A Quiet Pandemic
Far more people are impacted by hearing loss than you are likely to imagine. In the US, about 13% of the population suffers from it to some detectable degree and this percentage increases significantly with age. Less than three out of every 1,000 babies are born with congenital hearing loss. But over 6% of everyone between the ages of 18-44 is impacted. Almost 14% of everyone aged 45-64 has it to some degree. More than one out of every four people aged 65-74 live with it and astonishingly, more than half of everyone aged 75 years old and above are victims to it.
Of course hearing loss does not harm only those that directly experience it. Their friends and families, coworkers and everyone else that they interact with all suffer from the unnecessary complications added to every interaction. The most shocking statistic perhaps is that less than one out of every five people who live with it seek and keep up with appropriate treatment. Someone is more likely than not to minimize it as simply an inconvenience. People think that they can just shrug it off and adapt. But left untreated, hearing loss directly and unnecessarily burdens mental health and even basic cognitive functioning. Intervening as early as possible to mitigate its damage has immediate advantages to one’s overall health, especially mental health.
The Spiral of Hearing Loss
Obviously we depend on our five senses to orient ourselves in our environment. Our sense of hearing grants us our bearings spatially, allowing us to gauge distances and navigate crowds. But even in our homes our immediate physical safety is put at risk by hearing loss because our sense of balance is directly related to our sense of hearing. But the consequences of failing to treat hearing loss unravel far beyond just physical safety.
You might not even notice it consciously, but gradually you are having a hard time following conversations, especially with background noise present or talking to more than one person. And it’s fatiguing, constantly filling in blanks of words that you didn’t catch and extrapolating meaning through context clues. It is frustrating. And your relationships become strained. The simplest intimacies that are enabled by smooth communication get troubled. You have to ask people to repeat themselves. You are misunderstanding. It is perfectly predictable that you instinctively withdraw socially.
This leads to loneliness, which leads to depression. Depression warps one’s sense of scale. It is disorientating and leads to feelings of powerlessness. This terrible feedback loop causes cognitive decline. Unfortunately, this trajectory is very common for older people.
The Data
As simple as this course is to chart, consider the data concluded by The Health and Retirement Study (HRS). From 1996-2014 HRS measured cognitive performance on people aged 50 and above, every two years. Participants began to wear hearing aids over the course of the 18 year study. Cognitive determinations were measured based on the participant’s immediate and delayed recall of 10 words. Not only did the study conclude that the use of hearing aids slowed down cognitive decline, but also that the earlier use of hearing aids was adopted, the more significantly they did so.
Consider what cognitive decline really means and how severely it would harm your potential quality of life. Every day dealing with forgetting details of your own personal history; missing appointments and social events; losing your train of thought. No one would wish this perpetual frustration on their worst enemy. Trouble following conversations of course makes it more difficult to make decisions, finish tasks or follow instructions. All of these minor frustrations accrue into lasting cognitive damage. When someone is struggling to hear, the neural pathways in their brains literally redraw themselves, only compounding the disorientation and frustration.
Hearing Loss is Permanent and Irreversible
Prevention is always the simplest solution. Forming healthy hearing habits and abiding by them is obviously the first big and necessary step to take. Hearing loss is permanent and irreversible, but it can and should be stopped as soon as it is detected.
Make an appointment with one of our specialists today to determine the specifics of your condition and your financial situation. Together you will find the treatment option that works best for you.