The regrettable truth is, as you get older, your hearing starts to go. Approximately 38 million individuals in the United States deal with some form of hearing loss, though since hearing loss is expected as we age, many choose to just deal with it. But beyond the ability to hear, ignoring hearing loss will have severe adverse side effects.
Why is the choice to just ignore hearing loss one that lots of people consider? According to an AARP study, hearing loss is, according to a third of seniors, a problem that’s minimal and can be handled easily, while price was a worry for more than half of those who took part in the study. But, those costs can increase incredibly when you take into account the serious adverse reactions and ailments that are brought on by ignoring hearing loss. What are the most common complications of neglecting hearing loss?
Fatigue
The majority of people won’t instantly connect the dots from fatigue to hearing loss. Instead, they will attribute fatigue to several different factors, like slowing down due to aging or a side-effect of medication. But in reality, if you need to work harder to hear, it can deplete your physical resources. Recall how fatigued you were at times in your life when your brain needed to be completely focused on a task for long time periods. Once you’re finished, you probably feel exhausted. When you’re struggling to hear, it’s a similar scenario: your brain is working to fill in the blanks you’re missing in conversations – which is often made even more difficult when there’s a lot of background noise – and consumes valuable energy just attempting to process the conversation. Looking after yourself takes energy which you won’t have with this type of chronic exhaustion. To adapt, you will avoid life-essential routines like working out or eating healthy.
Cognitive Decline
Countless studies by Johns Hopkins University connected hearing loss to diminishe brain functions , accelerated brain tissue loss, and dementia. Even though these links are not causation, they’re correlations, scientists believe that, again, the more cognitive resources that are spent attempting to fill in the blanks of a conversation, the less you have to give attention to other things like memorization and comprehension. And decreasing brain function, as we age is, directly connected to an increased draw on our mental resources. Moreover, it’s believed that the process of mental decline can be slowed and mental fitness can be maintained by a continued exchange of ideas, normally through conversation. Fortunately, cognitive specialist and hearing specialist can use the recognized link between mental decline and hearing loss to collaborate to undertake research and develop treatments that are encouraging in the near future.
Issues With Mental Health
The National Council on the Aging found, from a study of over two thousand senior citizens, that mental health issues that have a negative emotional and social impact, are more prevalent if there is also neglected hearing loss. The link between mental health issues and hearing loss adds up since people with hearing loss frequently have difficulty communicating with other people in social or family situations. Ultimately, feelings of separation could become depression. If neglected, anxiety and even paranoia can surface as a result of these feelings of separation and exclusion. If you suffer from anxiety or depression, you need to talk to a mental health professional and you also should know that hearing aids have been shown to help people recover from some forms of depression.
Heart Disease
Our bodies are one interconnected machine – if one component stops functioning like it is supposed to, it could have a negative affect on another seemingly unrelated part. This is the case with our hearts and ears. For instance, hearing loss will occur when blood does not easily flow from the heart to the inner ear. Diabetes, which is also connected to heart disease, can affect the inner ear’s nerve endings and cause messages sent to the brain from the ear to become scrambled. If heart disease is disregarded severe or even possibly fatal repercussions can occur. So if you’ve detected some hearing loss and you have a history of diabetes or heart disease in your family you should consult both a cardiac and hearing specialist in order to determine whether your hearing loss is linked to a heart condition.
If you deal with hearing loss or are going through any of the negative repercussions listed above, please contact us for a consultation so we can help you live a healthier life.