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 mental clarity can also be affected. Over time, hearing loss can profoundly impact how your brain works in ways that immediately impact your mood, your memory, and more.
Sometimes, the relationship between hearing loss and cognition is elusive. People usually don’t relate their memory problems, for example, with hearing loss even though it’s one of the first symptoms. Sadly, the truth is that memory loss and hearing loss are closely related.
What’s the link between memory and hearing loss? Well, the connection is at least partly due to the unique ways that hearing loss can strain and stress your brain. Usually, when your hearing loss symptoms are effectively managed, your cognitive abilities will sharpen.
How hearing loss effects memory
Noticing hearing loss can frequently be difficult. It’s not uncommon for individuals to miss the more subtle and early signs. For these individuals hearing loss might only become noticeable once it has become moderate or severe. In part, that’s because hearing loss has a tendency to progress rather gradually. Individuals frequently begin increasing 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. Consequently, you may not notice that people are more difficult to understand. The positive thing about this is that your day-to-day life will have fewer disruptions. But it takes a significant amount of brain power to compensate in this way. Here are a few consequences of asking your brain to do this over long periods of time.:
- Chronic fatigue
- Memory loss or forgetfulness
- Unexplained irritability
If you’re experiencing these symptoms, we’ll be able to inform you whether the root cause is hearing loss or not. If it’s established that you’re dealing with hearing loss, we can help you develop the best treatment plan.
Can hearing loss lead to memory issues?
Obviously, your brain can be affected by hearing loss in other ways besides mental exhaustion. Forgetfulness is a common symptom. This is particularly true of untreated hearing loss. Even though scientists aren’t completely clear as to the cause and effect connection, hearing loss has been strongly connected to the following problems.:
- Social isolation: It isn’t unusual for people to disengage from social contact when they have untreated hearing loss. They will often avoid conversations and will do things like going to self-checkout rather than talking to a cashier. Your brain will often change the way it processes information as a result.
- Increased risk of dementia: People with neglected hearing loss have been known to have an increased risk of dementia and cognitive decline. This risk falls dramatically when the hearing loss is treated and managed.
- Increased risk of depression and anxiety: Research has shown that neglected hearing loss can also lead to increases in both depression and anxiety over time. Again, this risk has been shown to decrease when the root hearing loss is successfully managed.
These problems are not unrelated, of course. Social isolation can worsen depression and other cognitive health problems. And your risk of dementia also goes up with social solitude.
Does hearing loss cause mental decline?
Your risk of mental decline and dementia is increased by neglected hearing loss, and that’s one of the more severe outcomes of neglecting your hearing issues. It’s very clear that management of the symptoms helps substantially and scientists have a few theories as to why. In other words, managing your hearing loss has been shown to slow down mental decline and lower your risk of developing dementia down the road.
How to handle your forgetfulness (and hearing loss)
The good news is, managing neglected hearing loss, if your forgetfulness is a result of hearing loss, will definitely help. Here are a few things we may recommend if hearing loss is identified:
- The use of hearing aids: You will hear better with the use of a hearing aid. Your social life can be improved and your cognitive abilities will have less strain by using hearing aids. By avoiding and reducing social isolation, your cognition can improve, lowering your risk of dementia, depression, and other issues.
- Regular screenings: Routine screenings can help you identify issues with your hearing before they become substantial problems. Cognitive strain can be avoided with early management.
- Hearing protection: Some of the cognitive decline previously discussed can be avoided and further damage can be minimized by using hearing protection.
You can improve your memory
If hearing loss is causing you to be a bit forgetful, it’s important to highlight that it doesn’t have to stay that way. Once the strain on your brain is relieved, 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.
Scheduling an appointment with us can drastically improve your outlook and decrease your risk for other problems. Call us today!
