As your body ages, it isn’t difficult to detect the changes. Your skin begins to get some wrinkles. Your hair turns gray (or falls out). Your joints start to stiffen. Some drooping of the skin begins to take place in certain places. Maybe your eyesight and your hearing both start to fade a bit. It’s pretty hard not to notice these changes.
But the impact aging has on the mind isn’t always so obvious. You may notice that your memory isn’t as good as it used to be and that you need to start noting important dates on your calendar. Maybe you miss significant events or lose your train of thought more often. The trouble is that this kind of mental decline comes about so slowly and gradually that you may never realize it. And that hearing decline can be exacerbated by the psychological effects.
Fortunately, there are some ways that you can exercise your brain to keep it sharp and healthy as you get older. And you may even have a little bit of fun!
What is the connection between hearing and mental cognition
There are numerous reasons why individuals will gradually lose their hearing as they get older. This can contribute to a higher risk of cognitive decline. So what is the connection between cognitive decline and hearing loss? Research points to a number of hidden risks of hearing loss.
- There can be atrophy of the portion of the brain that processes sound when someone has neglected hearing loss. Occasionally, it’s put to other uses, but generally speaking, this is not very good for your cognitive health.
- A feeling of social isolation is often the consequence of neglected hearing loss. Because of this lack of social connection, you can start to detect cognitive lapses as you disengage from the outside world.
- Untreated hearing loss can also contribute to depression and other mental health problems. And having these mental health concerns can boost the corresponding risk of mental decline.
So, can hearing loss develop into dementia? Well, not directly. But untreated hearing loss can raise your risk of mental decline, up to and including dementia. Those risks, however, can be significantly lowered by getting hearing loss treated. And, boosting your overall brain health (known medically as “cognition”) can lessen those risks even more. Look at it as a little bit of preventative medicine.
How to improve cognitive function
So how do you approach giving your brain the workout it requires to increase cognitive function? Well, as with any other part of your body, the amount and type of exercise you do go a long way. So improve your brain’s sharpness by engaging in some of these fun activities.
Gardening
Cultivating your own vegetables and fruit is a tasty and rewarding hobby. Your cognition can be improved with this unique combination of hard work and deep thinking. This occurs for a number of reasons:
- Gardening requires moderate physical activity. Improved blood flow is good for your brain and blood flow will be improved by moving buckets around and digging in the ground.
- As you’re working, you will need to think about what you’re doing. You have to assess the situation utilizing planning and problem solving skills.
- Gardening releases serotonin which can alleviate the symptoms of anxiety and depression.
The fact that you get healthy vegetables and fruits out of your garden is an additional bonus. Of course, not all gardens have to be food-focused. You can grow flowers, wild grasses, cacti, or anything your green thumb desires!
Arts and crafts
Arts and crafts can be enjoyed by anybody regardless of artistic ability. You can make a simple sculpture out of popsicle sticks. Or you can take up pottery and make a cool clay pot! With regard to exercising your brain, the medium matters a lot less than the process. Because your critical thinking skills, imagination, and sense of aesthetics are cultivated by partaking in arts and crafts (sculpting, painting, building).
Arts and crafts can be good for your cognitive ability because:
- You have to use lots of fine motor skills. And while that may feel automatic, your brain and nervous system are really doing lots of work. Over the long haul, your cognitive function will be healthier.
- You have to make use of your imagination and process sensory inputs in real time. This requires a ton of brain power! You can stimulate your imagination by undertaking these unique brain exercises.
- You have to stay focused on what you’re doing as you do it. This kind of real time thinking can help keep your cognitive processes limber and versatile.
Whether you get a paint-by-numbers kit or draft your own original work of art, your level of talent isn’t really relevant. The most relevant thing is keeping your brain sharp by engaging your imagination.
Swimming
Taking a swim can help you stay healthy in a number of ways! Plus, it’s always enjoyable to jump into the pool (especially when it’s so unrelentingly hot outside). And while it’s clearly good for your physical health, there are some ways that swimming can also be good for your mental health.
Your brain has to be engaged in things like spatial awareness when you’re swimming in the pool. Obviously, colliding with someone else in the pool wouldn’t be safe.
You also have to think about your rhythms. How long can you be underwater before it’s time to breathe? That sort of thing. Even if this kind of thinking is going on in the background of your brain, it’s still excellent mental exercise. Also, physical exercise of any kind can really help get blood to the brain pumping, and that can be good at helping to slow cognitive decline.
Meditation
Just some time for you and your mind. As your thoughts calm down, your sympathetic nervous system also gets calm. Sometimes labeled mindfulness meditation, these techniques are designed to help you focus on what you’re thinking. Meditation can help:
- Improve your memory
- Improve your attention span
- Help you learn better
In other words, meditation can help present you with even more awareness of your mental and cognitive faculties.
Reading
It’s good for you to read! And it’s also really fun. There’s that old saying: a book can take anywhere. The floor of the ocean, the ancient past, outer space, you can travel everywhere in a book. When you’re following along with a story, manifesting landscapes in your imagination, and mentally conjuring up characters, you’re using a lot of brain power. In this way, reading engages a massive part of your brain. Reading isn’t feasible without employing your imagination and thinking a lot.
As a result, reading is one of the most ideal ways to focus your thoughts. Imagination is required to visualize what’s going on, your memory to follow along with the plot, and when you finish the book, you get a fulfilling dose of serotonin.
Take some time each day to strengthen your brain power by doing some reading, whether it’s fiction, science fiction, non-fiction, or whatever you enjoy. Audiobooks, for the record, work just as well!
Treat your hearing loss to minimize cognitive risks
Even if you do every little thing correctly, neglected hearing loss can keep increasing your risks of cognitive decline. But if you don’t get your hearing loss treated, even if you do all of these things, it will still be a difficult fight.
Your social skills, your thinking, and your memory and cognition will improve once you have your hearing loss addressed (normally with hearing aids).
Are you suffering from hearing loss? Call us today to schedule a hearing exam and reconnect to life!