If you begin talking about dementia at your next family gathering, you will most likely put a dark cloud over the whole event.

The topic of dementia can be really scary and most individuals aren’t going to purposely discuss it. Dementia, which is a degenerative cognitive disease, causes you to lose touch with reality, experience memory loss, and brings about an over-all loss of mental function. It isn’t something anyone looks forward to.

This is why many individuals are seeking a way to counter, or at least delay, the advancement of dementia. There are some clear connections, as it turns out, between dementia and neglected hearing loss.

That may seem a bit… surprising to you. After all, what does your brain have to do with your ears (lots, actually)? Why does hearing loss increase the risk of dementia?

When you ignore hearing loss, what are the consequences?

You recognize that you’re beginning to lose your hearing, but it’s not at the top of your list of concerns. It’s nothing that turning up the volume on your television won’t fix, right? Maybe you’ll just turn on the captions when you’re watching your favorite show.

On the other hand, perhaps you haven’t noticed your hearing loss yet. Perhaps the signs are still easy to dismiss. Mental decline and hearing loss are clearly connected either way. That’s because of the effects of untreated hearing loss.

• It becomes harder to understand conversations. Consequently, you may begin isolating yourself socially. You can withdraw from friends, family, and loved ones. You speak to others less. It’s not good for your brain to separate yourself like this. It’s not good for your social life either. Additionally, many individuals who cope with hearing loss-related social isolation don’t even recognize it’s happening, and they likely won’t attribute their solitude to their hearing.
• Your brain will be working harder. When you have untreated hearing loss, your ears don’t get nearly as much audio information (this is kind of obvious, yes, but stay with us). This will leave your brain filling in the missing info. 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 present concept). The thinking is that after a while this contributes to dementia (or, at least, helps it progress). Your brain working so hard can also cause all kinds of other symptoms, such as mental stress and exhaustion.

So your hearing loss isn’t quite as innocuous as you might have believed.

Hearing loss is one of the primary signs of dementia

Let’s say you only have slight hearing loss. 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 indications of dementia can be even minor hearing loss.

Now… What does that suggest?

We’re looking at risk in this situation which is relevant to note. Hearing loss is not a guarantee of dementia or even an early symptom of dementia. Instead, it simply means you have a higher risk of developing dementia or going through cognitive decline later in life. But there might be an upside.

Your risk of cognitive decline is decreased by effectively managing your hearing loss. So how do you manage your hearing loss? Here are a few ways:

• The impact of hearing loss can be minimized by using hearing aids. Now, can hearing aids prevent cognitive decline? That’s tough to say, but hearing aids can improve brain function. This is the reason why: You’ll be more socially active and your brain won’t need to work so hard to have discussions. Your chance of developing dementia in the future is reduced by managing hearing loss, research indicates. It won’t prevent dementia but we can still call it a win.
• Schedule an appointment with us to diagnose your existing hearing loss.
• If your hearing loss is caught early, there are certain steps you can take to protect your hearing. You could, for instance, wear ear protection if you work in a noisy environment and steer clear of noisy events such as concerts or sporting events.

Lowering your chance of dementia – other strategies

Naturally, there are other things you can do to lower your chance of cognitive decline, too. Here are a few examples:

• Getting sufficient sleep at night is imperative. Some studies link less than four hours of sleep per night to an increase in the risk of dementia.
• A diet that helps you maintain a healthy blood pressure and is good for your overall well being can go a long way. Sometimes, medication can help here, some individuals simply have naturally higher blood pressure; those individuals may need medication sooner than later.
• Stop smoking. Seriously. It just makes everything bad, including your chance of developing dementia (excess alcohol use can also go on this list).
• Exercise is necessary for good general health and that includes hearing health.

Needless to say, scientists are still studying the connection between dementia, hearing impairment, lifestyle, and more. 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, hearing better will help decrease your general danger of developing dementia in the future. 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 losing 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 make sure to schedule an appointment with us right away!

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References

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