That hearing loss can impact your brain has been established in numerous studies. (Just have a look at some of our past blog posts.) Hearing Aids, fortunately, have been shown to be able to help you restore some of that cognitive capacity.

This is not to say that hearing aids are in some manner going to make you more intelligent. But there’s some compelling research that suggests cognitive ability can be increased by using hearing aids lowering your risk for depression, dementia, and anxiety.

You Carry Out a Lot of Hearing With Your Brain

To comprehend the link between cognition and your ears, it’s crucial to recognize that a substantial portion of your hearing actually happens in your brain. That’s where the vibrations of the world are converted into the sounds of your surroundings. The regions of your brain that decipher sound will suddenly have less to do when hearing starts to diminish.

Alterations in your brain (and hearing), along with other considerations (like social alienation), can result in the onset of mental health problems. In individuals with untreated hearing loss, it’s not uncommon to observe an increase in the risks of depression, anxiety, and dementia.

Your effectively “treating” your hearing loss when you’re using hearing aids. That means:

• Because you’ll be able to couple your hearing aids with regular screening and other treatment options, you can help keep your hearing from becoming increasingly worse.
• The parts of your brain responsible for hearing will get a more consistent workout; the more your brain performs work, the healthier your brain will be.
• Social isolation won’t be as likely. You will be more likely to participate with people if you’re able to hear and understand discussions.

Staying Attentive

Hearing aids can prevent depression, anxiety, and dementia because they enhance your brain and your social life.

• Cutting edge technology: Hearing aids have begun incorporating novel technology that is able to alert emergency contacts (or emergency services) when someone using the hearing aids experiences a fall. This can minimize lasting injuries and complications even though it won’t prevent the fall itself.
• Creating greater awareness: Sometimes, because you’re not aware of your surroundings, you could have a fall. Your situational awareness can be severely hindered by hearing issues. Figuring out what direction sound is coming from can be as challenging as hearing sound in general. Without treatment, this can wind up causing injury or a fall.
• Inner ear health: Inner ear damage is not caused by hearing loss alone. However, sometimes hearing loss and inner ear damage have a mutual cause. So treating the one can help you treat the other, and in some instances, a hearing aid is a part of that treatment routine.

Inevitably, when you’re using a hearing aid, you’re more likely to steer clear of a fall in the first place. A hearing aid helps you stay more alert, more aware, and more connected, boosting cognitive abilities and physical health in the process.

Stop Neglecting Your Hearing Aid

We haven’t even mentioned the fact that a hearing aid can also help you hear. So it seems like when you consider all of the positive aspects associated with using hearing aids, it’s a no brainer. (Pretty obvious).

The problem is that many people don’t know they have hearing loss. When your hearing fades away slowly, you might have a hard time recognizing it. That’s why it’s crucial to get your hearing tested regularly. Without hearing aids, loss of hearing can exacerbate a wide variety of other health concerns.

Hearing aids will minimize the likelihood of physical injury while helping to delay dementia and depression. Aside from helping your hearing, hearing aids provide a striking number of benefits.