You can wind up in the hospital if you don’t properly treat your hearing loss symptoms. I know that seems like an exaggeration. We usually consider hearing loss as little more than an inconvenience – something that makes the news a bit tougher to hear or, at worst, makes you unknowingly agree to something you didn’t mean.
But the long-term health effects of neglected hearing loss is beginning to get serious attention from researchers.
How is Your Health Related to Hearing Loss?
Hearing loss doesn’t, at first glance, seem as if it has much of a link to other health concerns. But research conducted by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health suggests that neglected hearing loss can lead to a 50% increase in visits to the hospital over time. The longer the hearing loss remains untreated, the more severe the health troubles becomes.
That’s a puzzling finding: how is your overall state of health associated with your ability to hear? That question can have a complicated answer.
The Connection Between Mental Health And Hearing
Here are a number of the health concerns connected to hearing loss:
- Higher instance of depression and anxiety. Simply stated, untreated hearing loss can increase depression and anxiety, which will then have a strong negative effect on your physical body, not to mention your mental health.
- Loss of balance. Hearing loss can make it more difficult to keep your balance and maintain situational focus.
- Memory can start to fail. As a matter of fact, your odds of getting dementia is twice as high with neglected hearing loss.
Hearing Aids: A Real Answer
There’s some good news though. The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School research indicates that up to 75% of hearing loss related cognitive decline can be stopped in its tracks by one easy solution: wearing a hearing aid.
The health hazards linked to hearing loss can be significantly reduced by using hearing aids. According to the study, patients who wore hearing aids for just two weeks saw:
- Improvements in brain function.
- Balance and awareness improvements.
- Traumatic brain injury reductions.
The researchers from Johns Hopkins examined data from 77,000 patients accumulated over around twenty years. And an essential part of preserving your health lies in safeguarding your hearing which is a staggering outcome. 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 the aging process but it is a part of it. Because of accidents, occupational hazards, and disease, hearing loss can develop at any age.
However, it’s essential to acknowledge any hearing loss you might be noticing. Your health could depend on it.