If you begin talking about dementia at your next family gathering, you will probably put a dark cloud over the entire event.
Dementia isn’t a topic most individuals are actively looking to discuss, mostly because it’s rather scary. A degenerative cognitive disease in which you gradually (or, more frighteningly, quickly) lose your cognitive faculties, dementia causes you to lose touch with reality, go through mood swings, and have memory loss. No one wants to experience that.
So preventing or at least delaying dementia is important for many individuals. It turns out, neglected hearing loss and dementia have several pretty clear connections and correlations.
You might be surprised by that. After all, what does your brain have to do with your ears (a lot, it turns out)? Why are the risks of dementia increased with hearing loss?
When you disregard hearing loss, what are the repercussions?
Perhaps you’ve detected your hearing loss already, but you’re not that worried about it. It’s nothing that cranking up the volume on your tv won’t fix, right? Maybe you’ll just put on the captions when you’re watching your favorite show.
On the other hand, maybe you haven’t noticed your hearing loss yet. Perhaps the signs are still easy to disregard. Cognitive decline and hearing impairment are firmly connected either way. That might have something to do with what happens when you have neglected hearing loss.
- Conversation becomes more difficult to understand. Consequently, you may start to isolate yourself socially. You may become removed from loved ones and friends. You won’t talk with others as often. It’s bad for your brain to separate yourself like this. It’s not good for your social life either. Further, most people who have this sort of isolation won’t even recognize that hearing loss is the cause.
- Your brain will start to work much harder. Your ears will get less audio information when you’re dealing with untreated hearing loss. Because of this, your brain will attempt to fill in the gaps. This will really tire your brain out. Your brain will then have to get extra energy from your memory and thinking centers (at least that’s the current theory). The thinking is that over time this results in dementia (or, at least, helps it along). Mental fatigue and exhaustion, along with other possible symptoms, can be the result of your brain needing to work so hard.
You may have suspected that your hearing loss was more harmless than it actually is.
One of the principal indicators of dementia is hearing loss
Maybe your hearing loss is mild. Whispers may get lost, but you’re able to hear everything else so…no big deal right? Well, turns out you’re still twice as likely to get dementia as somebody who does not have hearing loss.
So one of the initial signs of dementia can be even minor hearing loss.
So… How should we understand this?
We’re looking at risk in this circumstance which is important to note. Hearing loss isn’t an early symptom of dementia and there’s no guarantee it will result in dementia. It does mean that later in life you will have an increased chance of developing cognitive decline. But there might be an upside.
Your risk of dementia is decreased by successfully dealing with your hearing loss. So how do you manage your hearing loss? Here are a few ways:
- Using a hearing aid can help decrease the impact of hearing loss. Now, can hearing aids stop dementia? That isn’t an easy question to answer, but we recognize that brain function can be enhanced by using hearing aids. Here’s the reason why: You’ll be more socially involved and your brain won’t need to work so hard to carry on discussions. Research indicates that managing hearing loss can help reduce your danger of developing dementia when you get older. That’s not the same as stopping dementia, but it’s a good thing nonetheless.
- Set up an appointment with us to identify your present hearing loss.
- You can take a few measures to safeguard your hearing from further harm if you catch your hearing loss soon enough. You could, for instance, wear ear protection if you work in a loud environment and avoid noisy events such as concerts or sporting events.
Other ways to decrease your dementia risk
Of course, there are other things you can do to lower your chance of dementia, too. This could include:
- Make sure you get plenty of sleep each night. Some studies link fewer than four hours of sleep every night to a higher risk of dementia.
- Stop smoking. Seriously. It just makes everything bad, including your risk of developing cognitive decline (this list also includes excessive alcohol use).
- A diet that keeps your blood pressure down and is generally healthy can go a long way. For people who naturally have higher blood pressure, it may be necessary to take medication to lower it.
- Exercise is needed for good general health and that includes hearing health.
The link between lifestyle, hearing loss, and dementia is still being studied by scientists. There are a multitude of causes that make this disease so complex. But the lower your risk, the better.
Being able to hear is its own advantage
So, over time, hearing better will decrease your overall risk of dementia. You’ll be bettering your life now, not just in the future. Imagine, no more missed discussions, no more muffled misunderstandings, no more silent and lonely trips to the grocery store.
It’s no fun missing out on life’s important moments. And taking steps to deal with your hearing loss, maybe by using hearing aids, can be really helpful.
So call us today for an appointment.
References
https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2021/hearing-loss-and-the-dementia-connection