without a genetic predisposition for hearing loss who participated in regular cardio maintained hearing sensitivity, effectively delaying age-related hearing loss.

So how much cardiovascular exercise should you do? The World Health Organization’s physical activities guidelines for older adults indicates that adults age 65 and up should do at least 150 minutes of moderate-intensity aerobic physical activity throughout the week. Alternately, they also suggest 75 minutes of vigorous-intensity aerobic physical activity per week, or a balanced combination of the two would suffice.

One of the best ways to ensure that you are hitting your hearing exercise goals is to find cardiovascular activities you enjoy. Explore different activities like gardening, hiking, swimming, yoga, or cycling that you find fun and are safe for you to do. That way, doing your cardio over the course of a week will feel like less of a chore and more of a thrill.