We all know that a healthy diet and regular exercise can do wonders for many areas of your life, but studies are finding that using hearing aids offers similar benefits to your wellbeing. Research has shown that people who treat their hearing loss with hearing aids earn more, are physically healthier, and have a better quality of life than those living with untreated hearing loss.
How can so much hinge on your hearing? Your hearing health is tied into almost every aspect of your life in how it helps you communicate and navigate the world. Your hearing health is also dependent on other aspects of your health, and when your hearing suffers, it can exacerbate other health conditions. Finally, untreated hearing loss can hurt your professional life, including your ability to maximize your earnings. While most hearing loss is permanent, hearing aids can help you minimize the changes it causes in your life and minimize the adverse effects of hearing impairment.
Hearing aids and your happiness
Living with unaddressed hearing loss is highly likely to change your quality of life. Hearing loss makes it harder to communicate and connect with others, making social contact more difficult. Hearing loss also makes it harder to navigate spaces, posing potential challenges to mobility. Hearing loss that is left untreated increases the risk of anxiety, depression, and social isolation.
At the root of hearing loss’ connection to depression is difficulty communicating. Meaningful conversation and exchange with others are essential to our sense of worth and wellbeing. When hearing loss troubles our ability to understand what others say and limits our ability to feel understood, communication can become an uphill battle and sets the stage for feelings of depression.
The stresses of hearing loss attack our quality of life in similar ways. Unaddressed hearing loss creates mental strain and frustration. Once simple tasks can become more challenging when hearing loss is present, these struggles can produce anxiety. Rates of anxiety are elevated in people with untreated hearing loss.
However, hearing treatment helps you bridge these hearing difficulties, thrusting you back into meaningful social interactions and improving your quality of life.
Hearing aids and your physical health
Untreated hearing loss is also associated with physical health conditions. When treatment for hearing issues is not pursued, the risk of physical health issues increases. Most notably, hearing loss can cause cognitive strain, directly linked to falling accidents and dementia.
Hearing loss makes it harder for the brain to process information. When the sound we detect with our ears is compromised, it is left to our mental capability to “fill in the blanks” with the possible meaning. This mental reconstruction of sound and speech requires more time and effort from our cognitive energy. Our brain reorganizes itself and the work it does to prioritize sound processing.
To have the resources to compensate for hearing loss, the brain pulls attention away from other tasks. Skills like balance and coordination may not receive enough focus, resulting in an increased rate of falling accidents and injuries.
When we treat our hearing, we help regain our spatial awareness and work those areas of the brain lying unused before. This helps reduce our risk of accidents and developing dementia.
Hearing aids and your finances
With all the damage unaddressed hearing issues can cause, it is hardly a surprise that it can also take a toll on our earning power. People with untreated hearing loss earn less and are significantly less employed than their counterparts with healthy hearing and those who treat their hearing loss.
The economic toll of untreated hearing loss has multiple aspects. People with untreated hearing loss earn less in both average salary figures and total earnings throughout their lifetime. Unaddressed hearing loss has been shown to decrease productivity and is linked to earlier retirement ages. Untreated hearing loss also comes with associated health costs that affect society as a whole.
But when we treat our hearing loss, we regain the ability to contribute to our job and our co-workers. A recent study found that we regain much of the earning power as someone with normal hearing once we start treating our hearing loss.
If you’ve recently seen a change in your hearing or are currently living with hearing issues, it’s time to change your hearing health for the better. Hearing health can help by connecting you with personalized hearing exams and care and connecting you with solutions that work. Ready to get started? Contact us today!