What’s the link between hearing loss and cognitive decline? Medical science has found a connection between brain health and hearing loss. It was discovered that even minor untreated hearing impairment raises your risk of developing cognitive decline.
These two seemingly unrelated health conditions might have a pathological link. So how can a hearing test help reduce the risk of hearing loss related dementia?
What is dementia?
The Mayo Clinic says that dementia is a cluster of symptoms that alter memory, alter the ability to think concisely, and decrease socialization skills. Alzheimer’s is a common type of cognitive decline the majority of individuals think of when they hear the word dementia. Alzheimer’s means progressive dementia that affects around five million people in the U.S. Today, medical science has a complete understanding of how hearing health alters the risk of dementias like Alzheimer’s disease.
How hearing works
In terms of good hearing, every part of the complex ear component matters. Waves of sound go inside the ear canal and are amplified as they travel toward the inner ear. Electrical signals are sent to the brain for decoding by tiny little hairs in the inner ear that vibrate in response to sound waves.
Over time, many people develop a slow decline in their ability to hear because of years of trauma to these fragile hair cells. Comprehension of sound becomes much harder because of the decrease of electrical impulses to the brain.
This progressive hearing loss is sometimes considered a normal and inconsequential part of the aging process, but research shows that’s not accurate. Whether the impulses are unclear and garbled, the brain will attempt to decode them anyway. That effort puts stress on the ear, making the person struggling to hear more susceptible to developing dementia.
Here are a few disease risk factors with hearing loss in common:
- Weak overall health
- Irritability
- Impaired memory
- Exhaustion
- Trouble learning new skills
- Reduction in alertness
- Depression
The odds of developing dementia can increase depending on the extent of your hearing loss, also. Even slight hearing loss can double the risk of dementia. More significant hearing loss means three times the danger and a person with severe, untreated loss of hearing has up to five times the odds of developing dementia. The cognitive skills of over 2,000 older adults were observed by Johns Hopkins University over six years. Cognitive and memory problems are 24 percent more likely in individuals who have hearing loss extreme enough to disrupt conversation, according to this study.
Why is a hearing assessment worthwhile?
Hearing loss affects the general health and that would probably surprise many individuals. Most people don’t even know they have hearing loss because it develops so slowly. The human brain is good at adapting as hearing declines, so it is less obvious.
We will be able to properly evaluate your hearing health and monitor any changes as they occur with regular hearing exams.
Minimizing the danger with hearing aids
The present hypothesis is that strain on the brain from hearing loss plays a major role in cognitive decline and different types of dementia. So hearing aids should be capable of decreasing the risk, based on that fact. The stress on your brain will be reduced by using a hearing aid to filter out undesirable background noise while boosting sounds you want to hear. With a hearing aid, the brain will not work as hard to comprehend the audio messages it’s getting.
People who have normal hearing can still possibly develop dementia. What science thinks is that hearing loss accelerates the decline in the brain, increasing the chances of cognitive problems. The key to reducing that risk is regular hearing exams to diagnose and manage gradual hearing loss before it can have an impact on brain health.
If you’re worried that you might be suffering from hearing loss, give us a call today to schedule your hearing evaluation.
