About 28 million people could be helped by using hearing aids. Which means that 28 million people could here their environment clearer if they had hearing aids. But your hearing aids will also help you enjoy some other health advantages.
Your mental and physical health can, as it so happens, be helped by something as easy as using hearing aids. Everything from a risk of falling to depression can be delayed or even stopped by these gadgets. Your hearing aids can literally help you stay on your feet.
Mental Health Benefits of Hearing Aids
Modern medical studies have solidly established a connection between hearing loss and cognitive decline. The current thinking is that, for a mixture of social, mental, and physical causes, hearing loss can lead to an increased danger of mental illness, like cognitive decline, anxiety, depression, and dementia.
So the mental health advantages of hearing aids shouldn’t be very striking.
Dementia Risks Reduced
As reported by one study, wearing your hearing aids can help lower your chances of developing dementia by up to 18%. That’s a fantastic advantage when all you need to do is remember to wear your hearing aids each day.
Other research has indicated that wearing your hearing aids regularly can forestall the onset of dementia by up to a couple of years. This is very encouraging 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.
Depression And Anxiety Can be Reduced
Depression and anxiety are not symptoms that are unique to people who suffer from hearing loss. But there is enough evidence to indicate that people with hearing loss are at increased risk of developing both depression and anxiety as time goes on.
Wearing your hearing aids can help keep you socially involved and mentally connected. If those factors were contributing to anxiety and depression, they can help.
You Won’t be as Lonely
While it might not seem as dire or imperative as dementia, isolation can be a big issue for people who suffer from neglected hearing loss, caused by and exacerbating a sense of social isolation. Your general mood can be dramatically impacted by social isolation. So it can be a tremendous advantage if your hearing aids can help you stay socially involved.
To be certain, this ties together with your hearing aids’ ability to decrease the risks of depression, for instance. All of these health problems, to some extent, are in some way connected.
The Physical Advantages of Hearing Aids
There’s some evidence which indicates that as hearing loss symptoms become more apparent, your danger of stroke goes up. But these studies are in preliminary stages. The most obvious (and perceptible) physical benefit of hearing aids is a little more straightforward: you won’t fall as often.
There are a couple of reasons for this:
- Fall detection: Many times, it’s getting back up after a fall that is the significant hazard, not the fall itself. Fall detection is a built-in feature of many newer hearing aid designs. With particular settings equipped, when you take a tumble, a call will automatically be made to one of your pre-programmed emergency contacts so they will know to check up on you.
- Situational awareness: With hearing aids, your situational awareness will be enhanced allowing you to stay away of obstacles and avoid falling. For example, if your pet is running to greet you, you hear them and anticipate them rushing around the corner.
Falling can have rather significant health impacts, particularly as you age. So avoiding falls (or decreasing the damage from falls) can be a huge benefit that ripples throughout your overall health.
Wear Your Hearing Aids Everyday
It’s worth noting that all of these advantages apply to people who have hearing ailments. If your hearing is healthy, then using a hearing aid will probably not decrease your risk of dementia, for instance.
But if you do suffer from hearing loss, the smartest thing you can do for your hearing, and for the rest of your body, is to wear your hearing aids.
