7 things your hearing impacts
There are few things that commonly come up in my practice..
-Most people take their hearing for granted
-Once someone gains their hearing back, they typically wish they would have done it sooner
-Not treating your hearing loss comes with an array of side effects… lets start there.
7 THINGS THAT YOUR HEARING LOSS IMPACTS:
Physical Health - The Hear the World Foundation conducted a survey that showed 21% of participants reported an increase in exercising after treating their hearing. 34% of the participants with hearing aids reported doing some type of sport activity at least once a week.
Moving up in the work place - now this topic has several angles. 1 of them comes from a survey done by the Deaf Professionals Network where out of 141 participants, 97% of them have reported being passed over for a promotion. Studies show that people who do not treat their hearing loss are less likely to move up the career chain. Moreover, if you can not hear your colleague for the 2nd time, if you miss important things in meetings, you are likely to disengage and lose confidence in these situations which can have a professional ripple effect of it’s own.
Clarity of speech and conversation - Because of the way our ears are shaped, we will typically lose our high frequency hearing first. Very important parts of speech like “s”, “f”, and “th” among others, happen to be soft high frequencies sounds. This is why many people with hearing loss feel that they can hear alright, but that nothing is clear, or that those around them are mumbling.
Cognitive function - there are many prominent studies to back this up but to make it clear, UNTREATED hearing loss has been shown to decrease brain processing speed, memory, and attention span. Those with untreated hearing loss are 21% more likely to develop dementia.
Maintaining relationships - Those with untreated hearing loss have a very high likelihood of attempting to withdraw from social situations and even isolate themselves while in them. In addition, communication with loved ones often times becomes strained if the hard of hearing person doesn’t want to clarify something that is misheard or if the loved one becomes aggravated with repeating themselves. Many surveys have reported that people with hearing aids have more confidence in conversation, engage more and often times have less arguments with their partners.
Tinnitus - Although tinnitus has several causes and can come in many different forms, the most common is that caused by hearing loss. 9 out of 10 people with tinnitus, also have high frequency hearing loss. The widest accepted theory around this is that tinnitus is the way for the brain to make up for the lack of signal it receives due to hearing loss. This is supported by the fact that many people who wear hearing aids, also see an improvement in their tinnitus.
Mental fatigue - It has been proven that when we need to focus or concentrate, our brain will pull from other areas of brain function. When someone with hearing loss goes to a social gathering, it often times involves several hours of that person concentrating or focusing extra hard in conversation to be able to keep up and compensate for their hearing loss, causing mental fatigue. Hearing should be easy.
