About 28 million people could benefit from using hearing aids. This means that 28 million people could here their environment better if they had hearing aids. But there are also a number of other, relatively surprising health benefits that you can start to enjoy thanks to your hearing aids.
Your mental and physical health can, as it so happens, be helped by something as simple as wearing hearing aids. Everything from a risk of falling to depression can be delayed or even prevented by these gadgets. In many ways, your hearing aids can help keep you on your feet.
Hearing Aids And Mental Health Benefits
The connection between neglected hearing loss and mental decline is pretty well demonstrated by modern medical research. Mental illnesses including depression, cognitive decline, anxiety, and dementia, in line with current thinking, can be induced by hearing loss as a consequence of a combination of physical, mental and social factors.
So the mental health benefits of hearing aids shouldn’t be all that striking.
Decreasing Your Risk of Dementia
Your risk of dementia can be lowered, according to one study, by almost 20%. That’s a fantastic advantage when the only thing you need to do is remember to wear your hearing aids each day.
Other studies have indicated that wearing your hearing aids on a regular basis can slow the onset of dementia by as many as a couple of years. This is really inspiring and with more research done to replicate and clarify these figures, we can come a long way in the battle against cognitive decline and illness.
Decrease Anxiety And Depression
Depression and anxiety are not symptoms that are exclusive to individuals who suffer from hearing loss. But people who suffer from hearing loss have been shown to have a higher risk of anxiety and depression over time.
When you use hearing aids, you are likely to stay more mentally focused and engaged socially. Hearing aids can be especially helpful if those factors are contributing to depression and anxiety.
You Won’t be as Lonely
While it may not sound as dire or imperative as dementia, for people who have untreated hearing loss, isolation can be a serious issue, caused by and exacerbating a sense of social isolation. That social separation can cause significant changes to your disposition. So it can be a tremendous advantage if your hearing aids can help you stay socially involved.
To be sure, this is connected to your hearing aids’ ability to lower the risks of depression, for instance. To a certain extent, all of these health concerns connect in some way.
The Physical Advantages of Hearing Aids
As your hearing impairment gets worse, there is some evidence that you could be at a higher risk of stroke. But this research is in preliminary phases. It’s a little easier to recognize the more obvious physical advantage of hearing aids: you’ll fall less frequently.
There are a couple of explanations for this:
- Situational awareness:
- Fall detection: At times, it’s not the fall that’s hazardous. Instead, it’s your inability to get back up that can be a real problem. Many new models of hearing aids come with fall detection built in. You can program emergency phone numbers into your phone which will automatically be called if you take a tumble.
As you grow older falling down can have a devastating impact on your health. So your overall health can be safeguarded by decreasing damage from falls or preventing them altogether.
Wear Your Hearing Aids Everyday
It’s worth keeping in mind that all of these advantages apply to those who suffer from hearing ailments. Hearing aids won’t, for instance, help someone with healthy hearing avoid a fall.
But if you do have hearing loss, the best thing you can do for your hearing, and for overall health, is to use your hearing aids.