The regrettable reality is, as you age, your hearing starts to fail. Roughly 38 million individuals suffer from hearing loss in the United States, though many people decide to dismiss it because they look at it as just a part of getting older. Neglecting hearing loss, however, can have major adverse side effects on a person’s entire well-being beyond their inability to hear.
Why do so many people choose to simply accept hearing loss? According to an AARP study, more than one-third of senior citizens think of hearing loss as a minor issue that can be managed easily enough, while cost was a concern for more than half of individuals who participated in the study. The consequences of neglecting hearing loss, however, can become a great deal higher as a result of complications and side effects that come with ignoring it. What are the most prevalent complications of neglecting hearing loss?
Fatigue
The dots will not be connected by most people from fatigue to hearing loss. They will say, rather, that they are slowing down due to the side-effects of a medication or because they’re getting older. The truth is that the less you can hear, the more your body struggles to compensate for it, leaving you feeling tired. Think about taking an exam like the SAT where your brain is totally concentrated on processing the task in front of you. You would probably feel fairly drained after you’re finished. When you are struggling to hear, it’s an equivalent scenario: when there are blanks spots in conversation, your brain has to work extra hard to fill in the missing information – which is usually made even more difficult when there is lots of background noise – and consumes precious energy just trying to process the conversation. Taking care of yourself takes energy that you won’t have with this kind of chronic exhaustion. To adjust, you will avoid life-essential routines such as working out or eating healthy.
Mental Decline
Hearing loss has been connected, by a number of Johns Hopkins University studies, to diminishe cognitive functions , increased brain tissue loss, and dementia. While these connections are correlations, not causations, it’s theorized by researchers that, again, the more frequently you need to fill in the conversational blanks, which uses up mental resources, the less there are to focus on other things like comprehension and memorization. And as people get older, the increased draw on mental resources can accelerate the decline of other brain functions and worsen gray matter loss. Moreover, it’s believed that the process of mental decline can be lessened and mental wellness can be preserved by a continued exchange of ideas, normally through conversation. Fortunately, cognitive specialist and hearing specialist can use the known link between cognitive decline and hearing loss to work together to carry out research and develop treatments that are encouraging in the near future.
Concerns With Mental Health
The National Council on the Aging discovered, from a study of more than two thousand senior citizens, that mental health problems that have a negative social and emotional affect, are more common if there is also untreated hearing loss. The connection between mental health issues and hearing loss seems logical since, in family and social situations, individuals who suffer from hearing loss have a hard time communicating with others. This can result in feelings of isolation, which can ultimately result in depression. Feelings of exclusion and isolation can escalate to anxiety and even paranoia if neglected. Hearing aids have been proven to aid in the recovery from depression, although anybody suffering from depression, anxiety, or paranoia should contact a mental health professional.
Cardiovascular Disease
Our bodies are one interconnected machine – if one part stops working like it is supposed to, it might have a detrimental affect on another seemingly unrelated part. This is the way it is with our hearts and ears. As a case in point, if blood flow from the heart to the inner ear is constrained, hearing loss could occur. Diabetes, which is also linked to heart disease, can affect 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 possibly fatal repercussions can happen. So if you’ve detected some hearing loss and you have a history of diabetes or heart disease in your family you should contact both a cardiac and hearing specialist in order to determine whether your hearing loss is linked to a heart condition.
If you want to begin living a healthier life, contact us so we can help you solve any negative effects of hearing loss that you may suffer.
