Your whole life can be affected by age-related hearing loss. Besides your ability to hear, your professional life, your social life, and even your mental clarity can also be affected. The way your brain works, including your mood and memory, can be significantly affected by hearing loss.
The link between cognition and hearing loss isn’t always obvious. People normally don’t relate their memory issues, for instance, with hearing loss even though it’s one of the very first symptoms. The sad reality is that hearing loss and memory loss go hand-in-hand.
What’s the link between memory and hearing loss? Well, hearing loss puts a distinctive strain on your brain and that’s, at least to some extent, the connection. Your cognitive abilities will usually improve when you manage your hearing loss.
How hearing loss impacts memory
Hearing loss can be hard to notice. Frequently, people miss the early warning signs and more subtle symptoms. Hearing loss may only be identified, for people in this category, when it becomes more severe. The progression of hearing loss is frequently slow over time and that’s in part why it’s initially difficult to recognize. Individuals frequently begin increasing the volume on their devices more and more and tend to disregard their symptoms.
Additionally, the human brain is really good at compensating for periodic loss of sounds. As a result, you may not notice that people are more difficult to understand. The positive thing about this is that your daily life will have fewer disruptions. However, compensating like this requires substantial brain power. Here are some consequences of asking your brain to do this over long time periods.:
- Memory loss or forgetfulness
- Unexplained irritability
- Chronic fatigue
If you’re noticing these symptoms, we’ll be able to tell you whether the root cause is hearing loss or not. If it’s determined that you’re dealing with hearing loss, we can help you formulate the best treatment plan.
Can memory problems be the result of hearing loss?
Of course, this mental fatigue isn’t the only way that hearing loss can affect your brain. Forgetfulness is frequently a prominent presentation. When hearing loss has been neglected, this is especially true. The cause and effect relationship isn’t fully understood, but it’s clear that there is a relationship between hearing loss and the following issues:
- Social isolation: People with neglected hearing loss will frequently begin to separate themselves from other people. They will frequently steer clear of conversations and will do things like using self-checkout instead of talking to a cashier. Over time, this kind of isolation can alter the way your brain is working.
- Increased risk of depression and anxiety: An increase in anxiety and depression due to untreated hearing loss is not unusual according to multiple studies. Again, this risk has been demonstrated to decrease when the root hearing loss is effectively managed.
- Increased risk of dementia: The risk of dementia and other forms of mental decline is greater for people who have neglected hearing loss. When the hearing loss is effectively treated, the risk goes down substantially.
All of these problems are obviously intertwined. Mental health issues, including depression, can be worsened by social isolation. Likewise, that type of solitude can also raise your risk of developing dementia.
Does hearing loss cause mental decline?
Your risk of cognitive decline and dementia is increased by neglected hearing loss, and that’s one of the more severe consequences of neglecting your hearing issues. Scientists have some theories about why this may be, but what’s obvious is that management of symptoms helps substantially. In other words, treating your hearing loss has been shown to slow mental decline and lower your risk of developing dementia later in life.
How to handle your forgetfulness (and hearing loss)
The good news is, managing untreated hearing loss, if your forgetfulness is a result of hearing loss, will definitely help. Here are a number of things we might suggest if hearing loss is detected:
- Regular screenings: Before any issues begin to occur, regular screenings can identify them. Mental strain can be avoided with early treatment.
- The use of hearing aids: You will hear better with the use of a hearing aid. Your social life can be improved and your mental abilities will have less strain by using hearing aids. Your risk of dementia, depression, and other possible problems can be decreased and your cognition can be improved by limiting your social isolation.
- Hearing protection: Using hearing protection can counter additional degradation of your hearing and, consequently, help prevent some of the cognitive strain described above.
You can improve your memory
If hearing loss is causing you to be a little forgetful, it’s worthwhile to highlight that it doesn’t have to remain that way. Once the strain on your brain is alleviated, your mental function, in many cases, will sharpen. When your brain doesn’t need to work as hard to hear, the rest can be really helpful.
Schedule an appointment with us so that we can help you substantially improve your outlook and decrease your risk of other problems.
