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The effects of hearing loss can be more severe than not being able to keep up with conversation in a busy restaurant…
Addressing hearing loss won’t only improve your quality of life but it could save you from some severe health issues. Let’s look at some of the effects of hearing loss if it’s not treated.
Cognitive consequences
Did you know that it’s really our brain that helps us hear? Our brain is where the sounds are processed. If a sound is not processed effectively,it can affect our brain and nervous system. This affects our ability to understand. Your brain has to work harder to make sense of the auditory information you’ve received. It has to reorganize, adjust and try process what it’s heard. Hearing aids can provide something called ‘sound stimulation’ that helps our ears receive sounds and allow the brain to process them effectively without strain.
Dementia
When hearing loss occurs, the brain becomes overwhelmed. This can contribute towards dementia which has major physical and physiological effects. Hearing impaired individuals are twice as likely to develop dementia compared to those with normal hearing*. The effort that goes into trying to make sense of sounds received tires the brain. In 2011, Professor Frank R. Lin conducted a ‘study focusing on dementia, Lin and his colleagues monitored the cognitive health of 639 people who were mentally sharp when the study began. The researchers tested the volunteers’ mental abilities regularly, following most for about 12 years, and some for as long as 18 years. The results were striking: The worse the initial hearing loss was, the more likely the person was to develop dementia. Compared with people of normal hearing, those with moderate hearing loss had triple the risk.’**
Effects of hearing loss on speech and language
Pronunciation and speech changes when we lose our ability to hear clearly. Children learn to talk from what they hear. They must be able to hear sounds and speech clearly in order to process it to develop their own speech and language. Adult hearing impairment is increasing as our lifestyles are filled with lots of stimulating noises and devices set to a high volume. It’s important to take precautions to protect your ears to avoid hearing loss which will not only affect your personal and social life but can affect your brain. Hearing aids have become a lot smaller than what they used to be and can be pretty much invisible nowadays. Have a look at Lyric – the world’s first and only 100% invisible hearing aid. It is also completely wearable 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for months at a time.
Physiological and sociological effects
Hearing loss can make it harder to engage, converse and interact with people. This could lead to stress, isolation, frustration or even depression in some cases.
The bottom line
Untreated hearing loss can have a great impact on your life and can be avoided by taking precautions to protect your ears, getting tested regularly if you are exposed to loud noises or sounds in the workplace and wearing a hearing aid if required. Hearing loss is gradual so it’s important to be tested regularly. If you’re worried about your hearing – get in touch with one of us today to book in your hearing test.
Sources:*Statistic from Beltone.com, **AARP
