If you’re not treating your symptoms properly, hearing loss can hospitalize you. I know that sounds 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 new research is sounding an alarm about the long-term health impacts of untreated hearing loss.
What Does Hearing Loss Have to do With Your Health?
Hearing loss doesn’t, at first glance, seem like it has very much of a link to other health concerns. But research conducted by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health reveals that untreated hearing loss can result in a 50% increase in hospital visits over time. The longer the hearing loss remains untreated, the more significant the health havoc becomes.
That seems like a strange finding: what does hearing have to do with your total health? The answer is complicated.
Hearing Health And Mental Health
Here are a number of the health concerns connected to hearing loss:
- Balance problems. 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.
- An increase in anxiety and depression. Basically, the chance of anxiety and depression rises with hearing loss and that will bring about health problems both physical and mental.
Hearing Aids: An effective Answer
It’s not all gloom and doom, though. Far from it. The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School research reveals that up to 75% of the mental decline associated with hearing loss can be stopped in its tracks by one simple solution: wearing a hearing aid.
Wearing a hearing aid has a powerful impact on mitigating the dangers linked to neglected hearing loss. According to the study, patients who wore hearing aids for just two weeks saw:
- Improvements in brain function.
- Reductions in severe brain injuries.
- Awareness and balance improvements.
Over a period of about twenty years, Johns Hopkins collected and analyzed data from over 77,000 people. And an essential part of preserving your health lies in safeguarding your hearing which is a surprising outcome. Being sick can be costly, so taking care of your hearing also protects your financial well being.
Caring For Your Health And Your Hearing
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 occur regardless of how old you are.
However, it’s important to acknowledge any hearing loss you may be noticing. Otherwise, your health could be negatively impacted.