If you’re not treating your symptoms properly, hearing loss can hospitalize you. I know that seems like an exaggeration. We usually consider hearing loss as not much more than a hassle – something that makes the news a little tougher to hear or, at worst, makes you unwittingly agree to something you didn’t mean.
But current research is sounding an alarm about the long-term health effects of neglected hearing loss.
What Does Hearing Loss Have to do With Your Health?
Hearing loss doesn’t, at first glance, seem as if it has very much of a link to other health concerns. But research carried out by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health indicates that over time, hospital visits can increase by as much as 50% for someone with neglected hearing loss. The longer the hearing loss remains untreated, the more significant the health havoc get.
That’s a curious finding: 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 number of the health problems linked to hearing loss:
- You start to lose your memory. In 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. Basically, the likelihood of anxiety and depression rises with hearing loss and that will lead to health problems both physical and mental.
Hearing Aids: An effective Answer
There’s some good news though. The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School research suggests that up to 75% of hearing loss related cognitive decline can be halted by one easy solution: using a hearing aid.
The health risks associated with hearing loss can be significantly reduced by using hearing aids. According to the research, patients who wore hearing aids for only two weeks saw:
- Severe brain injury reductions.
- Balance and awareness improvements.
- Improvements in brain function.
The team from Johns Hopkins examined data from 77,000 patients collected over about twenty years. And a crucial part of maintaining your health lies in safeguarding your hearing which is a surprising conclusion. 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 common part of getting older, though it’s not exclusive to aging. Because of accidents, occupational hazards, and disease, hearing loss can happen regardless of how old you are.
However, it’s important to address any hearing loss you might be noticing. Otherwise, your health could be negatively impacted.