Are you straining to hear, even when you are right next to your loved ones? Is asking people to repeat themselves making conversation a drag? Tired of feeling increasingly disconnected?

The bottom line is when you can’t hear the full conversation or understand your friends or grandkids or pick up the dialogue in a movie – you’re missing out on life.

Hearing loss can be subtle at first. Perhaps it’s only some voices you can’t quite hear, or it’s only a few lines of a movie that seem to be spoken too softly.

But even small changes in your hearing can affect your brain and your cognitive abilities. In fact, untreated hearing loss has been associated with Alzheimer’s, dementia, depression, and anxiety. Not only does constantly asking people to repeat themselves make you seem older than you are, it affects your mental agility over time.