Hearing Aids Can Improve Your Sense of Balance
It comes as no surprise that our ears make it possible to hear, but did you know that they also make it possible to stand upright? We use the sensitive organelles of the inner ear to detect differences in sound, making it possible discern speech, communicate, and listen to music. We also use our ears to detect slight changes in elevation, including tilts of the head and movements of the entire body. This function makes it possible to balance and stand upright. Much like the fluid-filled chamber on a level, the organelles of the inner ear detect changes in fluid pressure and distribution.
With this principle in mind, a recent study considered if hearing aids might make any difference in our sense of balance. Since the fluid of the inner ear is a part of the balancing process, researchers guessed that hearing aids might not make a difference at all. Since hearing aids do not change the fluid distribution of the inner ear, they might not improve balance after all. The results demonstrated the contrary! Hearing aids have been shown to improve our sense of balance, indeed. Let’s take a look at the study, what it tells us about maintaining balance, and some theories about the relationship between balance and hearing aids.
The Study
This recent study published in The Laryngoscope research journal reported on a study conducted by scholars at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, MO. These scholars recruited 14 participants between the age of 65 and 91 and gave them a standard series of balance tests. The performed these tests both with hearing aids turned on and with hearing aids turned off. Although the testing sample was not a probabilistic random sample, they were able to control for many factors through this comparative design. The group was quite small, making these results an exploratory study for future research, rather than a statistically causal finding.
The Interpretation
Why might those participants fare better on balance tests when they turned on their hearing aids? One theory was that they were simply more alert when they turned on their hearing aids, giving them better attention to the factors that might make them lose balance. The senior author of the study, professor of otolaryngology Timothy E. Hullar, thinks that another factor is at play. We use sound as a reference point to estimate distances of landmarks and to maintain balance. Although we don’t consciously think about the relative volumes of sounds as a way to balance and orient our bodies, those sounds do make a difference in our ability to maintain equilibrium in space. Particularly when our brains compare the volumes sensed in the two ears, we are able to estimate the placement of landmarks. The brain may even be able to detect subtle reflection or reverberation sounds that bounce off objects, letting us know how far they are likely to be from the body.
The Implications
What can be gained from this study and the researchers’ interpretations? Balance issues are increasingly common among seniors as they get older, and the effects of a fall can be more catastrophic, as well. The bones and joints of the body are more difficult to heal as we get older, making a fall a potentially serious issue whereas it used to be an inconvenience in our younger years. Wearing hearing aids can improve balance, thereby making a serious fall less likely. With this potential benefit of hearing aids, we can see even more reason to get treatment for hearing loss and to put it into action.
Hearing aids have been shown to bring benefits to communication, indeed, but those benefits are not alone. Physical and mental health can improve with the use of hearing aids for those who need them, and this research provides yet another example of the benefit of these devices for physical health. If you are concerned about a friend, family member, or loved one in your life who may have untreated hearing loss, this study is yet another piece of encouragement for that person to get a hearing test. Once we have a thorough diagnosis of hearing ability, we can recommend the right hearing aids if they are necessary.