Make no mistake: there are a few ways that you can preserve your mental acuteness and fend off disorders like dementia, cognitive decline, and Alzheimer’s disease. Social engagement and involvement in the workforce are among the most noteworthy. Whichever methods are used to deal with cognitive decline, however, keeping your hearing strong and using hearing aids if you need them will be tremendously helpful.
These disorders, according to numerous studies, are frequently directly connected to hearing loss. The following is a look at why hearing loss can lead to serious problems with your mental health and how solutions like hearing aids can help you keep your brain working at a higher level for a longer period of time.
The Relationship Between Hearing Loss And Cognitive Decline
The connection between hearing loss and cognitive decline has been examined several times over the years by researchers at Johns Hopkins. The results of each study told the same story: cognitive decline was more prevalent 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 link between these conditions. The primary theories suggest that your brain must work overtime when you can’t properly process sounds. That means that activities like cognition and memory, which require more energy, can’t function efficiently because your brain has to spend so much of that energy on more basic tasks.
Hearing loss can also have a serious impact on your mental health. Studies have shown that hearing loss is connected to depression, social isolation, anxiety, and might even affect schizophrenia. All of these disorders also lead to cognitive decline – as mentioned above, one of the optimum ways to maintain your mental acuity is to remain socially active. In many instances, hearing loss causes people to feel self-conscious out in public, which means they’ll turn to seclusion instead. The lack of human contact can lead to the other mental health problems listed above and potentially lead to cognitive impairments.
How a Hearing Aid Can Help You Keep Your Resolution
One of the best resources we have to combat dementia and other cognitive conditions like Alzheimer’s is hearing aids. The issue is that only one out of seven of the millions of people over the age of 50 who deal with hearing impairment actually wear a hearing aid. 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 shown to help people protect their cognitive function by helping them hear better.
When your hearing is damaged for an extended amount of time, the brain could forget how to recognize some everyday sounds and will need to learn them all over again. A hearing aid can either prevent that scenario from occurring in the first place or help you relearn those sounds, which will let your brain focus on other, more important tasks.
If you want to learn what options are available to help you start hearing better get in touch with us.