Impact of Physical Exercise on Maintaining Hearing Wellness

It’s already clear that mental health and physical health are directly related. But did you know that your hearing health and your physical health are also directly related? It’s actually a noteworthy intersection that often goes unnoticed. When it comes to exercise, you’re already well aware of the benefits, but these benefits actually go beyond just weight management, cardiovascular health and mental well-being. In fact, physical activity actually plays a pivotal role in maintaining good hearing health. But how exactly are these two related?

What’s the Link Between Exercise and Hearing Health?

The link between hearing health and physical exercise is due to cardiovascular function. When you’re engaging in regular exercises, it immediately promotes blood circulation. It also delivers some essential nutrients, and on top of all of that, it also delivers oxygen to the intricate structures within the inner ear. Getting the blood pumping is good for your heart, your lungs and muscles, but it’s also good for the overall health of your auditory system. In fact, if you’re doing regular exercise, specifically cardio, then you’re also reducing the risk of age-related hearing loss too.

What Cardio is Best for Maintaining Hearing Wellness?

While there are plenty of cardio exercises out there, from jogging, running on an elliptical, cycling, walks and swimming is there one that’s more beneficial when it comes to hearing health? For the most part, what the exercises are doesn’t matter too much as long as you’re not pushing yourself too hard. Something a little gentler could be beneficial since there’s usually less pressure to over-exert. The whole point is to enhance blood flow so it can support the delicate hair cells within the inner ear – since this helps preserve their functionality and longevity. So, just make sure you’re not pushing yourself too hard when doing cardio.

Should You Only Do Cardiovascular Exercises?

If you were to reach out to a hearing health professional, they’re going to tell you the importance of doing exercises other than just cardio. So, you don’t need to focus on one type of exercise to get the blood flowing. While yes, everyone should do cardio and have that as a major part of their exercise regimen, you can still incorporate moderate-intensity exercises, strength training and even yoga too. In general, it’s just best to have a hearing health professional you can go to because they’ll be able to do regular check-ups and have discussions with you in case there’s any changes with your hearing.

Moderation is Key

Even when it comes to exercise, sometimes too much of a good thing can actually be bad. However, one thing to keep in mind is that moderation is key. You’re going to want to avoid any intense bursts within your exercise regimen since this can lead to more cortisol, and more cortisol can potentially affect our hearing health. So, you need to strike a balance in how much you exercise, what exercises you do and of course take a holistic approach to all of this.