If you’re not managing your symptoms properly, hearing loss can put you in the hospital. I know that seems like an exaggeration. We usually consider hearing loss as little more than a hassle – something that makes the news a little more difficult to hear or, at worst, makes you unwittingly agree to something you didn’t mean.
But new research is sounding an alarm over the long-term health effects of untreated hearing loss.
How is Your Health Linked to Hearing Loss?
At first sight, hearing loss doesn’t seem to have that much to do with other health indicators. But research conducted by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health reveals that neglected hearing loss can result in a 50% increase in visits to the hospital over time. The longer the hearing loss goes unmanaged, the more significant the health havoc get.
That seems like a strange finding: what does hearing have to do with your overall health? The answer is challenging.
Hearing Health And Mental Health
Untreated hearing loss has been connected with numerous other health concerns, including:
- Balance problems. Hearing loss can make it harder to keep your balance and maintain situational awareness.
- An increase in anxiety and depression. Basically, the chance of depression and anxiety rises with hearing loss and that will bring about health problems both physical and mental.
- You start to lose your memory. In fact, your odds of developing dementia is twice as high with neglected hearing loss.
Hearing Aids Really Help
There’s some good news though. The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School research suggests that up to 75% of the cognitive decline linked to hearing loss can be stopped in its tracks by one easy solution: using a hearing aid.
The health risks linked to hearing loss can be significantly mitigated by wearing hearing aids. According to the research, people who wore hearing aids for just two weeks saw:
- Awareness and balance improvements.
- Brain function improvements.
- Severe brain injury reductions.
The researchers from Johns Hopkins studied data from 77,000 patients collected 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 can be expensive.
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 address any hearing loss you might be experiencing. Otherwise, your health could be negatively impacted.