How Hearing Better Helps You Live Longer

If there is one thing that we all want in life, it’s to be able to live long enough to enjoy retirement. A big part of being able to live that long is in looking after ourselves and ensuring that everything we do is geared towards ensuring that our health is taken care of properly. For most of us, that means leading a life packed with good food, great exercise and enough sleep to be able to function properly. It also means taking care of our stress levels, blood pressure, eyesight and our hearing. 

Hearing loss affects many people through life but it’s especially prevalent in seniors and those who are hitting retirement age. Healthy hearing levels go hand in hand with being able to be at your best and that includes during your retirement age. Throughout your working life, you might meet with several audiologists only to find out that your hearing is declining and the earlier you discover this fact, the better off you will be. You need to be able to protect your hearing as much as possible, and whether you do that with noise-cancelling earphones or you are prescribed hearing aids for hearing loss, protection equals prevention.

The Risks of Hearing Impairment

Throughout your working life, you are likely to come across many different issues that can affect your hearing health. Adults are likely to live longer when they hear better, as a decline in hearing can prevent us from hearing the dangers of the world around us.

Some of the ways that hearing loss can shorten your lifespan include:

• Falls: Even people with mild hearing loss are three times more likely to have a reported fall in their working lives. The effects of hearing loss also impact your shared attention and your cognitive load, which means that your spatial awareness is going to be affected. The mental capacity you need to have to maintain your posture and control where your body is affected by hearing loss if your hearing is impaired and this can throw you off in everyday situations.
• Injuries: If you can’t hear someone else cry out for help, fire alarms, traffic, warning sirens and more because of your hearing, you’re going to find that hearing loss increases your risk of injuries.
• Hospitalization: No one likes to spend time in hospital but there have been studies to show an independent association between hearing loss and the rate of those hospitalized. It makes sense, given that you can be at risk of an accident if you can’t hear an alarm at work and you have an injury as a result. 

Working on Hearing Health

As much as possible, you want to work on your hearing health and prevent hearing loss. It’s the brain and not the ears that determines your level of hearing loss, and this is evident in how hearing loss leads to things like depression and dementia. People who are dealing with hearing loss develop dementia at a higher rate than those who have normal hearing levels. It’s also true that people with hearing loss can experience cognitive decline at a much greater severity. It’s used as a marker for those with cognitive decline over the age of 65, too.

Isolation, Depression and Hearing Loss

When your hearing is compromised, you are more likely to deal with isolation, depression and other mental health issues that can shorten your life. When you avoid social outings with friends and become more isolated, your hearing declines further and you sink into a depression. This can lead to further complications because of hearing loss.

Hearing aids are often recommended by audiologists to help others to adapt to noisier environments, enabling those with hearing loss to get out into the world and feel less alone. Choosing to be proactive in your quest for better hearing will allow you to have a better time and you can ensure that your hearing health is boosted.

Taking the time to ensure that you are living in a way that enhances your hearing health is important, as this can have a knock-on effect in your later years. Looking after your hearing should be your number one priority if you want to live a healthier life for longer. Speak to the experts today at The Hearing Clinic at Woodlake. Call us today at (612) 246-4868 to learn more about how you can do better for your health.