It's important to take an empowered, proactive approach to health during every stage of you life - let it begin with your hearing health

Effects of HEARING LOSS on a patient's life
 Aging also brings cognitive processing deficits that interfere with communication and can create distractions that lead to memory loss, falls and other accidents. 
Memory and Hearing Loss 

• Adults with hearing loss are more likely to develop problems thinking and remembering than adults with normal hearing. Degraded hearing may force the brain to devote too much of its energy to processing sound. 
• Adults with hearing loss develop a significant impairment in their cognitive abilities. 3.2 years sooner than those with normal hearing. 
• Those with hearing loss experience a 30 to 40 percent greater decline in thinking abilities compared to their counterparts without hearing loss. 

Dementia and hearing loss

• Seniors with hearing loss are significantly more likely to develop dementia over time than those who retain their hearing.
• Adults with mild hearing loss are two times more likely to develop dementia. 
• Adults with moderate hearing loss are three times more likely to develop dementia. 
• Adults with severe hearing loss are five times more likely to develop dementia. 

Falling and Hearing Loss

• People with mild hearing loss (25 decibels) are three times more likely to have a history of falling. Every additional 10 decibels of hearing loss increases the chances of falling 1.4 times the original risk. 

Mental Health and Hearing Loss

• Hearing loss results in social isolation. Adults with untreated hearing loss tend to withdraw from engaging with family and friends. 
• Adults, 50 and older, with untreated hearing loss are more likely to report depression, anxiety, anger, and frustration, emotional instability and paranoia, and are less likely to participate in social activities than those who wear hearing aids. 
• The degree of depression and other emotional or mental health issues also increases with the severity of hearing loss. 

Tinnitus and Hearing Loss

• 90% of people with Tinnitus also have hearing loss. 
• The most common causes of tinnitus are: noise exposure, aging, head injury and medication side effects. Tinnitus affects up to 50 million Americans. 

Income and Hearing Loss

• There is a $14,100 income difference between adults with mild and severe hearing loss. People with untreated hearing loss lose up to $30,000 annually. 
• Hearing aids alleviate the impact of income loss by 90 to 100 percent for those with mild hearing loss and from 65 to 77 percent for those with severe to moderate hearing loss. 
• Adults with hearing loss, who wear hearing aids, have lower unemployment rate than their peers with hearing loss, who do not wear hearing aids. 

-Starkey Publication 2014