You can wind up in the hospital if you don’t properly treat your hearing loss symptoms. You may think that this is somewhat of an exaggeration. We’re used to thinking of hearing loss as not much more than an inconvenience – something that makes the news a little harder to hear or, at worst, makes you unwittingly agree to something you didn’t mean.
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 like it has much of a connection to other health concerns. But research carried out by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health reveals that over time, hospital visits can increase by up to 50% for somebody with untreated hearing loss. The chance of severe health problems rises the longer hearing loss goes untreated.
That seems like a curious discovery: how is your overall state of health linked to your ability to hear? That question can have a complicated answer.
The Connection Between Mental Health And Hearing
Here are a few of the health concerns linked to hearing loss:
- Balance balance issues. Hearing loss can make it more difficult to keep your balance and maintain situational awareness.
- An increase in anxiety and depression. Simply put, untreated hearing loss can increase depression and anxiety, which will then have a strong negative effect on your physical body, to say nothing of your mental health.
- You begin to lose your memory. In fact, your odds of getting dementia double with untreated hearing loss.
Hearing Aids: A Real Answer
It’s not all doom and gloom, though. Far from it. The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School research indicates that up to 75% of the cognitive decline associated with hearing loss can be halted by one basic solution: wearing a hearing aid.
Wearing a hearing aid has a profound impact on putting an end to the dangers connected to untreated hearing loss. According to the research, people who wore hearing aids for only two weeks saw:
- Brain function improvements.
- Balance and awareness improvements.
- Traumatic brain injury reductions.
The team from Johns Hopkins looked at data from 77,000 patients collected over about twenty years. And the conclusion is staggeringly simple: safeguarding your hearing is crucial to preserving 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 not exclusive to the aging process but it is a part of it. Due to accidents, disease, and occupational hazards, hearing loss can develop at any age.
However, it’s important to address any hearing loss you may be experiencing. Otherwise, your health could be negatively impacted.