That loss of hearing can impact your brain has been established in several studies. (Just look at some of our previous blog posts.) Hearing Aids, fortunately, have been proven to be capable of helping you regain some of that cognitive capacity.
This is not saying that hearing aids are in some manner going to make you smarter. But there’s some compelling research that suggests hearing aids can enhance cognitive abilities, lowering your risk for anxiety, depression, and dementia.
Your Brain is in Charge of a Substantial Amount of Your Hearing
To recognize the connection between your ears and cognition, it’s important to know that a substantial portion of your hearing actually takes place in your brain. It’s the brain’s task to transform sound vibrations into recognizable sound information. The regions of your brain that decipher sound will suddenly have less to do when hearing starts to wane.
Changes in your brain (and hearing), along with other factors (including social isolation), can result in the beginning of mental health issues. Depression, dementia, and anxiety are a lot more obvious in people who have neglected hearing loss.
Your effectively “treating” your hearing loss when you’re wearing hearing aids. That means:
- The parts of your brain responsible for hearing will get a more consistent workout; the more your brain works, the healthier your brain stays.
- Because you’ll be able to couple your hearing aids with consistent monitoring and other treatment methods, you can help keep your hearing from becoming progressively worse.
- Social isolation will be less likely. You will be more likely to participate with others if you can hear and understand conversations.
Keeping You on Your Toes
Hearing aids stimulate your brain and your social life and can prevent dementia, depression, and anxiety.
- Boosting awareness: Sometimes, because you’re not mindful of your environment, you might have a fall. Diminished ability to hear can substantially reduce your situational awareness. Not only can it be hard to hear sounds, but it can also be a challenge to determine which direction sounds are originating from. Without treatment, this can end up resulting in injury or a fall.
- Inner ear health: Loss of hearing in and of itself will not cause inner ear damage. Notwithstanding, sometimes loss of hearing and inner ear problems have a common cause. Sometimes, a hearing aid is part of the treatment program for hearing loss which can also assist with inner ear injury.
- Modern technology: Hearing aids have begun integrating novel technology that is able to notify emergency contacts (or emergency services) when someone using the hearing aids experiences a fall. This can lessen long lasting complications and injuries even though it won’t prevent the fall itself.
Inevitably, when you’re wearing a hearing aid, you’re more likely to steer clear of a fall to start with. A hearing aid helps you stay more alert, more mindful, and more tuned in, bettering cognitive attributes and general health at the same time.
Stop Neglecting Your Hearing Aid
None of this has 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 wearing these devices should be a simple decision (Pretty obvious).
The problem is that many people don’t know they have hearing loss. It can be challenging to identify hearing loss when it happens slowly over time. That’s the reason why having a routine hearing assessment is essential. Without hearing aids, loss of hearing can exacerbate a wide range of other health concerns.
The ideal hearing aid can, in part, slow the onset of despair and dementia, while reducing the occurrences of certain physical injuries. Besides helping you hear, hearing aids offer a remarkable number of advantages.