If you’re not managing your symptoms correctly, hearing loss can put you in the hospital. You may think that this is a bit of 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 unwittingly agree to something you didn’t mean.
But current research is sounding an alarm over the long-term health effects of neglected hearing loss.
How is Your Health Linked to Hearing Loss?
At first sight, hearing loss doesn’t appear to have that much to do with other health indicators. But research conducted by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health reveals that untreated hearing loss can lead to a 50% increase in visits to the hospital over time. The chance of severe health problems goes up the longer hearing loss goes untreated.
That’s a puzzling finding: how is your total state of health related to your ability to hear? The answer is challenging.
The Connection Between Mental Health And Hearing
Here are a number of the health issues associated with hearing loss:
- Loss of balance. Hearing loss can make it harder to keep your balance and keep your situational focus.
- You start to lose your memory. In fact, your odds of developing dementia double with untreated hearing loss.
- Higher instance of 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, however. Far from it. The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School research indicates that up to 75% of the mental decline connected to hearing loss can be halted by one basic solution: wearing a hearing aid.
Wearing a hearing aid has a powerful impact on eliminating the dangers associated with untreated hearing loss. The following improvements were revealed in individuals who used hearing aids for as little as two weeks:
- Improvements in brain function.
- Reductions in traumatic brain injuries.
- Improvements in awareness and balance.
The team from Johns Hopkins studied data from 77,000 patients collected over roughly two decades. And a crucial part of maintaining your health lies in protecting your hearing which is a staggering conclusion. Taking care of your hearing health also helps your finances, because being sick costs money.
Caring For Your Health And Your Hearing
Hearing loss is a perfectly common part of the aging process, though it’s not exclusive to getting older. Because of accidents, disease, and occupational hazards, hearing loss can develop regardless of how old you are.
However or whenever you lose your hearing, it’s extremely important to deal with it. Otherwise, your health could be negatively impacted.