48 million people have a degree of hearing loss, and the majority of those individuals choose to ignore it. Hearing impairment can dramatically affect your life in many ways you may be overlooking. So if you are among the many who experience a loss of hearing, please consider the consequences if you choose to do nothing about it.
Losing Your Grip
Decreased alertness, a product of hearing loss can be a severe risk to your safety. Whether it be while driving a car, working at a job, or even relaxing at home, untreated hearing loss poses a threat. Did you know that people with a hearing loss have a significant risk of falling which often involves serious injury? A hearing impairment places a cognitive load upon an individual. Because of this, fewer cognitive resources are available to maintain balance and gait which can lead to falling.
A Pay Cut
A hearing loss can affect a great many things in your life. Believe it or not, it can also affect your wallet. Studies of workplace compensation have discovered the following:
- As the level of hearing loss increases so does the level of income disparity.
- Individuals who do not wear their hearing aids earn up to $31,000 less than their peers who have a similar degree of loss but wear their hearing aids.
- People with untreated hearing loss have a higher rate of unemployment than their peers.
- Workers with hearing loss often report feeling that their compensation is different from co-workers with normal hearing.
Brain Power
Aging causes changes which include a loss of cognitive ability. If you have an untreated hearing loss, you may be losing cognitive ability rapidly. According to a study, people with untreated hearing loss experience a faster decline in cognitive ability than those with normal hearing. There is some good news. Hearing aids can reduce this risk so use them if you need them!
Exhaustion
An untreated hearing loss can wear you out. Think about being in a crowded room with multiple conversations and excessive background noise. A person with a hearing impairment understands all too well what a scary and challenging situation this scenario creates. The struggle to focus on a specific conversation and filter out background noise is exhausting causing people to give up. Sadly, the solution is often total withdrawal from social gatherings.
Riding Along in Your Automobile
Mix hearing loss and driving a vehicle and you have a precarious situation. Increasingly complex functions that are now standard in today’s cars add to the lengthy list of distractions already present for a hearing impaired driver. Vigilance on the part of a hearing impaired driver may be the only barrier to disaster.
If you have a hearing loss, you are not alone, and you are taking significant risks every day. Get your hearing tested and be fitted for hearing aids by a qualified hearing healthcare professional and wear the hearing aids. There are numerous risks associated with hearing loss so please don’t take your chances!
