Addressing Hearing Loss Could Support Brain Health

Addressing Hearing Loss Could Support Brain Health

Matt DearingBrain Health, Hearing Health, Hearing Loss, Hearing Loss & Brain Health

Hearing loss isn’t an inevitable part of growing older, but it certainly is common. One in three people over the age of 65 suffer from hearing loss and this number jumps to one in two once people reach the age of 75. One way to care for yourself or a loved one as you reach advanced years is to monitor for hearing decline annually. While it’s common to underestimate the importance of healthy hearing, it is a sensory input that helps you stay connected to friends, family, coworkers and make new connections along the way. Unaddressed it can quickly escalate into cognitive decline, leading to depression, anxiety, isolation, and even dementia.

The Risk of Dementia and Cognitive Decline as We Age

The brain is a miraculous organ, weighing on average three pounds, even in the first weeks of gestation, it is creating on average 100 new neurons per minute. Our brain continues to grow and expand till around our early 20s. It’s normal for some brain shrinkage to occur in our mid 30’s and 40’s but by the time we reach our 60s, this is normal. However, this doesn’t automatically signify dementia.

 Dementia is defined as a neurodegenerative disease affecting at least two or more cognitive functions and most commonly occurs due to the loss of brain cells and tissue. The Alzheimer’s Association reports that “an estimated 6.2 million Americans age 65 and older are living with Alzheimer’s dementia in 2021. Seventy-two percent are 75 or older. One in nine people age 65 and older (11.3%) has Alzheimer’s dementia.” There are several things you can do to reduce the risk of dementia. While family history and advanced age are nonmodifiable factors, several factors can reduce the risk – especially when they are done in combination with each other.

Modifiable Risk Factors for Dementia

The 2020 Lancet Commission explored the risk factors which could be modified to reduce the risk of dementia. While certain factors such as the importance of education through the age of 21, when the brain is developing cannot be modified past this point, most of the other ones could be addressed at any time and could lower the risk of this devastating brain disease. These modifiable factors include:

  • Hypertension
  • Smoking
  • Obesity
  • Depression 
  • Physical inactivity
  • Diabetes
  • Low social engagement
  • Hearing impairment

Hearing Loss and Social Isolation

Looking at the modifiable risk factors for dementia, it is illuminating that many of them inform each other. As hearing healthcare enthusiasts, we can’t ignore the fact that hearing loss can have several of these risk factors. For instance, low social engagement is common for people who suffer from hearing loss. It can be exhausting to listen to others and carry-on conversations when you struggle to hear. For this reason, many with untreated hearing loss are less social and tend to isolate, further increasing the risk of cognitive issues later on. 

Hearing loss and Inactivity

Hearing loss also makes us less aware of our surroundings. Aside from hearing people in your life, sounds give us cues about our environment. With healthy hearing, we can hear the direction of sounds, how far away they are and how fast they may be approaching. People with hearing loss are more likely to avoid activities and are more prone to falls and accidents, leading to hospitalizations when they do. Treating hearing loss is believed to make people more social and therefore more likely to try new things, go new places and stay more active daily.

Ensuring your brain receives all the sounds it needs to receive

While age-related hearing loss is permanent it can be treated. The most common treatment is hearing aids which can be programmed based on a hearing exam to amplify only the sounds you need to hear while leaving the rest to your existing hearing. It may take a week or two to acclimate as you begin to hear sounds that you may not have heard in years. However, once you get used to them, hearing aids allow you to stay more social and more likely to try new things. To find out if hearing aids are right for you, make an appointment for a hearing exam today.