Susan began her full time career with Welsch Hearing Aid Company in December, 1984 as the Office Manager. On March 5, 1985, she became a State Licensed Hearing Instrument Specialist. In 1994, she passed her National Board for Certification Examination.
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Because so much of our health is connected, it would be naive to think that hearing loss just affected the way we hear. For the more than 30 million Americans living with the chronic condition, it can severely disrupt relationships because our ability to connect is fundamentally changed. For this reason, we often see depression and a sense of isolation emerge in people with untreated hearing loss.
But the impact of untreated hearing loss extends even beyond mental and emotional health, as physical well being is tied together with our sense of hearing. In fact, treating hearing loss now is one way to invest in a more vibrant and physically independent future.
How hearing loss works
Most cases of hearing loss in the United States occur because of the normal aging process. Over time, the slight structures of our inner ear cells break down. We lose our access to the full spectrum of sound in the world because their job is to receive the noise, turn it into sound information and send that information to the brain for processing.
They are non-regenerative cells, which means they don’t repair themselves or reproduce when time or exposure to excessive noise causes their number to decline. Instead, we are able to collect less sound information to send to the brain’s processing centers.
Symptoms of hearing loss
Because we lose access to sound frequencies, particularly high frequency sounds at first, hearing loss is difficult to self-diagnose. It isn’t the overall lowering of volume that you might expect and instead, early signs usually deal with difficulty in understanding speech.
Hearing what people are saying, or even understanding the dialogue in movies, tv shows and podcasts are all signs of undiagnosed hearing loss.
We are adaptable creatures and we can use tools and strategies to make up for this initial hearing loss, sometimes without realizing what we are accommodating. Pretending to hear what people are saying (even if you missed many words), avoiding conversations and using the closed captioning function on our home televisions are all ways to avoid confronting hearing loss.
Hearing loss and fall risks
But leaving hearing loss untreated can do more than interrupt our ability to communicate and connect with others. It also leaves our physical bodies more vulnerable. Balance is an ability that can degrade quickly due to hearing loss. Balance and hearing share a common nerve pathway to the brain and we actually use hearing to assist us in orienting ourselves in space through a largely unconscious process.
Our brain uses the difference in volume from one ear to the other in order to locate sounds or to determine where we are in relation to sounds. When healthy hearing falters, we are unable to make these observations reliably.
People with untreated hearing loss are at a greater risk of accidental falls because their balance is less steady, they are more susceptible to being surprised by another factor (such as a dog or child running up behind them) or because their brain is overtired as a result of working extra hard due to hearing loss.
Increasing independence with hearing aids
The effects of decreased confidence in performing daily activities due to hearing loss means that people with untreated hearing loss pay a steep price when it comes to their mobility and independence. A Finnish study has been observing people with hearing loss over a period of many years and thus far has found that hearing loss severely restricts the likelihood that one will travel much outside of their home areas.
Instead of participating in activities that actually preserve balance, like yoga, tai chi or other forms of exercise, people with hearing loss may be more prone to self-isolate which can exacerbate a sedentary lifestyle.
Investing in hearing aids or other hearing loss solutions is one way to continue to participate in life in a way that prevents a loss of physical confidence and mobility. By making conversation and connection easier, people with hearing loss can join in group or individual instruction without previous feelings of frustration. Restoring hearing can also have a positive effect on one’s sense of balance, improving the ability to feel and sense where we are in space.