If you’re not managing your symptoms properly, hearing loss can put you in the hospital. You may think that this is a bit of an exaggeration. We’re used to thinking of hearing loss as not much more than an inconvenience – something that makes the news a bit more difficult to hear or, at worst, makes you unknowingly agree to something you didn’t mean.
But the long-term health impacts of untreated hearing loss is beginning to get significant attention from researchers.
How is Your Health Related to Hearing Loss?
Hearing loss doesn’t, at first sight, seem as if it has much of a connection to other health concerns. But research carried out by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health reveals that untreated hearing loss can lead to a 50% increase in hospital visits over time. The longer the hearing loss remains untreated, the more severe the health havoc get.
That’s a curious finding: how is your overall state of health linked to your ability to hear? That question can have a complicated answer.
Hearing Health And Mental Health
Here are a few of the health problems associated with hearing loss:
- Loss of balance. Hearing loss can make it harder to keep your balance and maintain situational awareness.
- You begin to lose your memory. As a matter of fact, your odds of developing dementia is twice as high with neglected hearing loss.
- 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
It’s not all doom and gloom, though. Far from it. The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School research reveals that up to 75% of hearing loss related mental decline can be halted by one simple solution: wearing a hearing aid.
Wearing a hearing aid has a powerful impact on putting an end to the risks linked to neglected hearing loss. According to the research, patients who wore hearing aids for just two weeks saw:
- Improvements in awareness and balance.
- Brain function improvements.
- Severe brain injury reductions.
Over a period of about two decades, Johns Hopkins accumulated and analyzed data from over 77,000 individuals. And the conclusion is surprisingly simple: safeguarding your hearing is essential to maintaining your health. Taking care of your hearing health also helps your financial well-being, because being sick costs money.
Preserving Your Hearing And Your Health
Hearing loss is not exclusive to getting older but it is a part of it. Because of accidents, occupational hazards, and disease, hearing loss can happen at any age.
However, it’s important to acknowledge any hearing loss you may be experiencing. Otherwise, your health could be negatively impacted.