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Do you find that you have to ask people to repeat themselves more and more often? Do others complain about the level you listen to the TV when it sounds just fine to you? It is common to think of hearing loss as a condition that affects seniors, but often the first signs of hearing loss begin when people are in their 40’s or 50’s.
The hearing loss you experience may seem minor enough to avoid till a later date, but there are some serious health risks to this approach. It is important to remember while hearing loss is most often permanent, it can be treated effectively with hearing aids – but if you can hear most of the sounds around you, is it okay to put off treatment?
Should You Wait to Get Hearing Aids?
For many treating hearing loss is hard to admit because it suggests that you have an issue in the first place. It means your body can’t do what it once did and even though aging is inevitable and even means we are surviving – for many it is often difficult to accept. The important thing to remember is that treating your hearing loss means you are being proactive around aging. There is nothing that seems to age people faster than ignoring their health issues. When you think of it, the stereotype around aging is more apt when you are asking people “what did you say?!” all too often or seeming confused and detached during conversation due to a hearing loss. We all know it is a bad idea to avoid dealing with a heart condition or diabetes. While hearing loss is not as immediately acute as some of these other health complications, the effects on our well-being are further reaching than one might first suspect.
Hearing Loss and Your Brain
The real health concern with hearing loss isn’t that you can’t hear, but how that affects your brain and its cognitive load. While the sound is collected by the ears, it must be delivered to the brain for us to identify and comprehend it. Hearing loss is a disconnect in this critical function. Your brain simply does not receive parts of audio information. It usually doesn’t happen all at once, often taking years for hearing loss to become so severe that it’s difficult to ignore.
However, in the early stages of hearing loss, your brain must strain to fill in pieces of words or words in sentences. This causes listening fatigue, and a simple conversation can leave someone with early undiagnosed hearing loss, feeling depleted. Even a mild hearing loss can deprive your brain of being fully stimulated. Hearing loss often starts as the loss of just some pitches or tones and the brain stops receiving this information. Areas of the brain that aren’t stimulated suffer from disuse, can get commandeered for a different job, or even become damaged and destroyed. Over years this can cause brain atrophy which increases the risk of cognitive decline and dementia significantly.
Hearing Loss and Your Relationships
Hearing loss is a communication issue and even in the early stages, it can hinder conversation and connection between family, friends, and even your significant other. Listening fatigue makes social interactions exhausting and it can be more tempting for many, over time to choose to avoid them together. Sadly, those who live with untreated hearing loss have higher rates of loneliness, depression, and anxiety.
Hearing Loss and Your Job
It is common to experience that it is not just personal relationships that are affected by hearing loss. According to the Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA), “of the 15% of Americans who report some degree of hearing loss, about 60 percent are either in the workplace or an educational setting.” If you are experiencing hearing loss, there is a good chance that co-workers and bosses have already noticed. It is common to miss important parts of instructions given during conversation or in meetings. Performance at work is often affected and with that often comes a loss of income for those with untreated hearing loss. The Better Hearing Institute reports that on average, those with untreated hearing loss earn $30,000 less annually than contemporaries with normal hearing or treated hearing.
Treating Hearing Loss Early
The sooner you treat hearing loss the better. To find if hearing aids are right for you, contact us to schedule a hearing exam. You have nothing to lose and so much to gain by being proactive about your hearing now.