An investment is defined most often as the allocation of money with the expectation of a positive benefit in the future. However, investments come in many forms. An investment could be putting energy into a relationship, a new hobby, skill or even your health. The beauty about an investment today is that the benefits will be enjoyed in the future.
Investing in your hearing health
Hearing is an important aspect of health not always recognized. While hearing starts in the ears it is easy to ignore it or act like it’s not that bad. However, over time simple misunderstandings due to hearing can add up into serious rifts across your personal and professional relationships. This is because hearing loss is a communication issue and we as humans are social creatures. When our relationships become strained, every other aspect of our health starts to struggle. An investment in your hearing is an investment in your total health.
Treating Your Hearing Loss
Hearing loss is a recognized disability, in part because it is often irreversible. For this reason it is not always recognized by others or taken seriously. Because people you meet daily can’t see that you have hearing loss, communication issues may be attributed to you seeming confused or uninterested in what they are saying. This can cause the people in your life to grow apart from you.
The good news is that while hearing loss is permanent it can be treated effectively with hearing aids. These amazing electronic devices fit discreetly around or in the ear and amplify the sounds around you. However, it takes time to get used to hearing aids. Of those 75 or older who could benefit from hearing aids, only 20 percent have ever tried them. There are many reasons why people avoid using hearing aids but all of them ultimately sabotage quality of life later down the road. Stigmas of old age and attachment to having a disability often keep people from investing in the total potential of their life in the future.
Increased Earning Power
The price tag on the best and most effective hearing aids may feel daunting at first but on further inspection, it is one of the best investments you can make. This is in part due to the impact that untreated hearing loss often has on a person’s success in the workplace. The Better Hearing Institute reports that those with an untreated hearing loss earn on average annually 30,000 dollars less than contemporaries with health hearing. Hearing loss often keeps people from receiving raises and promotions, while a huge portion struggle with far more issues with unemployment than those with normal hearing. The good news is that a 2011 study from the Better Hearing Institute reported that wearing hearing aids can almost completely mitigate the negative effects of hearing loss on work earnings and employment prospects.
Better cognitive health
Your memories of your life are priceless. They are what ground you to the earth and your time here, so it is alarming to learn the effects of hearing loss on cognitive health. Even a slight hearing loss has been found to cause people to score lower on cognitive health tests than their counterparts with normal hearing. This is because hearing loss starts in the ears but ultimately affects the transmission of speech and sound to the brain. Parts of words or sentences are lost to the auditory cortex, causing the brain to work overtime to fill in the blanks. Overtime, as hearing loss becomes severe, the brain can suffer from lack of social stimulation and even atrophy. This is because we often choose to isolate rather than struggle through conversation and this has dangerous impacts for the brain.
A study from Dr. Lin at Johns Hopkins Center for Aging and Health found a direct link between the severity of an individual’s hearing loss and the severity of cognitive decline leading to dementia, in almost 2,000 senior citizens. However, a separate study from the University of Manchester in the UK found that treating hearing loss using hearing aids prevented cognitive decline in patients by 75%.
Improved Quality of Life
This means that investing in hearing aids is not only an investment in your health, but in the very memories of your life. It’s a good idea to test your hearing annually to detect a hearing loss before it can severely impact the quality of life. However, if you already suspect you have a hearing issue, there is no time like today to start the investment in your health by scheduling a hearing test.