The Impact of Hearing Loss on your Mental Health

We all want to be healthy and happy as we age, don’t we? And we all know many of the obvious ways to do it — like exercising, eating right, not smoking and getting enough sleep. But did you know our hearing plays a role in healthy ageing? Our sense of hearing plays a huge role in how confident and independent we are and how safe we feel.

The Brain

Experts attribute the connection to the fact that hearing loss leads to social isolation, accelerates brain shrinkage, and forces the brain to “redirect” energy needed for memory and thinking. Meanwhile, untreated hearing loss increases the risk of dementia by 50%, depression by 40% and trouble of balance by 30% over ten years, concluded a 2018 study1 .

The Social Life

Since hearing loss progresses slowly, people can adapt while not noticing they are also withdrawing from life. People often don’t realize what’s happening until their hearing loss is more advanced. Living with a hearing-impaired person can bring up disagreements, especially when unaware of the problem. If your friends and family are constantly asking you to repeat yourself or turn up the TV to an uncomfortable level, it may be time to have a gentle, caring conversation.

Hearing Aids: More Than Just an Amplifier

Detect falls

In recent years, hearing aids have quickly shifted from single-purpose accessories to versatile devices that allow us to stay connected. Currently, some hearing aid models on the market can:

Make 55 million automatic adjustments every hour

Make you hear better and understand the speech better when facing a person wearing a mask

Measure your daily activity with a smartwatch

Detect falls and automatically send alerts to select caregivers when not feeling well

Hearing aids that translate languages in real time Schedule reminders to take medications or other tasks

For more information, don’t hesitate to contact your audioprosthetist.

An assessment by an audioprosthetist is required to determine which hearing aid suits the patient’s needs. Rizlane Bellamlih

Territory Manager

Reference: 1. JAMA otolaryngology – head & ; neck surgery. (s. d.). JAMA Network | Home of JAMA and the Specialty Journals of the American Medical Association. https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamaotolaryngology