Want to take all the joy out of your next family gathering? Start to talk 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 slowly (or, more terrifyingly, quickly) lose your mental faculties, dementia causes you to lose touch with reality, go through mood swings, and have memory problems. No one wants to go through that.
So preventing or at least slowing dementia is a priority for many individuals. It turns out, neglected hearing loss and dementia have several fairly clear connections and correlations.
You may 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?
What happens when your hearing loss is neglected?
You realize that you’re starting to lose your hearing, but it’s not at the top of your list of worries. You can simply turn up the volume, 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. Maybe the signs are still easy to dismiss. In either case, hearing loss and mental decline have a powerful correlation. That could have something to do with what happens when you have untreated hearing loss.
- Conversation becomes harder to understand. Consequently, you may start to isolate yourself socially. You can draw away from family, friends, and loved ones. You won’t talk with people as often. It’s bad for your brain to separate yourself like this. And naturally your social life. What’s more, many individuals who experience hearing loss-related social isolation don’t even recognize it’s happening, and they likely won’t connect their isolation to their hearing.
- Your brain will start to work much harder. When you have untreated hearing loss, your ears don’t get nearly as much audio information (this is sort of obvious, yes, but stay with us). As a result, your brain will attempt to fill in the gaps. This is unbelievably taxing. The current theory is, when this happens, your brain pulls power from your thinking and memory centers. The idea is that after a while this results in dementia (or, at least, helps it progress). Mental stress and exhaustion, as well as other possible symptoms, can be the result of your brain having to work so hard.
So your hearing impairment is not quite as innocuous as you might have suspected.
Hearing loss is one of the major indicators of dementia
Perhaps your hearing loss is slight. Like, you can’t hear whispers, but everything else is normal. Well, turns out you’re still twice as likely to develop dementia as somebody who does not have hearing loss.
Which means that even minor hearing loss is a fairly strong initial sign of a dementia risk.
Now… What does that mean?
Well, it’s essential not to forget that we’re talking about risk here. Hearing loss is not a guarantee of dementia or even an early symptom of dementia. It does mean that later in life you will have an increased risk of developing cognitive decline. But there might be an upside.
Your risk of dementia is lowered by effectively dealing with your hearing loss. So how can hearing loss be managed? Here are a few ways:
- The impact of hearing loss can be minimized by wearing hearing aids. So, can dementia be avoided by wearing hearing aids? That’s not an easy question to answer, but we appreciate that brain function can be enhanced by wearing hearing aids. This is the reason why: You’ll be more socially active and your brain won’t have to work so hard to carry on discussions. Your chance of developing dementia in the future is reduced by treating hearing loss, research indicates. That’s not the same as stopping dementia, but it’s a good thing nonetheless.
- You can take some measures to safeguard your hearing from further damage if you catch your hearing loss early enough. For example, you could steer clear of noisy events (like concerts or sports games) or wear hearing protection when you’re near anything loud (for example, if you work with heavy machinery).
- Come see us so we can help you diagnose any hearing loss you may have.
Other ways to reduce your dementia risk
Naturally, there are other things you can do to lower your chance of cognitive decline, too. This might include:
- Stop smoking. Seriously. Smoking will raise your risk of dementia as well as impacting your general health (this list also includes excessive alcohol use).
- Get some exercise.
- Getting adequate sleep at night is imperative. Some studies have linked a higher chance of dementia to getting fewer than four hours of sleep each night.
- Eating a healthy diet, especially one that helps you keep your blood pressure from getting too high. In some cases, medication can help here, some people simply have naturally higher blood pressure; those people may need medication sooner than later.
Needless to say, scientists are still studying the connection between dementia, hearing loss, lifestyle, and more. There are so many causes that make this disease so complex. But any way you can lower your risk is good.
Hearing is its own benefit
So, hearing better will help reduce your overall danger of developing cognitive decline down the line. But it isn’t just your future golden years you’ll be improving, it’s right now. 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 manage your hearing loss, perhaps by using hearing aids, can be really helpful.
So make sure to schedule an appointment with us today!
References
https://publichealth.jhu.edu/2021/hearing-loss-and-the-dementia-connection