Let’s be clear: Keeping your mind clear and avoiding cognitive disorders like dementia and Alzheimer’s can be accomplished in several ways. Staying socially active is one of the most important while engaging in the workforce appears to be another. Regardless of the method, though, managing hearing loss by using hearing aids makes these activities a great deal easier and contributes in its own way to preventing cognitive issues.
Many studies show that the conditions listed above are all linked to neglected hearing loss. This article will outline the link between cognitive decline and hearing loss and how using hearing aids can minimize the likelihood of these conditions becoming an impending issue.
How Hearing Loss Contributes to Cognitive Decline
The link between hearing loss and cognitive decline has been studied several times over the years by researchers 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. One study demonstrated, in fact, that there was a 24% higher instance of Alzheimer’s in people who have diminished hearing.
Even though dementia isn’t directly caused by hearing loss there is certainly a connection. The primary theories indicate that your brain must work overtime when you can’t properly process sounds. That means that activities like memory and cognition, which demand more energy, can’t function efficiently because your brain has to spend so much of that energy on more basic tasks.
Your mental health can also be seriously affected by hearing loss. Anxiety, social isolation, and depression have all been linked to hearing loss and there could even be a connection with schizophrenia. All of these disorders also lead to cognitive decline – as mentioned above, one of the best ways to preserve your mental sharpness is to remain socially engaged. Often, individuals who have hearing loss will resort to self isolation because they feel self conscious in public. The mental issues mentioned above are typically the result of the lack of human contact and can inevitably lead to significant cognitive decline.
Keeping Your Mental Faculties Sharp With Hearing Aids
Hearing aids are perhaps one of the best tools we have to preserve mental acuity and combat disorders such as dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Unfortunately, the majority of people who require hearing aids don’t use them. People might stay away from hearing aids because they’ve had a negative experience in the past or perhaps they have some kind of stigma, but in fact, hearing aids have been proven to help people preserve their cognitive function by helping them hear better.
There are circumstances where particular sounds will have to be relearned because they’ve been forgotten after prolonged hearing damage. It’s essential to let your brain go back to processing more important tasks and hearing aids can do just that by preventing this problem in the first place and helping you relearn any sounds the brain has forgotten.
Contact us today to learn what options are available to help you begin hearing better in this decade and beyond.
