That hearing loss can impact your brain has been confirmed in numerous studies. (Just have a look at some of our previous blog posts.) Hearing Aids, luckily, have been shown to be capable of helping you recover some of that cognitive ability.
This is not to say that hearing aids are somehow going to make you more intelligent. But there’s some compelling research that suggests cognitive ability can be increased by wearing hearing aids lowering your risk for depression, dementia, and anxiety.
You Accomplish a Lot of Hearing With Your Brain
To comprehend the link between cognition and your ears, it’s crucial to recognize that a substantial portion of your hearing actually takes place in your brain. That’s where the vibrations of the world are converted into the sounds of your environment. So as your hearing wanes, the regions of your brain that translate those sounds suddenly have a lot less to do.
In combination with other variables (like social isolation), the alterations in your brain (and hearing) can trigger the onset of specific mental health issues. Anxiety, depression, and dementia are a lot more noticeable in people who have untreated hearing loss.
Your effectively “treating” your hearing loss when you’re wearing hearing aids. That means:
- The regions of your brain responsible for hearing will get regular workouts; the more your brain works, the healthier your brain stays.
- Social solitude will be less likely. You will be more likely to participate with others if you can hear and understand conversations.
- Because you’ll be capable of coupling your hearing aids with regular monitoring and other treatments, you can stop your hearing from becoming increasingly worse.
Staying Attentive
Hearing aids can lessen dementia, anxiety, and depression because they enhance your brain and your social life.
- Cutting edge technology: Some current hearing aids, when someone falls, can instantly alert emergency services. This might not prevent the fall in the first place, but it can lessen long-term injuries or complications due to the fall.
- Inner ear health: Hearing loss in and of itself will not cause inner ear damage. However, sometimes hearing loss and inner ear damage have a common cause. In some cases, a hearing aid is part of the treatment strategy for hearing loss which can also assist with inner ear injury.
- Creating stronger awareness: Sometimes, you fall because you aren’t aware of your environment. Decreased ability to hear can drastically lessen your situational awareness. Not only can it be challenging to hear sounds, but it can also be challenging to ascertain which direction sounds are coming from. Without treatment, this can wind up leading to injury or a fall.
The fact is, you have a higher chance of avoiding a fall when you’re using hearing aids. A hearing aid enhances your physical health and cognitive capability while performing the important tasks of keeping you more mindful, more focused, and more connected.
Stop Ignoring Your Hearing Aid
We haven’t even yet dealt with the basic hearing benefits of hearing aids. So when you take that amplified hearing, factor in the mental health advantages and physical well-being, it seems like using these devices should be a simple choice (Pretty obvious).
The problem is that many people don’t know they have hearing loss. It can be hard to identify loss of hearing when it develops gradually over time. That’s why it’s crucial to get your hearing tested routinely. A wide range of other health concerns can be made worse by loss of hearing.
The ideal hearing aid can, in part, slow the onset of despair and dementia, while decreasing the occurrences of certain physical injuries. That’s a striking mix of benefits that hearing aids offer, and they also help you hear.