Imagine you walk into a crowded restaurant with your family. As soon as you sit down, you have difficulty hearing what they’re saying to you, thanks to all the background noise around you. And even though the food is great, you end up majorly disappointed over missing out on the conversation during family time.
If this sounds eerily relatable (or like something you definitely don’t want to experience), then it might be time for you to prioritize your hearing care. In the United States alone, about 40 million adults aged 20 to 69 have noise-induced hearing loss. To put that figure into perspective, it’s almost double the amount of people who report having diabetes or cancer.
And while it may be easy to shake it off and say your hearing is fine, one in four U.S. adults who report having excellent to good hearing actually already have some form of hearing damage. Why has hearing loss become such a common problem?