The regrettable reality is, as you age, your hearing starts to go. Approximately 38 million people suffer from hearing loss in the U . S ., but many decide to ignore it because they consider it as just a part of getting older. But beyond how well you hear, ignoring hearing loss will have serious adverse side effects.
Why is the decision to just cope with hearing loss one that many people consider? Based on an AARP study, hearing loss is, thought to be by a third of seniors, a concern that’s minor and can be handled easily, while cost was a concern for more than half of individuals who took part in the study. The consequences of ignoring hearing loss, however, can become a great deal higher due to conditions and side effects that come with ignoring it. What are the most common challenges of ignoring hearing loss?
Fatigue
The dots will not be connected by most people from fatigue to hearing loss. Instead, they will attribute fatigue to several different ideas, such as slowing down due to aging or a side-effect of medication. The truth is that the less you can hear, the more your body works to compensate for it, leaving you feeling drained. Recall how tired you were at times in your life when your brain needed to be completely focused on a task for prolonged periods of time. You would most likely feel really drained when you’re done. The same situation takes place when you struggle to hear: when there are blanks spots in conversation, your brain has to work extra hard to fill in the missing information – which, when there’s enough background noise, is even more difficult – and consumes precious energy just attempting to manage the conversation. Looking after yourself requires energy that you won’t have with this kind of chronic exhaustion. To adapt, you will skip life-essential routines such as working out or eating healthy.
Decline of Cognitive Function
Hearing loss has been connected, by numerous Johns Hopkins University studies, to diminishe brain functions , increased loss of brain tissue, and dementia. Although these links are not causation, they’re correlations, researchers think that, again, the more mental resources that are used attempting to fill in the blanks of a conversation, the less there are to give attention to other things like comprehension and memorization. And as people get older, the additional draw on cognitive resources can speed up the decline of other brain functions and contribute to loss of gray matter. On top of that, it’s believed that the process of cognitive decline can be lessened and mental wellness can be preserved by a continued exchange of ideas, usually through conversation. The fact that a connection was discovered between hearing loss and a decline in cognitive functions is promising for future research since hearing and cognitive specialists can collaborate to narrow down the causes and create treatment options for these conditions.
Issues With Mental Health
The National Council on the Aging found, from a study of more than two thousand seniors, that mental health issues which have a negative emotional and social impact, are more common if there is also neglected hearing loss. It makes sense that there’s a connection between hearing loss and mental health problems since, in family and social situations, individuals who cope with hearing loss have a hard time interacting with others. This can result in feelings of separation, which can eventually result in depression. If left untreated, anxiety and even paranoia can surface due to these feelings of separation and exclusion. Hearing aids have been proven to help in the recovery from depression, though anyone suffering from depression, anxiety, or paranoia should contact a mental health professional.
Cardiovascular Disease
If one portion of your body, which is an interconnected machine, stops working properly, it could have an affect on seemingly unrelated bodily functions. This is the case with our hearts and ears. Case in point, hearing loss will happen when blood does not easily flow from the heart to the inner ear. Diabetes, which is also connected to heart disease, can impact the inner ear’s nerve endings and cause information sent from the ear to the brain to get scrambled. If heart disease is neglected serious or even potentially fatal repercussions can occur. So if you’ve detected some hearing loss and you have a history of heart disease or heart disease in your family you should seek advice from both a hearing and a cardiac specialist so that you can figure out whether your hearing loss is connected to a heart condition.
If you want to begin living a healthier life, contact us so we can help you solve any adverse effects of hearing loss that you might suffer.