An estimated 28 million people could benefit from wearing hearing aids. Needless to say, when we discuss statistics like that, we normally mean that those 28 million individuals would hear their surroundings a little more clearly if they had some help (like hearing aids). But there are also some other, relatively unexpected health advantages that you can start to take advantage of thanks to your hearing aids.
Your physical and mental health can, as it so happens, be helped by something as straight forward as wearing hearing aids. Everything from a risk of falling to depression can be slowed or even stopped by these devices. Your hearing aids can literally help you stay on your feet.
Mental Health Benefits of Hearing Aids
Modern medical research has firmly established a link between cognitive decline and hearing loss. Currently, the thinking is that, for a mixture of mental, social, and physical factors, hearing loss can lead to an escalated danger of mental illness, like cognitive decline, anxiety, depression, and dementia.
So the mental health benefits of hearing aids shouldn’t be very surprising.
Decreasing Your Risk of Dementia
According to one study, wearing your hearing aids can help decrease your chances of developing dementia by as much as 18%. And all you need to do to make the most of this awesome advantage is remember to wear your hearing every day.
Other studies have indicated that wearing your hearing aids regularly can slow the onset of dementia by up to a couple of years. This is really inspiring and with more research done to replicate and clarify these numbers, we can come a long way in the battle against mental decline and illness.
Anxiety And Depression Can be Decreased
Anxiety and depression are not symptoms that are exclusive to individuals who suffer from hearing loss. But people who have hearing loss have been shown to be at a higher risk of depression and anxiety over time.
When you have 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 Won’t be as Lonely
While dementia might sound much more extreme, loneliness can be a serious problem for people who suffer from neglected hearing loss, social solitude often being the cause and worsening symptoms. Your general mood can be considerably affected by social separation. So it can be an enormous benefit if your hearing aids can help you continue to be socially active.
To be sure, this is connected to your hearing aids’ ability to reduce the risks of depression, for example. All of these health issues, to a certain degree, are in some way connected.
The Physical Advantages of Hearing Aids
There’s some data which indicates that as hearing loss symptoms become more obvious, your danger of stroke goes up. But this research is in preliminary stages. It’s a little simpler to recognize the more obvious physical advantage of hearing aids: you won’t fall as often.
There are a couple of reasons for this:
- Fall detection: Sometimes, it’s not the fall that’s perilous. Instead, it’s that you can’t get back up that can be a real problem. Many new models of hearing aids come with fall detection built in. You can save emergency phone numbers into your phone which will be automatically called if you take a tumble.
- Situational awareness:
Falling can have pretty significant health effects, especially as you age. So your general health can be protected by reducing damage from falls or preventing them altogether.
Be Certain to Wear Your Hearing Aids
It’s worth noting that all of these advantages apply to individuals who suffer from hearing conditions. Hearing aids won’t, for example, help someone with healthy hearing avoid a fall.
But if you do suffer from hearing loss, the best thing you can do for your ears, and for the rest of your body, is to wear your hearing aids.