Hearing aids could help approximately 28 million people. What this means is that 28 million people could here their environment better if they had hearing aids. But your hearing aids will also help you enjoy some other health advantages.
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 delayed or even stopped by these devices. In many ways, your hearing aids can help keep you on your feet.
Mental Health Advantages of Hearing Aids
Modern medical studies have firmly demonstrated a link between hearing loss and cognitive decline. Currently, the thinking is that, for a combination of mental, social, and physical factors, hearing loss can trigger an increased risk of mental illness, including cognitive decline, anxiety, depression, and dementia.
So it’s not surprising that recent analyses has suggested that hearing aids might have significant mental health advantages.
Dementia Risks Decreased
As reported by one study, wearing your hearing aids can help reduce your chances 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 each day.
In other studies, the onset of dementia was delayed by as much as two years by using hearing aids. Further research needs to be carried out to help explain and replicate these findings, but it’s definitely encouraging.
Depression And Anxiety Can be Decreased
Countless people suffer from anxiety and depression even if hearing loss is not a problem for them. But individuals who have hearing loss have been shown to have a higher risk of depression and anxiety over time.
Wearing your hearing aids can help keep you socially active and mentally connected. 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 sound as dire or imperative as dementia, loneliness can be a serious problem for people with untreated hearing loss, caused by and exacerbating a sense of social solitude. Your overall mood can be significantly impacted by social separation. So being able to stay social and involved with help from your hearing aid can be a big benefit.
To be sure, this is connected to your hearing aids’ ability to reduce the risks of depression, for example. To a certain extent, all of these health concerns are linked in some way.
Hearing Aids And Physical Benefits
As your hearing impairment gets worse, there is some research that shows that you could be at a higher risk of stroke. But that particular research is undoubtedly in the preliminary stages. The most obvious (and perceptible) physical advantage of hearing aids is a little simpler: you’ll fall less often.
There are a couple of reasons for this:
- Situational awareness: With hearing aids, your situational awareness will be enhanced letting you stay away of obstacles and avoid falling down. For example, if your pet is running to greet you, you hear them and anticipate them rushing around the corner.
- Fall detection: Frequently, it’s getting back up after a fall that is the real danger, not the fall itself. Many new models of hearing aids have 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.
As you get older falling down can have a disastrous impact on your health. So preventing falls (or reducing the damage from falling) can be a huge advantage that ripples throughout your general health.
Wear Your Hearing Aids Everyday
These benefits, it’s worth pointing out, apply to people who have hearing impairment. Hearing aids won’t, for instance, help someone with healthy hearing avoid falling.
But using your hearing aids, if you do have hearing loss, is the best thing you can do for general health.