Many Americans live with hearing loss day in and day out. If you’re part of the population that maintains hearing health as a priority and have had a recent hearing exam, good for you! Unfortunately, it’s only a small percentage of the population. Most people live with the frustrating aspects of hearing loss for years — or even decades  — before they choose to intervene. 

As we transition at New Year’s to a fresh, blank page, you can craft a new story in relation to your hearing. Resolve to start your New Year with better hearing today.

Scheduling a hearing consultation is a great resolution

The best New Year’s Resolutions begin with an attainable goal. Too often, we reach for goals that are far beyond our current capacity and don’t make allowances for waning motivation as the year marches on. Two factors that contribute to resolution failure are unclear action steps and lack of progress. 

To start your year off with better hearing, the action step is both easy and attainable. Simply schedule a hearing consultation today. Once you’ve made the appointment, celebrate your success by treating yourself to an activity or thing that you love. 

From there, all you have to do is show up to your appointment and let yourself be guided through a simple hearing exam. Then, check that box off your list. Celebrate with another treat for yourself.

After your hearing exam, the next steps to better hearing will become clear to you and you just have to continue on the healthier hearing path, one foot in front of the other.

How hearing loss works

There are a few reasons many people wait too long before confronting hearing loss. To start, there remain some old and outdated stigmas about hearing loss. The truth is that one in three people over the age of 65 will deal with hearing loss, so the odds that it is happening to you or to someone you love climbs with each year that passes. Treating hearing loss with a proven, effective solution like hearing aids can help to enhance the vibrancy of your life.

Hearing loss also begins in very subtle ways. Both age and exposure to excessive noise harm the sensitive inner ear cells that receive noise and turn it into sound information to be sent to the brain. In our brain’s processing centers, this sound information is turned into meaning. When the inner ear cells are harmed, their numbers decline. We are able to collect less sound from the world and the spectrum of what we hear narrows. Our brain receives less information and we hear less. 

Of course, this happens slowly and over time. At first, you might have trouble understanding what people are saying in noisy environments. Then, speech clarity becomes a more frequent and frustrating issue. But as hearing falters, we tend to adapt. We use tricks (like pretending to hear) or simply withdraw from social interactions, sometimes to the point where we feel isolated and depressed. 

Why hearing loss impacts many facets of health

Hearing loss impacts many other aspects of wellness. It puts pressure on our mental and emotional health, as it harms our close relationships. We are wired for connection and even casual interactions with strangers help fuel our sense of belonging. 

Our physical health is impacted by hearing loss, too. Left untreated, hearing loss can make us more likely to suffer from an accidental fall. People with hearing loss are less active than those without, resulting in weakness and poor physical health. And, people with even moderate hearing loss double their risk of a future dementia diagnosis.

How treating hearing loss helps

Investing in a hearing loss solution like hearing aids or a cochlear implant can ease the burden of listening and close the gaps in our relationships with loved ones. It helps people stay engaged with life and remain autonomous and independent. 

Wearing hearing aids reduces your risk of dementia and can help you remain in better physical health by reducing risk of falls and making activity more accessible.

Schedule a hearing consultation today

So to come out triumphant in your New Year’s Resolutions, add the important goal of better hearing in the New Year. All that is required of you is a simple hearing consultation. From there, we’ll work together to get you to your healthiest hearing possible.