Hearing aids could help around 28 million people. Which means that 28 million people would here their world clearer if they had hearing aids. But there are also a number of other, somewhat unexpected health benefits that you can start to take advantage of thanks to your hearing aids.
As it turns out, something as simple as wearing your hearing aids could help your physical and mental health. These tiny gadgets can help prevent (or forestall) everything from injury from a fall to depression. In many ways, your hearing aids can help keep you on your feet.
Hearing Aids And Mental Health Advantages
The link between neglected hearing loss and mental decline is rather well established by modern medical research. Currently, the thinking is that, for a combination of mental, social, and physical reasons, hearing loss can trigger an escalated danger of mental illness, such as anxiety, depression, cognitive decline, and dementia.
So the mental health advantages of hearing aids shouldn’t be all that surprising.
Dementia Risks Reduced
Based on one study, wearing your hearing aids can help reduce your risk 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 on a daily basis.
In other studies, the onset of dementia was slowed by as much as two years by using hearing aids. This is really encouraging and with more research conducted to duplicate and clarify these numbers, we can come a long way in the fight against cognitive decline and illness.
Reduce Depression And Anxiety
Anxiety and depression aren’t symptoms that are unique to people who suffer from hearing loss. But people with 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 tuned in mentally and engaged socially. Hearing aids can be especially helpful if those factors are contributing to depression and anxiety.
You’ll Feel Less Lonely
While it may not seem as dire or important as dementia, for individuals who have untreated hearing loss, isolation can be a serious problem, social solitude often being the cause and adding fuel to the fire. Your overall mood can be significantly affected by social isolation. So being able to continue to be social and engaged with help from your hearing aid can be a great advantage.
To be certain, this is connected to your hearing aids’ ability to lower the risks of depression, for example. All of these health concerns, to a certain degree, are in some way connected.
Hearing Aids And Physical Advantages
There is some evidence which indicates that as hearing loss symptoms become more apparent, your danger of stroke goes up. But this research is in preliminary stages. It’s a little simpler to recognize the more pronounced physical advantage of hearing aids: you’ll fall less often.
This happens for two reasons:
- Situational awareness: Hearing aids can increase your situational awareness.
- Fall detection: Frequently, it’s getting back up after a fall that is the significant hazard, not the fall itself. Many new designs of hearing aids come with fall detection built in. With particular settings enabled, when you take a tumble, a call will automatically be made to one of your pre-programmed emergency contacts so they know to check on you.
Falling can have rather substantial health impacts, especially as you get older. So avoiding falls (or decreasing the damage from falls) can be a significant advantage that ripples throughout your general health.
Wear Your Hearing Aids Everyday
It’s worth keeping in mind that all of these benefits apply to those who suffer from hearing conditions. If you have healthy hearing, then using a hearing aid will likely not decrease your risk of cognitive decline, for instance.
But using your hearing aids, if you do have hearing loss, is the best thing you can do for general health.