When you’re a kid, falling is just a part of life. Wiping out on your bicycle? That’s normal. Tripping over your own feet while you’re running outside? Happens every day. Kids are pretty limber so, no big deal. They rebound quite easily.
As you get older though, that becomes less and less true. The older you get, the more concerning a fall can be. To some extent, that’s because your bones generally break more easily (and heal slower). Older individuals tend to spend more time on the floor in pain because they have a more difficult time getting back up. As a result, falls are the number one injury-related cause of death in individuals over 65.
It isn’t surprising, then, that healthcare professionals are always on the lookout for tools and devices that can reduce falls. New research seems to indicate that we may have found one such device: hearing aids.
Can hearing loss bring about falls?
If you want to understand how hearing aids could possibly prevent a fall, you need to ask this related question: does hearing loss make you more likely to fall to begin with? In some instances, it appears that the answer is a definite yes.
So why does hearing loss increase the danger of a fall for people?
That association isn’t exactly intuitive. After all, hearing loss does not directly influence your ability to move or see. But it turns out there are certain symptoms of hearing loss that do have this kind of direct effect on your ability to get around, and these symptoms can result in a higher risk of falling. Here are a few of those symptoms:
- Your situational awareness is impaired: When you have untreated hearing loss, you might not be as able to hear that approaching vehicle, or the dog barking next to you, or the sound of your neighbor’s footsteps. Your situational awareness may be significantly impacted, in other words. Can you become clumsy in this way due to hearing loss? Well, kind of, loss of situational awareness can make everyday tasks a little more dangerous. And that means you might be slightly more likely to unintentionally stumble into something, and take a tumble.
- Exhaustion: Your brain is working extra hard and you’re always straining when you have untreated hearing loss. Your brain will be continuously exhausted as a consequence. A tired brain is less likely to detect that obstacle in your path, and, as a result, you might end up tripping and falling over something that an alert brain would have detected.
- Depression: Social isolation and possibly even cognitive decline can be the outcome of neglected hearing loss. When you’re socially isolated, you may be more likely to spend time at home, where tripping hazards abound, and be less likely to have help close at hand.
- Loss of balance: How is your balance affected by hearing loss? Well, your overall balance depends heavily on your inner ear. So you might find yourself dizzy, experience vertigo, and lose your balance when hearing loss affects the inner ear. In other words, you have a tendency to fall more often.
- You’re unable to hear high-frequency sounds: You know how when you walk into a concert hall, you instantly detect that you’re in a large venue, even if your eyes are closed? Or when you get into a car and you immediately know you’re in close quarters? Your ears are actually using something like “echolocation” and high-frequency sound to assist your spatial awareness. You will lose the ability to rapidly make those judgment calls when hearing loss causes you to lose those high-frequency tones. This can cause disorientation and loss of situational awareness.
Part of the connection between hearing loss and falling is also in your age. You’re more likely to develop progressing and irreversible hearing loss. At the same time, you’re more likely to have a fall. And when you’re older, falling can have much more serious repercussions.
How can hearing aids help decrease falls?
If hearing loss is part of the problem, it makes sense that hearing aids would be part of the solution. And this is being validated by new research. Your danger of falling could be lowered by as much as 50% according to one study.
In the past, these numbers (and the relationship between hearing aids and remaining on your feet) were a little bit less clear. Partly, that’s because not everybody wears their hearing aids all of the time. As a consequence, falls among “hearing aid users” were often inconclusive. This was because individuals weren’t using their hearing aids, not because their hearing aids were broken.
The approach of this study was conducted differently and perhaps more precisely. Individuals who wore their hearing aids frequently were put in a different group than people who wore them intermittently.
So how can you prevent falls by using hearing aids? They keep you less fatigued, more concentrated, and generally more alert. The added situational awareness also helped. Many hearing aids also include a feature that can alert the authorities and family members if a fall happens. This can mean you get assistance faster (this is crucial for people older than 65).
Consistently wearing your hearing aids is the key here.
Prevent falls with new hearing aids
You will be able to remain close to your family members if you wear hearing aids, not to mention catch up with friends.
They can also help you remain on your feet, literally!
If you want to know more about how hearing aids could help you, make an appointment with us right away.
