Hearing loss can be much more than inconvenient, especially for a senior citizen. According to the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders you have a one in three chance of diminished hearing if you are between 65 and 74 and nearly a 50 percent chance if you are 75 and older. This post is part of our discussion of hearing loss among the elderly.
Deafness can be bad for your health
Let’s face it: hearing loss stinks, for senior citizens or for anyone else.
It makes the most commonplace things difficult, from talking to loved ones on the phone to buying a loaf of bread at the store. It alienates you from your friends because they have to yell and you have to keep asking them to repeat themselves. It can even suck the joy out of a conversation simply because you can’t hear what’s going on.
On top of that, it can make you sick.
How so? Stress. Hearing loss is usually embarrassing, frustrating, disheartening, exasperating … in a word, stressful. Stress is great if it keeps you from stepping in front of a moving bus; it’s not so great as a regular state of mind.
The Mayo Clinic puts it this way:
The long-term activation of the stress-response system—and the subsequent overexposure to cortisol and other stress hormones—can disrupt almost all your body’s processes. This puts you at increased risk of numerous health problems, including:
- Anxiety
- Depression
- Digestive problems
- Heart disease
- Sleep problems
- Weight gain
- Memory and concentration impairment”
Given how unhappy hearing loss can make you, doesn’t it make sense to get it taken care of? If you’re having a hard time communicating or you have any other reason to think you might have a problem, please go get your hearing tested. If you need a hearing aid, get one and wear it. It’s a lot more fun than being upset all the time.
Information for this post comes from Andy Houck, owner and administrator of Stay at Home of Loudon.