You can end up in the hospital if you don’t correctly treat your hearing loss symptoms. I know that seems like an exaggeration. Most people think of hearing loss as an inconvenience that makes it difficult to hear the TV or what someone is saying at worst
But the long-term health impacts of neglected hearing loss is beginning to get significant attention from researchers.
What Does Hearing Loss Have to do With Your Health?
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 indicates that over time, visits to the hospital can increase by up to 50% for someone with neglected hearing loss. The longer the hearing loss remains unmanaged, the more severe the health havoc becomes.
That’s a curious finding: how is your total state of health associated with your ability to hear? That question can have a complicated answer.
Hearing Health And Mental Health
Untreated hearing loss has been associated with numerous other health issues, like:
- Memory can start to fail. As a matter of fact, your odds of getting dementia is twice as high with neglected hearing loss.
- Balance problems. Hearing loss can make it more difficult to keep your balance and keep your situational focus.
- An increase in depression and anxiety. Simply put, untreated hearing loss can increase anxiety and depression, which in turn can have a powerfully negative impact on your physical body, to say nothing of your mental health.
Hearing Aids Really Help
There’s some good news though. The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School research reveals 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 risks associated with hearing loss can be seriously mitigated by wearing hearing aids. According to the study, patients who used hearing aids for just two weeks saw:
- Improvements in brain function.
- Severe brain injury reductions.
- Awareness and balance improvements.
Over a period of around two decades, Johns Hopkins collected and analyzed data from more than 77,000 individuals. And what they found is staggeringly simple: safeguarding your hearing is essential to maintaining your health. 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 typical part of the aging process, though it’s not exclusive to getting older. Hearing loss can happen at any age due to accidents, occupational hazards, or diseases.
However or whenever you lose your hearing, it’s very important to deal with it. Otherwise, your health could be negatively impacted.