Hearing loss can affect more than just your ears — it can also affect your brain, your heart and affect you socially.
When hearing loss is present, the brain works overtime to decode sounds, thus taking away energy from thinking, listening, understanding and memory. The effort of constantly straining to understand stresses the brain.
Studies also show that parts of the brain that handle sound processing can begin to atrophy and shrink faster with hearing loss.
Hearing loss can be one of earliest indicators of heart disease. The inner ear is extremely sensitive to blood flow. If blood flow is inadequate, interrupted or the vessels suffer a trauma, the result can be damage to the inner ear nerves, negatively impacting a person’s ability to hear.
In fact, the nerves in the inner ear are so fragile that researchers believe they may be the first organ affected by cardiovascular disease.
Hearing loss can often also cause social isolation. Having to frequently strain to follow a conversation can lead individuals to slowly give up on going out with friends.
Audiologists recommend getting your hearing checked if you’re over the age of 45 and as soon as you’re diagnosed with high blood pressure. Monitoring of known hearing loss is crucial when memory issues are present.