Let’s be clear: Keeping your mind sharp and preventing cognitive conditions including dementia and Alzheimer’s can be accomplished in a number of ways. Social engagement and participation in the workforce are among the most notable. Whichever methods are used to deal with cognitive decline, however, keeping your hearing strong and wearing hearing aids if you need them will be immensely helpful.
These conditions, according to numerous studies, are frequently directly linked to hearing loss. This article will outline the link between cognitive decline and hearing loss and how wearing hearing aids can reduce the probability of these conditions becoming an impending problem.
The Link Between Hearing Loss And Cognitive Decline
The link between hearing loss and cognitive decline has been analyzed several times over the years by scientists at Johns Hopkins. The same story was told by each study: individuals with hearing loss struggled with dementia and cognitive decline in higher rates than those without. In fact, one study demonstrated that individuals with hearing loss were 24% more likely to develop Alzheimer’s than those with healthy hearing.
Hearing loss by itself does not cause dementia, but there is a link between these conditions. The leading theories indicate that your brain must work overtime when you can’t effectively process sounds. That means your brain is using more valuable energy on relatively simple tasks, leaving a lot less of that energy for more complicated processes such as cognitive function and memory.
Your mental health can also be seriously impacted by hearing loss. Studies have shown that hearing loss is connected to anxiety, depression, and might even influence schizophrenia. All of these disorders also produce cognitive decline – as noted above, one of the best ways to safeguard your mental sharpness is to stay socially active. In many instances, hearing loss causes individuals to feel self-conscious out in public, which means they’ll turn to seclusion instead. The lack of human contact can cause the other mental health issues mentioned above and eventually lead to cognitive impairments.
How a Hearing Aid Can Help You Keep Your Resolution
Hearing aids are perhaps one of the best tools we have to maintain mental sharpness and combat conditions such as dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. The problem is that only one out of seven of the millions of people 50 or older who deal with hearing impairment actually wear a hearing aid. People may stay away from hearing aids because they’ve had a negative experience in the past or perhaps they have some kind of stigma, but the fact is that they are proven to help people hear better and retain their cognitive functions for longer periods of time.
There are situations where certain sounds will have to be relearned because they’ve been forgotten after prolonged hearing damage. A hearing aid can either stop that scenario from happening in the first place or assist you in relearning those sounds, which will allow your brain to focus on other, more important tasks.
If you want to find out what options are available to help you begin hearing better get in touch with us.