Make no mistake: there are several ways that you can preserve your mental acuity and stave off conditions such as cognitive decline, dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease. Staying socially active is one of the most important while engaging in the workforce appears to be another. No matter the method, though, managing hearing loss by using hearing aids makes these activities much easier and contributes in its own way to preventing cognitive issues.
These disorders, according to numerous studies, are often directly connected 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 imminent problem.
The Relationship Between Hearing Loss And Cognitive Decline
The connection between hearing loss and cognitive decline has been analyzed numerous times over the years by scientists at Johns Hopkins. The same story was revealed by each study: cognitive decline was more common with individuals who suffer from hearing loss. One study revealed, in fact, that there was a 24% higher instance of Alzheimer’s in individuals who have diminished hearing.
Hearing loss by itself does not cause dementia, but there is a connection between the two conditions. When you can’t effectively process sound your brain has to work overtime according to leading theories. That means your brain is spending more valuable energy on relatively simple activities, leaving a lot less of that energy for more complicated processes such as cognitive function and memory.
Hearing loss can also have a serious impact on your mental health. Anxiety, social isolation, and depression have all been linked to hearing loss and there may even be a connection with schizophrenia. Staying socially engaged, as noted, is the best way to maintain your mental health and preserve your cognitive ability. Often, people who have hearing loss will resort to self isolation because they feel self conscious around other people. The mental problems listed above are commonly the outcome of the lack of human contact and can inevitably lead to serious cognitive decline.
Keeping Your Mental Faculties Acute With Hearing Aids
One of the best tools we have to fight dementia and other cognitive conditions like Alzheimer’s is hearing aids. Unfortunately, the majority of people who need hearing aids don’t wear them. It may be a stigma or a previous bad experience that keeps people using hearing aids, but the fact is that they are proven to help people hear better and maintain their cognitive functions for longer periods of time.
There are circumstances where certain sounds will have to be relearned because they’ve been forgotten after prolonged hearing damage. A hearing aid can either prevent that scenario from occurring in the first place or assist you in relearning those sounds, which will permit 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 give us a call.