Investing in Your Health: Treating Hearing Loss
When health problems come along, our entire lives can be affected. Not only is our physical well being under the weather, but we can experience a ripple effect into many other domains of life. Poor physical health can lead to a bad mood, which can have a strong effect on our interpersonal and family relationships. The mental toll can extend far beyond mood, as well, and those who have poor physical health have higher rates of depression and anxiety.
Beyond this nexus of physical, social, emotional, and mental health, our financial wellbeing can be compromised by poor health, as well. Not only do health care bills crop up, but lost wages can compound these costs in some cases. With such an interconnected web of wellbeing, it is essential to do what we can to promote good health.
Did you know that one factor has a strong relationship with all of these dimensions of life? Hearing loss has relationships with these many parts of life, and the domino rally of effects means that an investment in hearing health is a sound investment.
Physical Health
Hearing loss has a strong relationship with many physical health problems. Ranging from the life-threatening, such as cardiovascular disease and heart attacks, to quality of life, such as mobility and risk of injury, untreated hearing loss has a powerful relationship with these associated health problems. In some cases, hearing loss can function as a warning sign for these other health concerns, tipping off doctors and patients to potential risks in other parts of the body. Investing in diagnostic tests for hearing loss can actually prevent more serious problems down the line.
Mental and Social Health
Hearing loss has a high relationship with rates of depression, anxiety, and other mental health conditions. Those who struggle to hear without assistance can be faced with their own limitations in ways that bring feelings of frustration, doubt, and worry. In addition to this direct effect, the associated physical health concerns can have an indirect relationship with mental health, as well. Underlying these associations is the possibility that hearing loss might lead to social isolation.
Those who have trouble hearing can find it difficult to engage socially, and that reticence to participate in conversation can result in a general tendency toward isolation. When a person is isolated from loved ones and the broader community, a spiral of effects can occur, including lower levels of activity and fear of future engagement. Beyond mental health, cognitive decline has been associated with untreated hearing loss, as well. One theory about the connection suggests that those who struggle to engage in conversation can experience general confusion in other domains of thought. When these puzzling conversations occur day after day, it seems like a higher likelihood of dementia can occur. Getting treatment for hearing loss is one way to invest in your mental and cognitive health, making it possible to rejoin the social world with confidence.
Financial Wellbeing
Each of these physical, mental, and cognitive health problems comes at a very real cost. Health care in the United States is not free, and we only have to look at these higher medical costs to understand how untreated hearing loss can have an effect on the pocketbook.
Another way to consider that loss of finances is in terms of lost wages when physical, mental, and cognitive health get in the way of the ability to work. Those who have untreated hearing loss even tend to have lower wages on average, suggesting that some employers are failing to accommodate the communication needs of their hearing-impaired employees.
When you combine these financial effects, the value of getting treatment for hearing loss has never been greater. You might not only be preventing serious physical, mental, and cognitive health problems when you get treatment for hearing loss, but you also might be saving money in terms of health-associated costs, lost wages, and, in the worst cases, keeping your job.
Why not take the opportunity to schedule a hearing test today? Contact us today for a consultation!