Prioritize Better Hearing in the New Year!
This is a great time to reflect on new intentions you want to carry throughout the New Year. Setting health-centered goals is a common way we enter the new year. Incorporating hearing health in your resolutions is key to overall wellness and quality of life. Prioritizing hearing health is as simple as scheduling an appointment for a hearing test. Begin your fresh start by calling us to learn more!
Understanding Hearing Loss
Hearing loss affects 48 million people in the U.S. Nearly 1 in 6 people live with some degree of impaired hearing, making hearing loss the third most common chronic medical condition today. Hearing loss can be caused by a range of factors including environmental exposure to loud noise, existing medical conditions, aging, head injuries, chronic ear infections, autoimmune issues, and inner ear disorders. Though hearing loss is a public health epidemic, it tends to be underdiagnosed. People wait for an average of 7 years from the onset of symptoms before seeking treatment for hearing loss. Delaying treatment can worsen impairment as well as the significant toll it can have on daily life.
Being able to recognize the signs of hearing loss is an important way to identify what you could be experiencing. Detecting and addressing hearing loss early can drastically help support your hearing health. Common hearing loss symptoms include:
- Tinnitus: a buzzing, ringing, whistling as noise heard in one or both ears when no external sound is present in the environment.
- Sounds are distorted, making it difficult to identify individual words.
- Needing to turn up the volume on electronic devices.
- Frequently asking others to speak louder, slower, or repeat something they’ve said.
- Difficulty hearing in environments with background noise or during conversations with multiple people.
- Often missing words or parts of a conversation, pretending to hear, or lip reading to distinguish words.
These symptoms can be mild to severe depending on the degree of hearing loss present. This makes effective communication challenging and conversations difficult to navigate. If any of these symptoms seem familiar, it is especially important to have your hearing checked as soon as possible.
Benefits of Hearing Aids
Treating hearing loss can drastically improve the quality of your daily life. Hearing aids are commonly used to treat varying degrees of impaired hearing. These electronic devices detect and process sound, providing the auditory system with incredible hearing support. Extensive research has been done to understand the multifaceted effects and benefits of hearing aids. Studies show that major benefits of hearing aids include the following:
- Health Benefits: hearing aids improve physical and mental health in a variety of important ways. Untreated hearing loss increases the risk of developing correlated health conditions. This includes cognitive decline, depression, and accidental injuries. Hearing aids lower this risk and strengthen overall health by supporting and increasing hearing capacity as well as communication. Hearing aids strengthen cognitive capacities and neural networks which enhance brain health. It also alleviates depressive symptoms by improving relationships, social life, and wellbeing. Additionally, hearing aids increase spatial awareness which promotes safety, reducing the risk of accidental injuries.
- Social Benefits: Treating hearing loss significantly improves relationships and social connections. Social withdrawal is a common effect of unrated hearing loss. Strained hearing makes conversations hard to navigate which often leads to people avoiding social interaction and spending time with others. Hearing aids alleviate these symptoms and support hearing in all types of environments. People have a greater capacity to hear, respond, and fully engage in conversations. This allows people to spend quality time with others, participate in social activities, and be fully present while doing so.
- Work Benefits: Untreated hearing loss also increases the risk of lower earning potential. Studies have shown that people with untreated hearing loss are more likely to earn less than people without the condition. Treatment helps close this gap by transforming hearing and making effective communication more possible. This is critical in the workplace as it helps people manage work responsibilities more effectively. The treatment enhances productivity and work relationships.
These benefits are among many which profoundly improve the quality of life. Treatment helps people reconnect to what they love which is important to a vibrant and dynamic experience.
Prioritize Hearing Health in 2022 With FitHearing Audiology Network!
You can commit to prioritizing your hearing health by taking one simple step: scheduling an appointment for a hearing test. At FitHearing Audiology Network we are invested in providing patient-centered care and comprehensive services that promote optimal hearing health. Contact us today to learn more!
From all of us at FitHearing Audiology Network, we wish you a wonderful new year!
