Hearing Loss and Dementia—What's the Connection?
Hearing loss and dementia are both natural consequences of aging. But did you know that hearing loss itself could cause dementia?
You may think that having hearing loss does not affect your health—except for your actual hearing. But untreated hearing loss could have more effects than you would think, particularly for your mental health.
Dementia is one effect of untreated hearing loss. Scientists have found that the chances of mental decline increase the worse your hearing problems are. In fact, a study of older adults with hearing loss found that they had the same mental decline in 7.7 years as other older adults with normal hearing had in 10.9 years.
Did you know? Roughly 50 million people worldwide have dementia, and nearly 10 million new cases occur every year.
Although researchers are still unsure about the exact connection between hearing loss and dementia, they believe there are several ways that hearing loss could lead to dementia. It may even be a combination of these things:
Cognitive load. The brain gets stressed out when you constantly strain to hear and understand. The resources that would normally go into storing what’s being said in your memory are spent on understanding what’s being said in the first place.
Brain structure. Hearing loss may affect the structure of your brain in a way that contributes to cognitive problems. Brain imagining studies show that older adults with hearing loss have less grey matter in the part of their brain that receives and processes sound from the ears.
Social isolation. If it is hard to hear what people are saying and to follow conversations, you might prefer to stay home instead of going out and socializing. But when you cut yourself off from your friends, family, and active life, you become less social and engaged. When your brain does not get enough stimuli throughout the day, you increase your risk of developing dementia.
So how can you maintain your brain health? Here are a few tips:
- Keep on learning—any new learning activity develops new neural connections in the brain, which may help you bypass any damage to the brain associated with dementia.
- Be social—having conversations with people will stimulate your brain.
- Exercise at least 30 minutes, five days a week—cardiovascular exercise is particularly beneficial.
- Eat lots of vegetables and fruits, along with legumes, fish, olive oil, nuts, and seeds.
Remember always to take good care of your hearing! Padgett Hearing can help you determine how to prevent your hearing challenges or loss from worsening and keep your grey cells intact.
