Long-term untreated hearing loss can have extreme and lasting physical, mental, and emotional effects on you health. There is allot of research that finds that taking steps to improve our hearing will go a long way to ensuring that we age gracefully. Below are just some of the other benefits of treating hearing loss besides hearing clearly.
Improved Personal Safety
Out in the world, hearing aids reduce the risk of accidents. When you can hear a sound sooner it gives you more time to react and avoid catastrophe. Being safe in traffic means being alert and using all of your senses. The ability to hear warning sounds and be sure of the direction they are coming from, like horns or sirens will allow you to respond quickly and appropriately. Wearing hearing aids can also improve your balance, reducing risk of unneeded falls and hospitalization. A new study from the Washington University School of Medicine revealed that older adults performed better on standard balance tests when wearing hearing aids. This study lends support to the idea that balance is connected to sound, and treating hearing loss can help to reduce the risk of falls.
Emotional Well-Being
When hearing loss goes untreated, people tend to unconsciously isolate themselves from friends and family. This can cause feelings of loneliness, anxiety and depression. When hearing loss is treated, quality of life dramatically improves. In fact, multiple studies have concluded that the use of hearing aids reduces all major depressive symptoms in all areas. It is said that treating hearing aids will also help relationships that may have become strained by the inability to hear and follow all the information in a conversation. Your relationships with your spouse, family members, friends and co-workers will all blossom again when you can confidently hear what people are saying to you again. The Better Hearing Institute recently found that people who wear hearing aids to correct a hearing loss enjoy a better quality of life than those who let their hearing loss go untreated.
Higher Earning Power
The Better Hearing Institute recently found that not treating hearing loss can lower annual earnings by as much as $30,000. The same study found using hearing aids lowered this risk of reduced earnings by over 90 percent for people with mild hearing loss, and almost 77 percent for individuals with moderate-to-severe hearing loss. Explanations for this trend could lie in the increased levels of communication and productivity an individual is likely to have when their hearing is improved. When you increase your abilities to recognize and appropriately respond to speech, particularly in the workplace, you increase your earning power.
Slower cognitive decline
Brain or cognitive health is a measure of how well your brain can perform functions such as remembering things, learning new ideas, and using language. Cognitive decline is a term to describe the difficulty a person may have learning, using language, or remembering important details. A new study is finding that hearing aids may slow cognitive decline. Researchers have found that wearing hearing aids helps to decrease atrophy while increasing hearing ability. The exciting new research further supports that treating hearing loss with hearing aids appears to slow the decline of thinking and memory retention associated with hearing loss.
Reduce Tinnitus Symptoms
The most common condition causing tinnitus is hearing loss, either age-related or noise-induced. Tinnitus symptoms may also begin as a result of a sudden, extremely loud sound like an explosion or gun shot, or it may present itself gradually over time as a ringing or buzzing in your ears that does not have an external source. People who live with tinnitus find that it interrupts their life in their ability to sleep and concentrate. Fortunately many hearing aids can help reduce the awareness and disturbance and manage tinnitus symptoms.
People Are Satisfied With Their Hearing Aid Performance
According to a study by the Better Hearing Institute, more than 9 in ten people who purchased hearing aids during a one-year period were satisfied with their purchase. And nearly 9 in 10 people who currently wear hearing aids would recommend hearing aids to a friend with hearing loss. If you believe you might have hearing loss, now is always the best time to seek treatment. Contact us at Hearing Centers of Indiana to set up an appointment today and get back on the road to healthy hearing.