Let’s be clear: Keeping your mind clear and preventing cognitive disorders including dementia and Alzheimer’s can be accomplished in several ways. Staying social is one of the most essential while participating in the workforce seems to be another. Regardless of the method, though, managing hearing loss by using hearing aids makes these activities a lot easier and contributes in its own way to preventing cognitive problems.
These conditions, according to many studies, are often directly linked to hearing loss. This article will outline the connection 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 scientists at Johns Hopkins. The results of each study revealed the same story: people with hearing loss experienced dementia and cognitive decline in higher rates than those without. Actually, one study revealed that people with hearing loss were 24% more likely to develop Alzheimer’s than people with healthy hearing.
Even though dementia isn’t directly caused by hearing loss there is certainly a link. The primary theories indicate that your brain has to work overtime when you can’t properly process sounds. That means that activities like cognition and memory, which demand more energy, can’t function at full capacity because your brain has to use so much of that energy on more basic tasks.
Hearing loss can also have a serious impact on your mental health. Anxiety, social isolation, and depression have all been associated with hearing loss and there may even be a connection with schizophrenia. Staying socially active, as mentioned, is the best way to maintain your mental health and preserve your cognitive clarity. Frequently, people who have hearing loss will resort to self isolation because they feel self conscious around other people. The lack of human interaction can cause the other mental health issues mentioned above and potentially lead to cognitive impairments.
Keeping Your Mental Faculties Sharp With Hearing Aids
One of the best tools we have to combat dementia and other cognition conditions like Alzheimer’s is hearing aids. The issue is that only one in seven of the millions of people over the age of 50 who suffer from hearing impairment actually use a hearing aid. It may be a stigma or a previous negative experience that keeps people wearing hearing aids, but in fact, hearing aids have been proven to help people maintain their cognitive function by helping them hear better.
When your hearing is damaged for an extended amount of time, the brain may forget how to recognize some common sounds and will need to relearn them. It’s essential to let your brain go back to processing more important tasks and hearing aids can do just that by stopping this problem in the first place and helping you relearn any sounds the brain has forgotten.
Get in touch with us today to find out what options are available to help you start hearing better in this decade and beyond.