Truth: Hearing health is overall health.

Hearing occurs in the brain. The pathway to signal transmission and comprehension is quite complex. Hearing loss due to injury, illness, excessive sound, and aging affects our brain health and puts us at increased risk of cognitive decline. It also affects our physical health with an increased  risk of falls and our mental health with an increased risk of depression and social isolation.  Hearing loss is connected to diabetes and heart disease.

Myth: Hearing loss is only in my ears.

Untreated hearing loss increases risk of cognitive decline, dementia, falls, social isolation, and depression. It’s theorized that the “cognitive load” on the brain may take away resources the brain uses for other functions, such as short-term memory, and affects our ability of spatial awareness. Researchers cite treating hearing loss with hearing aids can alleviate symptoms of these conditions.²

Myth: I don’t need hearing aids. My hearing is mostly fine.

When you have a hearing loss in some frequencies and not others, it is easier to dismiss it as unimportant. However, even a mild hearing loss can adversely affect your cognitive capabilities, work, home, and social life. Fortunately, the brain’s neuroplasticity means that treating hearing loss allows the brain to relearn how to hear. Proper hearing aid use correlates with improved outlook, mood, mobility, independence, communication, and social interaction.

Myth: I don’t need hearing aids. My hearing is mostly fine.

Healthy hearing results in positive health outcomes, increases social engagement, improves communication, and lowers the risk of depression.

It is apparent that quality of life can decrease when the sense of hearing is impaired (see consequences of hearing loss). However, it is also important to understand how much can be gained when healthy hearing is present.

1. It is said that communication is the foundation of relationships. Good hearing health eliminates the frustration of missing out on conversations and being isolated from social situations.
2. Healthy hearing is also thought to have positive benefits on brain functioning, such as memory and other physical health benefits.
3. Good hearing creates independence and security. When you’re able to hear your phone ring, a fire alarm, a doorbell ring, or an emergency vehicle on the road behind you, you are able to be aware of your surroundings and stay safer when alone.

Click the link below to read the article: https://betterhearing.org/your-hearing-health/the-benefits-of-healthy-hearing/

When to worry about sudden hearing loss and what to do about it.

Nine years ago, Richard Einhorn woke up in a hotel room at 5 a.m., “my head buzzing with a strange loud noise,” the 67-year-old New York City music composer recalled.

Startled, he jumped out of bed, and promptly fell over. “I couldn’t stand up, I was so dizzy,” he says.

He then realized that he had lost all hearing on his right side.

Einhorn took a taxi to the nearest emergency room, where he was told that his symptoms pointed to a condition called sudden sensorineural hearing loss, or SSNHL.

This condition, sometimes also called sudden deafness, is an unexplained or rapid loss of hearing — one that is not caused by a “noise trauma,” such as an exploding firecracker right next to the ear.

Marked by inflammation of the inner ear, SSNHL usually affects only one ear. As it was in Einhorn’s experience, SSNHL may be accompanied by tinnitus (ringing of the ears) and vertigo.

SSNHL strikes about 66,000 people in the United States every year, according to an American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery (AAO-HNS) clinical practice guideline published in August.

Although it can develop at any age, SSNHL is most often seen in adults in their late 40s or early 50s.

“It can be very scary for patients — it’s not only disorienting to not be able to hear, but with these symptoms, people worry they’re experiencing a life-threatening emergency such as a stroke,” explains Seth Schwartz, an otolaryngologist at the Virginia Mason Medical Center in Seattle and a co-author of the guideline.

Here’s what you need to know — and do — if you experience sudden hearing loss.

Click the link to read the entire article: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/when-to-worry-about-sudden-hearing-loss-and-what-to-do-about-it/2020/01/17/92f24e44-3242-11ea-91fd-82d4e04a3fac_story.html?fbclid=IwAR1Ziq4bX56TBl7W-eenihUr7MKR_zAOgjGrFoSre3hyZExdemPUgikdxPk

Copyright 2020, Consumer Reports Inc.
Jan. 20, 2020 at 1:00 p.m. CST