When you’re a youngster, falling is just a part of life. Taking a spill on your bicycle? That’s typical. Tripping over your own feet when you’re running outside? Happens every day. Kids are pretty limber so, no big deal. They rebound quite easily.
The same can’t be said as you age. The older you get, the more worrisome a fall can be. One reason for this is that bones break easier and heal slower when you’re older. Older people tend to spend more time lying on the floor in pain because they have a more difficult time getting back up. Falling is the leading injury-related cause of death as a result.
It’s not surprising, then, that healthcare professionals are always on the lookout for tools and devices that can reduce falls. New research seems to indicate that we may have found one such device: hearing aids.
Can hearing loss lead to falls?
If you want to fully grasp how hearing aids could potentially prevent a fall, you need to ask this relevant question: is it possible that hearing loss can increase your chance of having a fall? In some cases, it seems that the answer is a definite affirmative.
So you have to ask yourself, why would the danger of falling be increased by hearing loss?
That association isn’t exactly intuitive. Hearing loss doesn’t really, after all, impact your ability to move or see. But it turns out there are certain symptoms of hearing loss that do have this type of direct impact on your ability to move around, and these symptoms can result in an increased risk of having a fall. Some of those symptoms include:
- Exhaustion: Your brain is working overtime and you’re always straining when you have neglected hearing loss. Your brain will be continuously tired as a consequence. A tired brain is less likely to see that obstacle in your path, and, as a consequence, you might wind up tripping and falling over something that an attentive brain would have detected.
- Loss of balance: How can hearing loss effect your balance? Well, your inner ear is incredibly significant to your total equilibrium. So when hearing loss impacts your inner ear, you might find yourself a little more likely to grow dizzy, experience vertigo, or have difficulty maintaining your balance. In other words, you have a tendency to fall more often.
- Your situational awareness is impaired: You might not be capable of hearing the sound of your neighbor’s footsteps, the dog barking next door, or an approaching vehicle when you have neglected hearing loss. Your situational awareness could be substantially affected, in other words. Can hearing loss make you clumsy like this? Well, in a way yes, day-to-day activities can become more hazardous if your situational awareness is jeopardized. And that means you might be slightly more likely to unintentionally bump into something, and take a tumble.
- Depression: Untreated hearing loss can lead to social isolation and depression (along with an increased danger of dementia). When you’re socially separated, you may be more likely to spend time at home, where tripping dangers abound, and be less likely to have help nearby.
- High-frequency sounds get lost: When you go into a stadium, you know how even if your eyes are closed, you can tell you’re in a huge space? Or how you can immediately tell that you’re in a small space when you get into a car. Your ears are actually utilizing something similar to “echolocation” and high-frequency sound to assist your spatial awareness. When you’re unable to hear high-frequency sounds because of hearing loss, you can’t make those judgments quite as quickly or intuitively. This can cause disorientation and loss of situational awareness.
Part of the link between hearing loss and falling is also in your age. You’re more likely to develop progressing and irreversible hearing loss. That will raise the likelihood of falling. And when you’re older, falling can have much more severe repercussions.
How can the danger of falling be lowered by wearing hearing aids?
If hearing loss is part of the issue, it makes sense that hearing aids should be part of the solution. And this is being validated by new research. One recent study found that wearing hearing aids could cut your chance of a fall in half.
In the past, these figures (and the link between hearing aids and staying upright) were a little less clear. That’s partly because people frequently fail to use their hearing aids. So it was inconclusive how frequently hearing aid users were falling. This was because people weren’t using their hearing aids, not because their hearing aids were broken.
But this new research took a different (and maybe more accurate) approach. People who used their hearing aids often were classified into a different group than people who wore them intermittently.
So why does using your hearing aids help you prevent falls? In general, they keep you more alert, more concentrated, and less tired. The increased situational awareness doesn’t hurt either. Many hearing aids also come with a feature that can notify the authorities and family members in case of a fall. Help will come quicker this way.
But the key here is to be certain you’re wearing your hearing aids frequently and consistently.
Prevent falls with new hearing aids
Hearing aids can help you reunite with your friends, enjoy quality moments with your loved ones, and stay in touch with everybody who’s significant in your life.
They can also help you stay on your feet, literally!
If you want to know more about how hearing aids could help you, make an appointment with us right away.
