About 28 million individuals could benefit from wearing hearing aids. This means that 28 million people would here their world clearer if they had hearing aids. But there are also some other, somewhat surprising health benefits that you can start to take advantage of thanks to your hearing aids.
As it turns out, something as easy as wearing your hearing aids could help your mental and physical health. Everything from depression to a risk of falling can be slowed or even stopped by these devices. Your hearing aids can literally help you stay on your feet.
Hearing Aids And Mental Health Benefits
The connection between untreated hearing loss and mental decline is fairly well established by modern medical research. Mental illnesses including depression, cognitive decline, anxiety, and dementia, according to current thinking, can be induced by hearing loss as a consequence of a combination of mental, physical and social factors.
So it’s no surprise that the latest analyses has suggested that hearing aids might have considerable mental health benefits.
Reducing Your Risk of Dementia
Based on one study, wearing your hearing aids can help decrease your chances of developing dementia by as much as 18%. That’s a wonderful advantage when all you have to do is remember to wear your hearing aids on a daily basis.
In other research, the onset of dementia was delayed by as much as two years by wearing hearing aids. This is very inspiring and with more research done to duplicate and clarify these figures, we can come a long way in the battle against cognitive decline and illness.
Anxiety And Depression Can be Decreased
Anxiety and depression are not symptoms that are unique to those who suffer from hearing loss. But people with hearing loss have been shown to have a higher risk of anxiety and depression over time.
Wearing your hearing aids can help you stay socially involved and mentally connected. Hearing aids can be particularly helpful if those factors are contributing to depression and anxiety.
You Won’t be as Lonely
While it may not seem as dire or imperative as dementia, solitude can be a serious issue for those with untreated hearing loss, caused by and exacerbating a sense of social isolation. Your general mood can be considerably impacted by social isolation. So it can be a tremendous advantage if your hearing aids can help you stay socially active.
To be certain, this is connected to your hearing aids’ ability to lower the risks of depression, for instance. All of these health issues, to some extent, are in some manner linked.
Hearing Aids And Physical Advantages
As your hearing impairment gets worse, there is some evidence that you might be at a higher risk of having a stroke. But that particular research is obviously in the preliminary stages. The most pronounced (and perceptible) physical advantage of hearing aids is a little more straightforward: you won’t fall as often.
There are a couple of reasons for this:
- Situational awareness: This means you’ll be more capable of steering clear of obstacles that could cause a fall.
- Fall detection: Many times, it’s getting back up after a fall that is the significant hazard, not the fall itself. Many new designs of hearing aids come with fall detection built in. With particular settings enabled, when you take a tumble, a call will automatically be made to one of your pre-programmed emergency contacts so they know to check on you.
Falling can have rather significant health effects, especially as you age. So avoiding falls (or minimizing the damage from falling) can be a substantial advantage that ripples throughout your general health.
Make Sure You Wear Your Hearing Aids
It’s worth noting that all of these benefits apply to those who have hearing conditions. Hearing aids won’t, for example, help somebody with healthy hearing avoid falling.
But wearing your hearing aids, if you do have hearing loss, is the best thing you can do for general health.