Want to suck all the joy out of your next family get-together? Start talking about dementia.

The subject of dementia can be really scary and most individuals aren’t going to go out of their way to discuss it. A degenerative mental disease in which you gradually (or, more frighteningly, quickly) lose your mental faculties, dementia causes you to lose touch with reality, go through mood swings, and have memory issues. Nobody wants to experience that.

So stopping or at least slowing dementia is a priority for many individuals. It turns out, untreated 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 does hearing loss increase chances of dementia?

When you neglect hearing loss, what are the repercussions?

You realize that you’re beginning to lose your hearing, but it isn’t at the top of your list of concerns. It’s nothing that turning up the volume on your tv won’t fix, right? Maybe, when you watch your favorite program, you’ll just put on the captions.

On the other hand, perhaps you haven’t detected your hearing loss yet. Perhaps the signs are still easy to disregard. In either case, hearing loss and mental decline have a powerful correlation. That could have something to do with what happens when you have neglected hearing loss.

• It becomes harder to understand conversations. You could start to keep yourself secluded from others as a result of this. You might become distant from loved ones and friends. You won’t talk with others as often. It’s not good for your brain to isolate yourself like this. And naturally your social life. Further, most individuals who have this sort 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’re dealing with untreated hearing loss. This will leave your brain filling in the missing info. This is unbelievably taxing. Your brain will then need to get extra power from your memory and thought centers (at least that’s the present concept). It’s believed that this could speed up the onset of dementia. Your brain working so hard can also cause all kinds of other symptoms, like mental stress and tiredness.

So your hearing loss is not quite as harmless as you might have suspected.

One of the principal indicators of dementia is hearing loss

Perhaps your hearing loss is slight. Whispers might get lost, but you’re able to hear everything else so…no big deal right? Well, even with that, your chance of getting dementia is doubled.

So one of the initial signs of dementia can be even mild hearing loss.

So… How should we understand this?

We’re looking at risk in this circumstance which is relevant to note. Hearing loss isn’t an early symptom of dementia and there isn’t any guarantee it will lead to dementia. It does mean that later in life you will have a higher chance of developing cognitive decline. But there could be an upside.

Your risk of dementia is decreased by effectively dealing with your hearing loss. So how can hearing loss be addressed? There are several ways:

• The affect of hearing loss can be reduced by using hearing aids. So, can cognitive decline be avoided by wearing hearing aids? That’s difficult to say, but hearing aids can boost brain function. This is the reason why: You’ll be more socially involved and your brain won’t need to work so hard to have discussions. Research implies that treating hearing loss can help reduce your danger of developing dementia in the future. That isn’t the same as preventing dementia, but it’s a good thing nonetheless.
• You can take a few measures to protect your hearing from further harm if you detect your hearing loss soon enough. You could, for instance, use ear protection if you work in a loud setting and steer clear of noisy events such as concerts or sporting events.
• Come see us so we can help you diagnose any hearing loss you might have.

Lowering your chance of dementia – other methods

Naturally, there are other things you can do to reduce your risk of dementia, too. This might include:

• Quit smoking. Seriously. It just makes everything bad, and that includes your risk of experiencing dementia (this list also includes drinking too much alcohol).
• Exercise is necessary for good overall health including hearing health.
• Be sure you get plenty of sleep each night. Some research links an increased risk of dementia to getting fewer than four hours of sleep per night.
• A diet that helps you maintain a healthy blood pressure and is generally healthy can go a long way. For individuals who naturally have higher blood pressure, it could be necessary to use medication to lower it.

The connection between lifestyle, hearing loss, and dementia is still being examined by scientists. It’s a complex disease with a matrix of causes. But the lower your risk, the better.

Being able to hear is its own advantage

So, over time, hearing better will decrease your general risk of cognitive decline. You’ll be improving your life now, not only in the future. Imagine, no more missed conversations, 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 control your hearing loss, maybe by using hearing aids, can be a big help.

So make sure to schedule an appointment with us today!

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References

https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2021/hearing-loss-and-the-dementia-connection