Hearing and Health
How does hearing loss affect your general health?
This is a really interesting question. Current research has started to focus on the effects of hearing loss on the body – not just the difficulties in communicating. The research is quite startling and has found:
Increased risk of dementia
Research has shown there is a strong link between untreated hearing loss and cognitive (brain function) decline. It has been shown that a very mild loss of 25dB (normal hearing limit is 20dB) has the same effect on the brain as 7 years of ageing! Cognitive abilities in older adults, (including memory and concentration) decline faster with hearing loss than they do in older adults with normal hearing.
There are currently 2 theories about why this can happen.
The first is about brain capacity. Let’s say that 20% of your brain power is used to communicate when you have normal hearing. However, we know that when you have hearing loss, you need to work a lot harder to piece together sentences so you can follow the conversation. This means you are actually using more brain power than normal and this takes away from the brain power that is usually used for working short term memory.
The other theory is that when you can’t hear as clearly, there is a tendency to avoid joining conversations or you may even avoid social situations completely. This is not healthy for the brain and can contribute to dementia risks.
Increased risk of falling
Research has found a much higher incidence of falls in people who have hearing loss. Even a very mild hearing loss is associated with a 3 times greater chance of falling. Not only are falls upsetting, they can cause very serious, on-going health issues.
Increased risk of depression
Not being able to hear clearly and join in social activities has effects on our self-esteem, feeling of community and contribution. Loneliness and depression have been well documented in people with hearing loss.
Increased tiredness and fatigue
When you have to concentrate more to hear someone clearly, it puts a load on the whole system. Most types of hearing loss cause parts of words to sound fuzzy (rather than an inability to hear the whole sentence). This means you have to use the meaning of the sentence and the context of the conversation to figure out exactly what someone is saying. Doing this for prolonged periods is quite a strain and leads to increased feelings of tiredness and fatigue.
When clients return for their first hearing aid adjustment, they often tell us they feel more energetic now that they can hear better.
Increased risk of more hearing loss
This is called auditory deprivation and occurs when hearing permanently worsens without stimulation through hearing aids. To learn more, click here.
