About 28 million individuals could benefit from wearing hearing aids. What this means is that 28 million people could here their environment better if they wore hearing aids. But there are also a number of other, fairly surprising health benefits that you can start to enjoy thanks to your hearing aids.
It turns out that something as straight forward as using your hearing aids could be good for your mental and physical health. Everything from depression to a risk of falling can be delayed or even prevented by these gadgets. Your hearing aids can literally help you stay on your feet.
Hearing Aids And Mental Health Advantages
Modern medical research has solidly established a link between cognitive decline and hearing loss. Mental illnesses like depression, cognitive decline, anxiety, and dementia, according to current thinking, can be triggered by hearing loss due to a mix of mental, physical and social factors.
So it’s no surprise that recent analyses has shown that hearing aids could have significant mental health benefits.
Lowering Your Chances of Dementia
According to one study, wearing your hearing aids can help lower your chances of developing dementia by as much as 18%. That’s a wonderful advantage when all you have to do is remember to wear your hearing aids on a daily basis.
In other studies, the arrival of dementia was slowed by as much as two years by using hearing aids. This is very inspiring and with more research done to duplicate and clarify these numbers, we can come a long way in the fight against mental decline and illness.
Anxiety And Depression Can be Decreased
Lots of individuals suffer from depression and anxiety even if hearing loss is not a problem for them. But there is enough evidence to indicate that those who have hearing loss are at a higher risk of developing both depression and anxiety as time goes on.
When you have hearing aids, you tend to stay more mentally focused and socially engaged. Hearing aids can be particularly helpful if those factors are contributing to depression and anxiety.
You’ll be Less Lonely
While it might not sound as dire or imperative as dementia, isolation can be a serious issue for individuals with untreated hearing loss, caused by and exacerbating a sense of social solitude. Your general mood can be significantly affected by social isolation. So it can be a tremendous benefit if your hearing aids can help you continue to be socially involved.
And this is an excellent reason why, for example, your hearing aid can help prevent conditions such as depression. All of these health problems, to a certain degree, are in some way connected.
The Physical Benefits of Hearing Aids
As your hearing impairment worsens, there is some evidence that you might be at a higher risk of having a stroke. But this research is in preliminary stages. It’s a little easier to recognize the more obvious physical advantage of hearing aids: you won’t fall as much.
This happens for two reasons:
- Situational awareness: With hearing aids, your situational awareness will be improved letting you steer clear of obstacles and avoid falling down. For instance, if your pet is running to greet you, you hear them and anticipate them racing around the corner.
- Fall detection: Often, it’s getting back up after a fall that is the significant danger, not the fall itself. Fall detection is a standard feature of many newer hearing aid designs. With certain settings enabled, when you have a fall, a call will automatically be made to one of your pre-programmed emergency contacts so they know to check up on you.
As you grow older falling down can have a disastrous effect on your health. So your general health can be protected by reducing damage from falls or preventing them altogether.
Wear Your Hearing Aids Everyday
These benefits, it’s worth mentioning, apply to people who suffer from hearing impairment. If your hearing is healthy, then using a hearing aid will most likely not reduce your risk of cognitive decline, for example.
But if you do suffer from hearing loss, the smartest thing you can do for your ears, and for overall health, is to wear your hearing aids.