You can end up in the hospital if you don’t correctly manage your hearing loss symptoms. I know that sounds like an exaggeration. We usually consider hearing loss as not much more than a hassle – something that makes the news a little harder to hear or, at worst, makes you unknowingly agree to something you didn’t mean.
But the long-term health impacts of neglected hearing loss is beginning to get serious attention from researchers.
How is Your Health Related to Hearing Loss?
At first glance, hearing loss doesn’t appear to have much to do with other health indicators. But research carried out by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health indicates that over time, visits to the hospital can increase by up to 50% for somebody with untreated hearing loss. The longer the hearing loss goes untreated, the more severe the health havoc get.
That’s a puzzling finding: what does hearing have to do with your general health? The answer is challenging.
Hearing Health And Mental Health
Here are a few of the health concerns connected to hearing loss:
- You begin to lose your memory. In fact, your odds of developing dementia is twice as high with neglected hearing loss.
- Balance problems. Hearing loss can make it harder to keep your balance and keep your situational focus.
- An increase in anxiety and depression. Basically, the likelihood of depression and anxiety increases with hearing loss and that will bring about health problems both physical and mental.
Hearing Aids Really Help
There’s some good news though. The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School research reveals that up to 75% of hearing loss related cognitive decline can be stopped in its tracks by one easy solution: using a hearing aid.
Wearing a hearing aid has a powerful impact on mitigating the dangers connected to neglected hearing loss. The following improvements were revealed in people who used hearing aids for as little as two weeks:
- Brain function improvements.
- Awareness and balance improvements.
- Severe brain injury reductions.
The team from Johns Hopkins looked at data from 77,000 patients accumulated over around twenty years. And the conclusion is staggeringly simple: safeguarding your hearing is essential to preserving your health. Taking care of your hearing health also benefits your finances, because being sick costs money.
Preserving Your Hearing And Your Health
Hearing loss is not exclusive to the aging process but it is a part of it. Hearing loss can develop at any age because of accidents, occupational hazards, or diseases.
However, it’s essential to address any hearing loss you may be experiencing. Otherwise, your health could be negatively impacted.