You can wind up in the hospital if you don’t correctly treat your hearing loss symptoms. You may think that this is a bit of 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 effects of untreated hearing loss is beginning to get serious attention from researchers.
How is Your Health Related to Hearing Loss?
Hearing loss doesn’t, at first glance, seem as if it has much of a connection to other health concerns. But research conducted by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health indicates that over time, visits to the hospital can increase by as much as 50% for somebody with untreated hearing loss. The longer the hearing loss goes unmanaged, the more severe the health havoc get.
That seems like a curious discovery: what does hearing have to do with your general health? The answer is complicated.
Hearing Health And Mental Health
Here are a few of the health issues linked to hearing loss:
- Higher instance of depression and anxiety. Basically, the chance of anxiety and depression increases with hearing loss and that will bring about health issues both physical and mental.
- Loss of balance. Hearing loss can make it more difficult to keep your balance and keep your situational focus.
- Memory can start to fail. As a matter of fact, your odds of developing dementia is twice as high with neglected hearing loss.
Hearing Aids: An effective Answer
There’s some good news though. The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School research suggests that up to 75% of the cognitive decline connected 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 seriously reduced by using hearing aids. The following improvements were noted in people who wore hearing aids for as little as two weeks:
- Improvements in brain function.
- Severe brain injury reductions.
- Improvements in awareness and balance.
Over a period of around two decades, Johns Hopkins collected and analyzed data from over 77,000 people. And a critical part of preserving your health lies in safeguarding your hearing which is a surprising outcome. Being sick usually costs money, so caring for your hearing also protects your financial well being.
Preserving Your Hearing And Your Health
Hearing loss is a perfectly typical part of the aging process, though it’s not exclusive to getting older. Hearing loss can develop at any age as a result of accidents, occupational hazards, or diseases.
However or whenever you lose your hearing, it’s extremely important to have it checked. Otherwise, your health could be negatively impacted.