Improve your physical safety with hearing aids

You may live in a nice neighborhood, drive a bigger car, and avoid certain areas at night, but you might not be doing everything you can to protect your physical safety.

Did you know that more than one out of every four older adults fall every year? What's more, one in every five falls results in a severe injury, such as fractured bones or a concussion (CDC).

When it comes to accidental falls, people often turn their blame on a loose floorboard or unseen obstacle, but the real determining factor may be invisible. As we age, our sense of balance often weakens. That makes us more prone to tipping over in everyday situations.

Untreated hearing loss makes a person almost twice as vulnerable to accidental falling. Although unseen, hearing loss significantly impacts cognitive tasks like balance and coordination. Additionally, research has found that more severe levels of hearing loss increase a person's risk of falling even more.

The link between hearing and falls

At first glance, hearing and falling are pretty disconnected, so what makes one impact the other? The answer lies in the extra effort the brain has to dedicate to understanding sound when hearing loss is present. When we don't have a full range of hearing, sound is sent to our auditory cortex with missing pieces, and it becomes more challenging for the brain to decipher the meaning and source of noises.

Picture your hearing like a jigsaw puzzle. A few pieces of the assembled puzzle are missing with mild hearing loss. It may still be relatively easy to determine the image of the puzzle, but it is harder to see than if all the pieces were present.

Now, suppose half the pieces to the puzzle were missing. Vast chunks of information would be unavailable to you, and it would be much harder to fill in the gaps to see the whole picture. Dealing with untreated hearing loss is like an incomplete puzzle – more reasoning and guesswork are required to fill in the blanks.

When our hearing is impaired, it strains our entire brain, and we have a weakened ability to navigate obstacles and react quickly. The extra time and effort it takes to fill in those gaps take brainpower away from other functions. It reorganizes cognitive activity, prioritizing hearing over other functions. This often shortchanges balance and coordination, making our bodily movements less organized and aware. This leads to an increased incidence of falling for people with untreated hearing issues.

Study finds a link between hearing loss and falls.

In 2015 crucial research was released from the National Health Interview Survey. The Survey covered over 232 million people over eight years, from 2007-to 2015. Of those surveyed, 6.6 million people reported having an accidental injury in the past three months.

While the likelihood of having an accident was 2.8% in the general population, people who reported hearing problems were far more likely to have an accidental injury. For those who stated they had a little trouble hearing, accidents jumped to 4.1%, and those who reported moderate hearing trouble had 4.2%.

As the level of hearing loss increased, so did the incidence of injury. Subjects who reported severe hearing loss or greater had a 4.8% rate of accidents, almost double the population average.

These statistics confront the risk untreated hearing loss can pose to a person's overall health. Accidental falls and injuries are a leading cause of death in the U.S. and can instigate lasting health problems, especially for aging adults.

Could hearing aids help you stay sure-footed?

While most hearing loss is permanent and irreversible, effective treatment does exist. Using hearing aids and other assistive technology helps ease hearing loss's impact on life and health. Modern hearing aids use cutting-edge digital technology and customized programming to help restore a full spectrum of sound to your hearing and ease hearing loss's burden on your brain.

Hearing aids also act to help prevent worsening hearing. The longer hearing loss goes untreated, the more the brain's cognitive functioning has to reorganize itself. By restoring balance to your cognitive functions, hearing aids give your auditory system and entire brain- the assistance it needs to preserve the cognitive patterns of healthy hearing.

Next steps

If you are affected by hearing loss, it's time to take charge of your hearing health. Although most hearing loss is permanent, effective treatment is possible and can help reduce susceptibility to other serious health issues such as accidental injuries and falls.

When it's time to get help for your hearing loss, turn to Greentree Hearing & Audiology. Our years of expertise in the field and complete selection of the best hearing aids and assistive devices will help set your health and hearing back on track. Contact us today for a consultation.