Something like 28 million individuals could be helped by wearing hearing aids. Which means that 28 million people would hear their world better if they wore hearing aids. But your hearing aids can also help you take advantage of some other health advantages.
Your physical and mental health can, as it so happens, be improved by something as simple as wearing hearing aids. Everything from a risk of falling to depression can be slowed or even prevented by these gadgets. Your hearing aids can literally keep you on your feet.
Mental Health Advantages of Hearing Aids
The link between untreated hearing loss and mental decline is fairly well demonstrated by modern medical studies. The current thinking is that, for a combination of social, mental, and physical factors, hearing loss can lead to an escalated danger of mental illness, including anxiety, depression, cognitive decline, and dementia.
So it’s not surprising that recent analyses has suggested that hearing aids might have substantial mental health benefits.
Decreasing Your Risk of Dementia
As reported by one study, wearing your hearing aids can help lower your risk of developing dementia by up to 18%. That’s a fantastic benefit when all you have to do is remember to wear your hearing aids on a daily basis.
Other studies have indicated that wearing your hearing aids on a regular basis can slow the onset of dementia by up to a couple of years. This is really encouraging and with more research conducted to duplicate and clarify these numbers, we can come a long way in the battle against cognitive decline and illness.
Anxiety And Depression Can be Decreased
Countless people suffer from anxiety and depression even if hearing loss is not a problem for them. 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 engaged. Hearing aids can be particularly helpful if those factors are contributing to depression and anxiety.
You Won’t be as Lonely
While dementia might sound much more severe, isolation can be a serious issue for those with untreated hearing loss, social solitude often being the cause and adding fuel to the fire. That social isolation can cause significant changes to your disposition. So being able to stay social and connected with help from your hearing aid can be a huge benefit.
To be certain, this ties together with your hearing aids’ ability to decrease the risks of depression, for example. To some degree, all of these health concerns connect in some way.
The Physical Benefits of Hearing Aids
As your hearing impairment gets worse, there is some research that shows that you could be at a higher risk of stroke. But that particular research is obviously in the preliminary stages. The most obvious (and noticeable) physical advantage of hearing aids is a little simpler: you’ll fall less frequently.
This takes place for two reasons:
- Fall detection: Sometimes, it’s not the fall that’s dangerous. Rather, it’s your inability to get back up that produces possible danger. Many new designs of hearing aids have fall detection built in. You can program emergency phone numbers into your phone which will automatically be called if you take a tumble.
- Situational awareness: If your pet, for instance, is zooming out to say hi, you will hear them coming and will be prepared for them to be under your feet.
Falling can have pretty substantial health effects, especially as you age. So your general health can be protected by reducing damage from falls or avoiding them altogether.
Wear Your Hearing Aids Everyday
These advantages, it’s worth pointing out, apply to people who suffer from hearing impairment. If your hearing is healthy, then wearing a hearing aid will likely not reduce your risk of cognitive decline, for example.
But wearing your hearing aids, if you do have hearing loss, is the smartest thing you can do for general health.