About 28 million individuals could benefit from wearing hearing aids. What this means is that 28 million people could here their environment clearer if they wore hearing aids. But there are also certain other, somewhat unexpected health advantages that you can start to enjoy thanks to your hearing aids.
Your physical and mental health can, as it turns out, be improved by something as straight forward as using hearing aids. Everything from depression to a risk of falling can be slowed or even prevented by these devices. In more ways than one, your hearing aids can help you stay on your feet.
Hearing Aids And Mental Health Advantages
Modern medical research has firmly established a connection between cognitive decline and hearing loss. Mental illnesses such as dementia, cognitive decline, anxiety, and depression, according to current thinking, can be triggered by hearing loss due to a combination of physical, mental and social factors.
So it’s no surprise that the latest analyses has suggested that hearing aids could have significant mental health advantages.
Dementia Risks Reduced
According to one study, wearing your hearing aids can help decrease your risk of developing dementia by as much as 18%. That’s a fantastic advantage when all you have to do is remember to wear your hearing aids on a daily basis.
Other studies have suggested that wearing your hearing aids regularly can delay the onset of dementia by as many as a couple of years. This is very encouraging and with more research conducted to replicate and clarify these figures, we can come a long way in the battle against mental decline and illness.
Reduce Anxiety And Depression
Lots of people suffer from depression and anxiety even if hearing loss is not a problem for them. But people who have hearing loss have been shown to have a higher risk of depression and anxiety over time.
When you wear hearing aids, you tend 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 might not seem as dire or important as dementia, solitude can be a big issue for people with neglected hearing loss, social solitude often being the cause and adding fuel to the fire. That social isolation can cause considerable changes to your mood. So it can be an enormous benefit if your hearing aids can help you continue to be socially active.
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 problems are linked in some manner.
Hearing Aids And Physical Benefits
As your hearing impairment worsens, there is some evidence that you could be at a higher risk of having a stroke. But that specific research is undoubtedly on the preliminary side. The most pronounced (and noticeable) physical advantage of hearing aids is a little simpler: you’ll fall less frequently.
This occurs for two reasons:
- Situational awareness: Hearing aids can enhance your situational awareness. As an example, if your pet is running to greet you, you hear them and anticipate them rushing around the corner.
- Fall detection: In some cases, it’s not the fall that’s perilous. Instead, it’s your inability to get back up that can be a real problem. Many new designs of hearing aids come with fall detection as a standard feature. With specific settings equipped, when you take a tumble, a call will immediately be made to one of your pre-programmed emergency contacts so they will know to check on you.
As you age falling down can have a devastating impact on your health. So avoiding falls (or reducing the damage from falls) can be a huge benefit that ripples throughout your overall health.
Wear Your Hearing Aids Everyday
These advantages, it’s worth pointing out, pertain to individuals who have hearing impairment. If your hearing is healthy, then wearing a hearing aid will most likely not reduce your risk of dementia, for instance.
But if you do have hearing loss, the smartest thing you can do for your hearing, and for the rest of your body, is to wear your hearing aids.