You can end up in the hospital if you don’t properly treat your hearing loss symptoms. 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 unwittingly agree to something you didn’t mean.
But new research is sounding an alarm about the long-term health effects of neglected hearing loss.
How is Your Health Linked to Hearing Loss?
At first glance, hearing loss doesn’t seem to have that much to do with other health indicators. But research carried out by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health suggests that over time, hospital visits can increase by up to 50% for someone with untreated hearing loss. The danger of severe health issues goes up the longer hearing loss remains untreated.
That seems like a curious discovery: what does hearing have to do with your total health? That question can have a complicated answer.
Hearing Health And Mental Health
Here are a few of the health problems connected to hearing loss:
- Balance balance issues. Hearing loss can make it harder to keep your balance and keep your situational focus.
- You start to lose your memory. As a matter of fact, your odds of developing dementia is twice as high with neglected hearing loss.
- Higher instance of anxiety and depression. Basically, the likelihood of depression and anxiety increases with hearing loss and that will lead to health problems both physical and mental.
Hearing Aids Really Help
It’s not all gloom and doom, though. Far from it. The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School research indicates that up to 75% of hearing loss associated cognitive decline can be halted by one simple solution: wearing a hearing aid.
The health hazards linked to hearing loss can be significantly mitigated by wearing hearing aids. The following improvements were noted in people who used hearing aids for as little as two weeks:
- Improvements in awareness and balance.
- Brain function improvements.
- Traumatic brain injury reductions.
The team from Johns Hopkins examined data from 77,000 patients accumulated over about twenty years. And a crucial part of preserving your health lies in protecting your hearing which is a surprising outcome. Being sick can be costly, so caring for your hearing also protects your financial well being.
Preserving Your Hearing And Your Health
Hearing loss is not exclusive to getting older but it is a part of it. Due to accidents, occupational hazards, and disease, hearing loss can develop at any age.
However or whenever you lose your hearing, it’s very important to have it checked. Your health could depend on it.