When you’re a youngster, falling is simply a part of life. Taking a tumble on your bicycle? That’s normal. Getting tripped up while running across the yard. Happens all of the time. Kids are very limber so, no big deal. They rebound very easily.
As you grow older though, that becomes less and less true. The older you get, the more worrisome a fall can be. One reason for this is that bones are more brittle and heal slower when you’re older. Older individuals tend to spend more time lying on the floor in pain because they have a harder time getting back up. As a result, falls are the number one injury-connected cause of death in people over 65.
It’s not surprising, then, that healthcare professionals are always on the hunt for tools and devices that can reduce falls. Hearing aids could be just such a device according to research.
Can hearing loss cause falls?
In order to understand why hearing aids can help avert falls, it helps to ask a relevant question: does hearing loss make you more likely to fall to begin with? It seems as if the answer may be, yes.
So you have to ask yourself, why would the risk of falling be increased by hearing loss?
That link isn’t really that intuitive. Hearing loss doesn’t really, after all, affect your ability to move or see. But this sort of direct impact on your mobility, and an increased danger of falling, can be a result of some hearing loss symptoms. Here are a few of those symptoms:
- High-pitched sounds get lost: You know how when you walk into a concert hall, you instantly know that you’re in a spacious venue, even if you close your eyes? Or how you can instantly tell that you’re in a small space when you get into a vehicle. Your ears are actually using something similar to “echolocation” and high-frequency sound to assist your spatial awareness. You will lose the ability to quickly make those assessments when hearing loss causes you to lose those high-frequency tones. This can result in disorientation and loss of situational awareness.
- Loss of balance: How does hearing loss impact your balance? Well, your inner ear is extremely important to your total equilibrium. So you may find yourself dizzy, experience vertigo, and lose your balance when hearing loss impacts your inner ear. Essentially, you have a tendency to fall more often.
- Exhaustion: Your brain is working overtime and you’re always straining when you have untreated hearing loss. This means your brain is tired more often than not. An alert brain will notice and steer clear of obstacles, which will decrease the likelihood of falling.
- Depression: Social isolation and possibly even cognitive decline can be the outcome of untreated hearing loss. You are likely to stay home a lot more when you’re socially separated, and tripping dangers will be all around without anyone to help you.
- You have less situational awareness: When you have neglected hearing loss, you may not be as able to hear that oncoming vehicle, or the dog barking next to you, or the sound of your neighbor’s footsteps. In other words, your situational awareness might be significantly affected. Can you become clumsy in this way as a result of hearing loss? Well, in a way yes, everyday tasks can become more hazardous if your situational awareness is compromised. And your chance of bumping into something and having a fall will be slightly higher.
Age is also a factor with regard to hearing loss-induced falls. You’re more likely to develop progressing and permanent hearing loss. At the same time, you’re more likely to have a fall. As a result, when you get older, falls are more likely to have serious repercussions.
How can the risk of falling be lowered by wearing hearing aids?
If hearing loss is part of the problem, it makes sense that hearing aids should be part of the remedy. And this is being validated by new research. Your risk of falling could be decreased by as much as 50% according to one study.
The link between staying on your feet and hearing loss wasn’t always this evident. That’s to some extent because people frequently fail to wear their hearing aids. As a result, falls among “hearing aid users” were often inconclusive. This wasn’t because the hearing aids were malfunctioning, it was because people weren’t wearing them.
But this new research took a different (and maybe more accurate) strategy. Individuals who used their hearing aids often were classified into a different group than those who wore them occasionally.
So how can you avoid falls by wearing hearing aids? In general, they keep you more alert, more concentrated, and less tired. It also helps that you have added spatial awareness. Many hearing aids also come with a feature that can notify the authorities and family members in case of a fall. Help will come quicker this way.
Regularly using your hearing aids is the key here.
Prevent falls with new hearing aids
Hearing aids can help you catch up with your friends, enjoy quality moments with your family members, and stay connected to everybody who’s significant in your life.
They can also help prevent a fall!
If you want to find out more about how hearing aids could help you, schedule an appointment with us right away.
