Your whole life can be impacted by age-related hearing loss. Besides your ability to hear, your professional life, your social life, and even your cognitive clarity can also be affected. Over time, hearing loss can intensely impact the way your brain works in ways that immediately impact your mood, your memory, and more.
The connection between cognition and hearing loss isn’t always evident. For instance, one of the initial symptoms of hearing loss could be forgetfulness, but people rarely think that their memory problems are associated with a loss of hearing. The sad truth is that hearing loss and memory loss go hand-in-hand.
What’s the link between memory and hearing loss? Well, the connection is at least partly related to the unique ways that hearing loss can strain and stress your brain. Your cognitive abilities will usually improve when you manage your hearing loss.
How hearing loss impacts memory
Hearing loss can be difficult to notice. Often, people miss the early warning signs and more discreet symptoms. For these individuals hearing loss may only become apparent once it has become moderate or severe. In part, that’s because hearing loss has a tendency to develop quite slowly. People frequently begin raising the volume on their devices more and more and tend to disregard their symptoms.
Another factor is how good the brain is at compensating for loss of sound. You may not notice that it’s becoming harder to understand what people are saying as a result. This is advantageous in that you will probably experience fewer disruptions to your daily life. But it takes a significant amount of brain power to compensate like this. Requiring your brain to perform at this level for long periods can lead to:
- Memory loss or forgetfulness
- Chronic fatigue
- Unexplained irritability
If you’re noticing these symptoms, we’ll be able to tell you whether the underlying cause is hearing loss or not. In instances where hearing loss is present, we’ll work with you to develop a treatment plan.
Can hearing loss cause memory issues?
Obviously, your brain can be affected by hearing loss in other ways besides mental exhaustion. Forgetfulness is often a prominent presentation. When hearing loss has gone untreated, this is especially true. The cause and effect relationship isn’t fully understood, but it’s obvious that there is a connection between hearing loss and the following issues:
- Increased risk of dementia: The risk of dementia and other forms of cognitive decline is greater for individuals with neglected hearing loss. When the hearing loss is effectively managed, the risk decreases significantly.
- Increased risk of depression and anxiety: Studies have demonstrated that untreated hearing loss can also result in increases in both depression and anxiety over time. And once again, when the underlying hearing loss has been managed, the risk factor drops substantially.
- Social isolation: It’s not uncommon for people to withdraw from social contact when they have untreated hearing loss. They will often steer clear of conversations and will do things like going to self-checkout rather than talking to a cashier. Over time, this kind of solitude can change the way your brain is functioning.
These problems are not unrelated, of course. Mental health issues, including depression, can be intensified by social solitude. And your risk of dementia also goes up with social isolation.
Does hearing loss cause cognitive decline?
Your risk of cognitive decline and dementia is increased by neglected hearing loss, and that’s one of the more severe outcomes of neglecting your hearing issues. Scientists have some theories about why this might be, but what’s clear is that management of symptoms helps considerably. In other words, managing your hearing loss has been shown to slow cognitive decline and decrease your risk of developing dementia down the road.
Dealing with hearing loss related forgetfulness
If your fatigue and forgetfulness are caused by untreated hearing loss, the good news is that managing your hearing loss symptoms can absolutely have a positive effect. In cases where hearing loss is detected, we might suggest the following:
- The use of hearing aids: Using a hearing aid can help you hear better. This can result in less strain on your mental abilities and an improvement in your social scenario. Your risk of dementia, depression, and other possible problems can be reduced and your cognition can be improved by limiting your social isolation.
- Regular screenings: Regular screenings can help you identify issues with your hearing before they become substantial problems. Mental strain can be avoided with early management.
- Hearing protection: The utilization of hearing protection can counter further degradation of your hearing and, consequently, help prevent some of the cognitive strain outlined above.
You can improve your memory
You can regain strength of memory even if hearing loss is currently causing a little forgetfulness. Once the strain on your brain is alleviated, your cognitive function, in many cases, will improve. When you hear better, your brain doesn’t need to work so hard, and that rest can do a world of good.
Schedule an appointment with us so that we can help you substantially improve your outlook and decrease your risk of other problems.
