Want to suck all the joy out of your next family get-together? Start talking about dementia.
Dementia is not a subject most individuals are actively looking to talk about, mainly because it’s rather frightening. A degenerative cognitive disease in which you gradually (or, more frighteningly, quickly) lose your mental faculties, dementia forces you to lose touch with reality, experience mood swings, and have memory issues. It’s not something anyone looks forward to.
So stopping or at least slowing dementia is important for many individuals. It turns out, neglected hearing loss and dementia have several pretty clear connections and correlations.
That may seem a bit… surprising to you. After all, what does your brain have to do with your ears (a lot, it turns out)? Why are the risks of dementia multiplied with hearing loss?
When you disregard hearing loss, what are the repercussions?
You recognize that you’re beginning to lose your hearing, but it isn’t at the top of your list of concerns. It’s nothing that cranking up the volume on your television won’t solve, right? Maybe, when you watch your favorite program, you’ll just put on the captions.
On the other hand, perhaps you haven’t noticed your hearing loss yet. Perhaps the signs are still subtle. In either case, hearing loss and cognitive decline have a powerful correlation. That’s because of the effects of neglected hearing loss.
- It becomes more difficult to understand conversations. You could start to keep yourself isolated from others as a result of this. You might become distant from loved ones and friends. You’ll talk to others less. This type of social separation is, well, not good for your brain. It’s not good for your social life either. Further, most individuals who have this kind of isolation won’t even realize that hearing loss is the cause.
- Your brain will be working harder. Your ears will get less audio information when you have untreated hearing loss. As a result, your brain tries to fill in the gaps. This will really exhaust your brain. Your brain will then have to get extra energy from your memory and thought centers (at least that’s the current concept). The idea is that over time this leads to dementia (or, at least, helps it progress). Mental fatigue and exhaustion, along with other possible symptoms, can be the result of your brain having to work so hard.
You may have thought that your hearing loss was more innocuous than it actually is.
Hearing loss is one of the primary indicators of dementia
Let’s say you just have mild hearing loss. Whispers may get lost, but you can hear everything else so…no problem right? Well, turns out you’re still two times as likely to develop dementia as someone who doesn’t have hearing loss.
So one of the initial indications of dementia can be even mild hearing loss.
Now… What does that suggest?
We’re looking at risk in this circumstance which is relevant to note. Hearing loss isn’t a guarantee of dementia or even an early symptom of dementia. It does mean that later in life you will have a greater risk of developing cognitive decline. But that could actually be good news.
Because it means that successfully managing your hearing loss can help you reduce your risk of dementia. So how do you deal with your hearing loss? There are numerous ways:
- The affect of hearing loss can be reduced by wearing hearing aids. Now, can hearing aids stop cognitive decline? That isn’t an easy question to answer, but we know that brain function can be improved by using hearing aids. This is why: You’ll be more socially involved and your brain won’t have to work so hard to have conversations. Your risk of developing dementia later in life is decreased by managing hearing loss, research suggests. It won’t stop dementia but we can still call it a win.
- Make an appointment with us to identify your current hearing loss.
- You can take some steps to safeguard your hearing from further damage if you detect your hearing loss early enough. As an example, you could avoid noisy events (like concerts or sports games) or use hearing protection when you’re around anything noisy (for example, if you work with heavy machinery).
Other ways to reduce your dementia risk
You can minimize your chance of cognitive decline by doing some other things as well, of course. This could include:
- A diet that helps you maintain a healthy blood pressure and is good for your overall well being can go a long way. For individuals who naturally have higher blood pressure, it may be necessary to take medication to bring it down.
- Don’t smoke. Seriously. It just makes everything bad, including your risk of developing dementia (excess alcohol use can also go on this list).
- Make sure you get enough sleep every night. Some studies link less than four hours of sleep each night to an increase in the risk of dementia.
- Exercise is needed for good general health and that includes hearing health.
Of course, scientists are still studying the connection between dementia, hearing impairment, lifestyle, and more. There are so many causes that make this disease so complicated. But the lower your risk, the better.
Hearing is its own benefit
So, over time, hearing better will reduce your overall risk of dementia. You’ll be improving your life now, not just in the future. Imagine, no more missed conversations, no more muffled misunderstandings, no more silent and lonely trips to the grocery store.
Losing out on the important things in life stinks. And taking steps to deal with your hearing loss, maybe by using hearing aids, can be really helpful.
So make sure to schedule an appointment with us right away!
References
https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2021/hearing-loss-and-the-dementia-connection
